As part of the 16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Violence against Women, CFUW Welland and District display red dresses as an art installation to acknowledge and bring tribute to the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) throughout the district.
The red dresses represent the hundreds-perhaps thousands of North American Indigenous Women and Girls who have been murdered or disappeared during the last 4 decades. Based on the original REDdress movement by founder/creator Jamie Black, a Metis woman from Winnipeg, who wanted the empty dresses floating from hangers in tree branches, to remind us all of the women who should have been wearing them. We want to draw attention to this devastating loss, as another tragic example of Violence against Women that must end.