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Importance of the Red Dress

The REDress project commemorates missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). It serves as a visual reminder of the women who are no longer with us. 

The red dresses have such a deep and symbolic meaning. The color red is the color of blood and life. It symbolizes anger and love. Red is an eye-catching color and people tend to remember the color. In Indigenous culture, red is the only color spirits can see and its serves to call the lost souls home.

Many people feel haunted by the presence of the red dress. As they sway through the wind, the dresses look like the spirits of the lost girls drifting through the air. Many of these cases remain unresolved to this day. Indigenous women and girls were killed at a rate that was six times higher than of non-Indigenous females. Although the homicide rate is higher among Indigenous women, their cases are more likely to result in lower charges such as second-degree murder or manslaughter. 

No woman, young or old, should ever feel like they were next on the list to death. We must remember the missing, the murdered, and the disappeared. But right now, we must fight for the living.

Sources

Burczycka, Marta, and Adam Cotter. “Court outcomes in homicides of Indigenous women and girls, 2009 to 2021.” Statistique Canada, 4 October 2023, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2023001/article/00006-eng.htm. Accessed 23 January 2024.

“Red Dress Day: What it is and how it began.” CBC, 5 May 2023, https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/red-dress-day-what-it-is-and-how-it-began. Accessed 23 January 2024.

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Hope for the Future

     Jaime Black, with the help of Indigenous communities and citizens across Canada, has done an incredible job raising awareness on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Art like Jaime Black’s has a way of bringing people together in times of grief. Her art helps the loved ones of the victims cope with their losses, as well as helping spread awareness on the issue. She is ensuring that no victim will be forgotten, and she is bringing hope for a better future with every art piece. 

     If more people can hear about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls through her art, then more people can demand justice, and the need for change becomes increasingly hard to ignore. Her art aims to create space to reflect and inspire dialogue around social and political events and issues. Jaime and artists like her are bringing people together in a time of tragedy, and they are bringing hope back to Indigenous communities.

2010 Jaime Black, The REDress Project. Photo: Malay Pilz.

Sources: 

“BIOS.” Bios | Section Title | Women’s Studies Research Center | Brandeis University, www.brandeis.edu/wsrc/arts/images/jaime-black/bios.html. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024. Person. “Jaime Black: The Redress Project.” Hemispheric Institute, Hemispheric Institute, 19 Sept. 2018, hemisphericinstitute.org/en/enc14-exhibitions-and-installations/item/2385-enc14-ui-black-redress.html#:~:text=Jaime%20Black%20is%20a%20Metis,these%20movements%20through%20her%20work.

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Jaime Black - An Autobiography

Jaime Black was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario and later on moved to Regina Saskatchewan. Black then moved to Winnipeg where she still resides today. In an interview from 2019, Black shares how “there are very high rates of violence and racism in those communities.” She however confesses that she was unaware of these social issues growing up due to a lack of education on the topic of racism. Black earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Manitoba in Arts in Literature and Native Studies in 2004. She then earned a second degree from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto in 2008. 

     As a career, Black developed art curriculum for schools, but she did lots of various social work on the side. She involved herself in local writing groups, mentored with the Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art and she involved herself in other groups to work on education and Indigenous rights over the years. In 2010, Black created her most famous art installment of red dresses hung in public spaces. Her installment, the Red Dress project, is meant to bring awareness to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that make up 16% of all homicides in Canada.

Sources: 

“About Jaime Black.” Indigenousfoundations, indigenousfoundations.web.arts.ubc.ca/about_jamie_black/.

Accessed 23 Jan. 2024. “Artist.” Jaime Black, www.jaimeblackartist.com/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.