See further information and resources below posters.

 

Red Dress Day – May 5, 2025
Red Dress Day, also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S), is observed on May 5th.  Red Dress Day was inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black’s REDress Project installation, in which she hung empty, red dresses to represent the missing and murdered women.

On Sunday, May 4, the Southwest Red Dress Day Committee is hosting a Red Dress Day event at the Living Skies Casino Event Centre from 2:00- 4:00 pm (come and go), with a Welcome and Blessing at 2:00 p.m. (please see poster).  We invite you to join us in working collaboratively to create commemorative Métis Dot paintings to honour MMIWG2S.  The resulting pieces will then be displayed at the Art Gallery of Swift Current.

We are also hanging red dresses on trees throughout the city from May 2-6 to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit People, and their families and loved ones, and to increase people’s awareness about this important issue. We invite you to show your support by hanging red dresses outside your home, business, organization, or school, or by displaying a red dress image in your window, and by learning more about Red Dress Day and MMIWG2S.

Below are some resources that we invite teachers to use in their classrooms, and that all of us to potentially learn from and share.
Thank you for working together to increase awareness in our community!

• 2025 Red Dress Day events poster (PDF – 8 1/2 x 11) LINK: 2025_Poster_Red Dress Event_Sponsors

• 2025 Red Dress Day Call for Dresses (PDF – 8 1/2 x 11) LINK: 2025_Poster_CallForDresses_Print

• Red dress cutout pattern/colouring page (PDF) LINK: Red Dress Cutout

• Calls to All Canadians (1-page PDF from the Calls to Justice in Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) LINK: Calls for All Canadians

• For some background and statistics: LINK: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia.

• The National Inquiry’s Their Voices Will Guide Us: Student and Youth Engagement Guide: LINK:  Their Voices Will Guide Us | MMIWG (mmiwg-ffada.ca) .

• Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls: LINK:  Final Report | MMIWG (mmiwg-ffada.ca)

  Métis Dot Painting Resources:

  Métis Dot Art is a contemporary art form inspired by Métis beadwork where beads are replaced with small dots of colourful paint. Métis dot art was first used in the Métis context by artist Christie Belcourt http://christibelcourt.com/. The designs often feature floral patterns, inspired by nature, stained glass, embroidery, and stories.  Leah Dorion is another Métis artist who utilizes dot art in her practice. https://leahdorion.ca/about.html. This video has good instructions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H3F-3QTvKU