Red dresses will be flowing in the wind from the trees along the Coldwater River on Sunday as a symbol of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
“Those red dresses represent the missing women that should be walking among our community,” said Merritt resident Tamara Pelletier.
This Sunday (Oct.4) is Red Dress Day, an initiative created five years ago by Winnipeg artist and Metis woman Jaime Black in the form of the REDress Project.
This Canada-wide installation art project aims to invoke a dialogue on the issue ational issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
In observation of the initiative, Pelletier hopes people will bring a red dress to the parking lot across from the Claybanks RV Park this Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and hang them from the trees by the river.
Pelletier said she learned about REDress Project just a few days ago and, when she did, she thought of her friend Shelly Dene, who went missing two years ago.
Pelletier and Dene both struggled with drug addiction, and met in rehab in Kelowna about eight years ago.
Dene went missing in July of 2013, and was last seen in Edmonton, Alta. The Edmonton Police Service is investigating the disappearance and Dene’s family last heard from investigators last December when police told them they had exhausted all their leads.
“I didn’t even know that Shelly was missing until this summer,” Pelletier said.
Pelletier isn’t expecting a large turnout for this initiative, but said it’s one the town can build on year after year.
“The community supporting the red dress shows that we no longer accept violence towards aboriginal women,” Pelletier said.
In 2014, the RCMP released a report on Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women saying that 1,181 indigenous women and girls were murdered or went missing between 1980 and 2012.
The report is based on statistics from police agencies across the country.
On Sunday people are asked to hang a red dress in public view or wear one throughout the day.
