Red Dress Day: Manitoba launches $15M MMIWG2S endowment fund

Manitoba marks Red Dress Day to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People. Mitchell Ringos reports.

By Mitchell Ringos

The Manitoba government launched a new endowment fund Sunday for families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

The $15-million fund, which will be managed by the Winnipeg Foundation, was created to support those who have lost loved ones.

“Anybody that says they believe in reconciliation, that they’re on the path of reconciliation, action that and invest in the endowment fund,” said Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba’s minister of families.

Sunday’s announcement at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights coincided with Red Dress Day in Manitoba – or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day as it’s also known.

Red Dress Day at The Forks in Winnipeg May 5, 2024. (Mitchell Ringos, CityNews)

It also came two days after Canada and Manitoba announced a partnership for a Red Dress Alert system that would inform the public when an Indigenous woman or girl is reported missing.

“We need justice for our women,” said Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

“We need to be able to carry that work. We would rather be proactive than reactive when it comes to our missing and murdered Indigenous women.”

The pilot project is expected to help inform an eventual national alert system.

“That warms my soul, my spirit and my heart,” said Rayanna Chartrand of the new alert system. “Had there been this alert (before), I don’t think there would be this many missing and murdered women.”

Chartrand was close friends with Ava Zaber, who was fatally shot in the city’s North End last November, leaving behind a four-year-old son.

Chartrand says while the new alert and Sunday’s Red Dress Day event at the Oodena Circle at The Forks were helping her heal, she feels sad the day is still needed.

“We shouldn’t be here marking May the 5th Red Dress Day,” she said. “We should be standing up and making these calls to action reality, because it’s a struggle for people like me and all these people around here who have to deal with the hurt of having our loved ones murdered and taken from us.”

Photo of 20-year-old Winnipeg mom Ava Zaber at memorial in front of her house. (Joanne Roberts, CityNews)

Indigenous women and girls in Canada remain highly overrepresented as victims of violence. Between 2009 and 2021, the homicide rate among Indigenous women and girls was six times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts, Statistics Canada said in a report last year.

Sue Caribou, the aunt of Tanya Nepinak, who went missing in 2011, is also calling for real action.

“Search the Brady Landfill and all the landfills,” Caribou said.

Red Dress Day was inspired by Métis artist Jamie Black’s installation project in 2010, which saw red dresses hung in public spaces throughout Canada and the U.S. as visual reminders of the number of Indigenous women who have been killed or are missing.

The movement has grown, with local communities hosting walks, events and educational gatherings.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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