Queen’s University has the REDress art project exhibited across campus ahead of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and gender diverse people (MMIWGD2S) on May 5. Currently, almost 50 red dresses hang across outdoor and indoor spaces.

The REDress project was created by Jaime Black, an artist of Anishinaabe and Finnish descent. The art exhibit is to draw attention to the more than 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada. The project was created in 2010 in Canada, and had its first display in Washington D.C. in the USA in 2019. 

Black said the red dress was specifically chosen as the object to symbolize the women who have faced such a harsh reality.

“For me, red represents the life blood we all carry and it’s an interconnection between us all. And, using the color red, as well, is sort of showing the violence of not caring for that sacred life blood."

For the full interview with Jaime Black, listen here: