Indigenous Peoples and allies gathered in London, Ont., on Friday to mark the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People.
May 5, also known as Red Dress Day, is used to honour and remember the lives that have been lost.
In London, people gathered at the Wampum Learning Lodge on Western University’s campus for a Sacred Fire, traditional songs and reflections.
Tiffany Zub, a mental health counsellor with the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre, was one of the many people who took part in singing, drumming and speaking to those gathered.
“It’s so powerful to see the raising of awareness and the coming together for a common purpose, no matter where we’re from,” said Zub.
It has been four years since an inquiry’s final report into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls was released. It found Indigenous women and girls are 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other group in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accepted the findings of the inquiry, which said the crisis amounted to genocide.
Sixty-three per cent of Indigenous women have experienced violence and nearly half have experienced sexual assault, Statistics Canada said in a report last year.
At the Wampum Learning Lodge, multiple elders and other Indigenous Peoples spoke about the rampant issue that has harmed a vulnerable group for decades. Hanging above those who spoke and drummed were dozens of red dresses, symbolizing the women, girls and two-spirited people that have gone missing or died.
Zub, saying there is still lots of work to be done, adds there has been great progress in the last decade, especially after the discovery in Kamloops, B.C. of over 200 bodies of children at the site of a formal residential school site.
“It’s quite amazing what’s been done in the last two years in terms of recognition, acknowledgment, truth coming out and even curriculum in schools changing,” says Zub, adding she hopes more change will come each year to come.
At city hall, two red dresses were hung in the front windows along with a poster seeking information about the killing of Sonya Cywink.
Last seen alive along Dundas Street in 1994, Cywink was killed at 31 years of age while 24 weeks pregnant. Four days after last being seen, Cywick’s body was found at Southwold Earthworks National Historic Site in Elgin County.
The House of Commons unanimously backed a motion Tuesday declaring the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a Canada-wide emergency. It also called for funding a new system to alert the public when someone goes missing.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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