Nearly 50 red dresses are currently on display across two Queen’s University campuses in Kingston, Ont., as part of the REDress Project.
“It’s a physical reminder of the places in which Indigenous folks should be, and the spaces in which they should occupy,” says Kandice Baptiste, Queen’s University’s Indigenous Initiatives associate director.
It’s the second year Queen’s is hosting the well-known art exhibit by Métis artist Jaime Black — this time expanding both the number of dresses and the areas of the exhibit.
“(The dresses are) scattered across the main campus, but we also included west campus this year,” says Baptiste.
Started in 2010, the project commemorates missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and gender-diverse people.
Baptiste says it’s important that the installation is recreated annually by artists and organizations across Canada.
“The crisis of missing and murdered women and gender-diverse folks goes on,” she says. “I think it’s important to mark it every year to remind folks of the nature of the ongoing crisis in this country.”
Seeking justice for the disproportionate victimization of Indigenous women and girls was among the calls to action made in the final report by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by the Honourable Murray Sinclair, who now serves as Queen’s University’s chancellor.
While the national day is officially May 5, this year, Queen’s decided to launch the installation earlier, when more faculty, staff and students will be on campus to experience it.
The dresses will be exhibited both indoors and outdoors at Queen’s until April 15.