Project 57 Week 49: Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2Spirit Awareness

Also known as Red Dress Day, May 5 honours the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people in Canada by encouraging learning and building awareness to end violence against Indigenous women, girls, 2 spirit, and gender diverse people. 

Starting in 2016, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls held 15 community hearings, and spoke with 2,386 people. A final report was released in June 2019 which includes 231 Calls for Justice that "represent important ways to end the genocide and to transform systemic and societal values that have worked to maintain colonial violence" (Final Report, volume 1B, p. 168). The Inquiry also released an engagement guide, Their voices will guide us, which will "introduce the value of Indigenous women’s and girls’ lives into the classroom and into the minds and hearts of young people. It will prepare educators to use a decolonizing pedagogy and a trauma-informed approach in their teaching." (p. iii).

To learn more check out:

• National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls website
• Learn about National MMIWG2S Awareness Day, Library guide
• Protect Indigenous women, All My Relations podcast episode, May 5, 2021 (01:36:23)
• Reclaiming power and place : The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
• Angela Sterritt: Believe Indigenous Peoples’ Stories. The Walrus, November 21, 2023 (YouTube). 9:08 minutes.
• Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ People, Canadian Museum of Human Rights