Sunday will mark Red Dress Day in Canada, the national day of awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
In Prince George, there will be a gathering at the Red Dress Monument on the corner of Highway 16 and Ferry Avenue, starting at 11:00 am.
Following a stand-in, the gathering will move to the House of Ancestors, and then later go back to the monument.
“A Metis artist named Jamie Black, she did the first, it was called the Red Dress Art Project,” said Red Dress Society President Tammy Meise.
“That was her way of bringing awareness and attention to the lives that have been taken and the women that haven’t come home along the Highway of Tears.”
Meise said she saw the art project, and that’s where the Red Dress Campaign started in Prince George.
“The significance of the red dress, it symbolically is, my best friend, Kerryanne Gordon, should be here with us right now, and she’s not,” Meise explained.
“That empty red dress that you hang, or you hold, we don’t wear them, we hold them, that allows them to come and be present with us. I was taught that in Indigenous culture, red is the only colour that our ancestors can see, so when you hold that red dress, you’re allowing them to come and be present with you in the moment, so that they’re truly not forgotten, and that way too, you’re giving them a voice.”
In addition to the event happening in Prince George, events are happening in many communities along the Highway of Tears.