Grandview Park was filled with red Tuesday as the community gathered to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people by hanging dresses from trees and fences.
May 5 is known across Canada as Red Dress Day, which was inspired by Métis artist Jaime Black and her REDress Project.
The red dresses represent those who are missing and those whose lives were taken.
“It’s just a prolonged, ongoing hardship, and the grief is just continuing,” said Dianna Day, founder of the Indigenous Women Rise Society.
The day is marked with ceremonies, marches, and memorials, all calling for justice and systemic change.
According to the Assembly of First Nations, Indigenous women make up 16 per cent of all female homicide victims and 11 per cent of missing women.
Those who attended the event here in Vancouver say lasting change is well overdue.
Katherine Cooper is an advocate who played a role in urging government officials in Manitoba to search landfills for missing indigenous women.
Despite that successful work, Cooper says there are still unanswered questions.
“The reality is we don’t see too many white women go missing.”
Cooper says Red Dress Day is a stark reminder for countless families who are still waiting for their loved ones to come home. She says the red dresses hanging around Grandview Park remind her of her cousin Josie Martin, who has been missing for over 11 years.
“The last time I saw her, she came into my workplace,” she said.
“We were standing there, and she was eating Cheezies and telling me she was going to come look for me after work. That was the last time I talked to her. I never saw her again.”
As advocacy work continues, organizers say government focus should be on the victims’ families.
Those who gathered in Vancouver say awareness is growing, but real, lasting change — through accountability, resources, and protection — has yet to be seen.