Red Dress hanging in Seaforth Peace Park

october 4: remembering our missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

Sisters in Spirit. No More Stolen Sisters.

October 4 is a day of remembrance. A day to honour the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), to remember those who are still missing, and to stand with the families who continue to seek answers, justice and healing.

Ten years ago, in 2016, I was beginning a personal journey that would change the way I looked at history, reconciliation and my own connections to Indigenous heritage.

From September 2016 to April 2017, I attended Langara College's Reconciliation Carving Cohort.

I called my online documentation My Langara Reconciliation Carving Journey. It became a collection of research, thoughts, feelings, photographs, reflections and creative work. My intention was to learn, share and contribute in whatever way I could to a better future for the next seven generations.

My Langara Reconciliation Carving Journey

That same year, I was also documenting and sharing images in support of the REDress Project by Métis artist Jaime Black.

The REDress Project is an aesthetic response to the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada. Empty red dresses placed in public spaces represent the women who are no longer here, making their absence visible in a way that is difficult to ignore.

I photographed the REDress display at Vancouver's Peace Park in Kitsilano in October 2016.

I shared those photographs and information through my blog and social media, using hashtags such as #MMIW, #SistersInSpirit and #NoMoreStolenSisters.

I also collected and shared posts from across Canada documenting marches, candlelight vigils, songs, ceremonies, speeches and the voices of families demanding justice.

Looking back at those old posts is an emotional experience.

I see the faces, the red dresses, the shoes representing women who were missing or murdered, the gatherings of people who refused to let their stories disappear.

I remember the public conversations, the calls for a national inquiry and the hopes that things might finally change.

I also remember the words of family members and advocates who questioned what reconciliation actually meant when Indigenous women and girls continued to experience violence and disappear.

One statement from a family member in 2016 has stayed with me:

"Their reconciliation feels a lot like colonization."

That was a powerful reminder that reconciliation cannot simply be a government promise, a speech, a ceremony or a symbolic gesture. It must be measured by real changes in people's lives.

And what about the families still waiting for answers?

What about the women whose cases received little attention, whose disappearances were dismissed or whose lives were treated as less important?

What about the mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties and friends whose absence leaves an enormous hole in their families and communities?

We cannot talk about reconciliation while ignoring the ongoing violence, discrimination, poverty and systemic failures that Indigenous women and girls continue to face.

Nor should remembrance be limited to one day of the year.

Ten years have passed since I took those photographs and began documenting that particular chapter of my own learning journey.

I have continued to explore my Indigenous family history, my connections to the past and the meaning of reconciliation. I have learned that listening matters. So does humility. And so does recognizing that Indigenous voices, families and communities must lead the conversations that affect them.

Today, I look back at those photographs and posts as a small part of a much larger movement.

I am one person with a camera, a blog and a desire to document the world around me. I cannot undo the past or solve the injustices that persist. But I can remember. I can share. I can keep asking questions. And I can refuse to let these stories be forgotten.

Today, October 4, I remember the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

I remember their families, their loved ones and the people who continue to fight for answers and justice.

I remember the red dresses.

And I hope that one day, our daughters, nieces, granddaughters and the next seven generations will live in a world where their safety, dignity and lives are never in question.

No More Stolen Sisters.

#MMIWG #MMIW #SistersInSpirit #NoMoreStolenSisters #REDressProject #TruthAndReconciliation #IndigenousWomen #SevenGenerations