Recognizing Red Dress Day, Moose Hide Campaign Day and Sexual Violence Awareness Month
Red Dress Day, Moose Hide Campaign Day and Sexual Violence Awareness month all take place in May.
Rows of Red Dresses may be seen hanging from trees and lampposts next week, as Red Dress Day takes place on May 5, 2024. This grassroots movement started as an evocative, aesthetic response called the REDress Project by Jamie Black. Six hundred dresses were donated by the community and placed in public spaces to draw attention to over 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Jamie Black says she chose the colour red “after a friend explained that it was the only color spirits could see”. In that sense, Jamie says the colour is a “calling back of the spirits of these women”.
Several Red Dress Day events will be taking place to honour the murdered and missing, and to bring awareness to the violence Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people face.
Another important event is Moose Hide Campaign Day, which occurs on May 16, 2024. Awareness initiatives are taking place across Canada both in-person and virtually, including a livestream of the Walk to End Violence in Victoria, BC, facilitated workshops about gender-based violence and ceremonies for those choosing to fast as a way to demonstrate their commitment to the cause. To learn more or to volunteer for an event, please visit the Moose Hide Campaign website.
Sexual Violence Awareness Month spans throughout the month of May. To view the commitment statement, guiding principles the government is following and additional educational resources aimed at eradicating sexual violence, visit the Government of Alberta’s website.