Red Dress Day march fuelled by desire for change

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This article was published 05/05/2023 (1199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Leanna Catcheway walked for Kara and Jennifer.

She held her sign — two pictures, two women gone — amid a wave of red, formed by hundreds marching Friday in Winnipeg to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people.

“None of this should happen,” Catcheway said, as the group passed the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. “We shouldn’t (have to) go this far to make a difference.”

Friday was Red Dress Day, marked annually in Canada on May 5.

Manitoba’s MMIWG2S+ implementation committee, Gigaanaawenimaanaanig, organized a red dress round dance at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street. Supporters then took their drums and signs down Main Street to The Forks.

On Friday evening, more than 200 supporters gathered at The Forks for the third annual MMIWG2S+ Walk for Justice, ending at Memorial Park.

It was 85 kilometres away from Portage la Prairie, where Catcheway once searched for her distant relative Jennifer, who’d called her mom June 19, 2008, to say she’d be home to celebrate her 18th birthday but never arrived.

Eric Rae marched his bike to The Forks.

“It’s messed up, what’s happening in this country,” Rae said. “For things to really change, we settlers need to be out in these things… It’s our responsibility to help (make) change.”

He’d stationed his bike steps away from Nicole Martel, an Aboriginal Alert employee.

Martel said she might enter data on eight new missing Indigenous people in Winnipeg — daily. Aboriginal Alert, which expanded to the Manitoba capital last year, shares updates on its website, social media pages and via email blasts.

As of Friday evening, Aboriginal Alert had postings for 33 missing people in Winnipeg.

“Winnipeg is… ground zero for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and boys,” Martel said.

It’s hard to get accurate data on who’s missing, Martel said, adding she’s working to build connections to community, non-profits and the police.

“As Indigenous women, we know that there’s more (missing) than is put out there,” said Stephanie Sinclair, a marcher who’d etched “No more stolen sisters” onto her skirt.

“It’s so sad that it’s become a normal thing,” Sinclair said. “I feel like when you hear about it sometimes, it’s like, ‘It’s another one?’

“It shouldn’t be normal to anybody, any human being, that your people are going missing and murdered.”

Sinclair said she doesn’t get shocked much anymore, but hearing about bodies in Winnipeg-area landfills the past year was shocking.

Among them, the partial remains of Rebecca Contois, 24, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, were found at Brady Road landfill in May 2022.

Meantime, Martel is hopeful for a Canada-wide Red Dress Alert, meant to update the public when Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people go missing. Earlier this week, there was unanimous support for a motion in Parliament calling for such a system’s creation.

“We’ve got to correct the social determinants that’s making people missing or homeless,” Martel said. “I think the calls for action are correct — I think that’s how you change it.”

In 2019, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released a report containing 231 calls for justice.

Southern Chiefs’ Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels voiced his support for implementation of them all.

“Let us build a safer society for our women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people,” Daniels said in a news release.

Shelley Boulette worries about the youth she works with at Inaadiziwin, an Indigenous-led organization helping people transitioning from Child and Family Services care to independent living in Winnipeg.

“Some of our youth have been attacked on the street just waiting for a bus, so it’s scary,” she said.

“Just because they’re Indigenous, basically,” added co-worker Terry McGhee.

Both Boulette and McGhee are hoping for more awareness and change. It’s the reason they joined the crowd at The Forks.

“Often, MMIWG2S families will feel like nobody cares, and this is one small, tangible way to show that we care,” said NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine (St. Johns), who spoke at The Forks.

The only way change will occur is if Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people have the same equitable opportunities as everybody else, Fontaine said.

“It’s not enough for governments, or for folks in general, to say they support MMIWG2S… and (not) make any of those substantial changes in housing, in education, all of these things,” she told the Free Press.

Neither the SCO nor Winnipeg Police Service had a count on the number of afternoon marchers by Free Press deadline.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com