Daytime vigil marks Red Dress Day in Ottawa

Dozens gather at Annie Pootoogook Park to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

More than 50 people gather at Annie Pootoogook Park on Friday in Ottawa to mark the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (Photo by Madalyn Howitt)

By Madalyn Howitt

As the sun parted through the clouds in Ottawa on Friday, Inuit community members gathered on the lawn of Annie Pootoogook Park to call for an end to systemic violence against Indigenous women and girls.

More than 50 people attended the midday vigil to mark the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also known as Red Dress Day, which this year lands on Sunday.

The community event was organized by Tungasuvvingat Inuit, a not-for-profit group focused on cultural support services for urban Inuit.

Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s Mikka Komatsiutikiak sings in honour of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls at a daytime vigil to mark Red Dress Day on Friday in Ottawa. (Photo by Madalyn Howitt)

The park in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood was named for Pootoogook, a celebrated artist who was found dead on the shore of the Rideau River in 2016.

The vigil featured a drumming performance, singing, a demonstration of traditional Inuit games and a table for attendees to write messages on posters calling for an end to violence against Indigenous women and girls.

Event organizer Mikka Komatsiutikiak, a program organizer for TI, addressed the crowd and celebrated the dozens of young faces who attended.

“You’re making a difference by being here,” she said, explaining that young people need to continue to raise awareness of the violence faced by Indigenous women.

Most attendees wore red T-shirts and pins provided by TI and emblazoned with the hashtag #MMIWG2S, the 2S to recognize two-spirit Indigenous peoples.

“This day is not a reflection of Inuit women’s identity. This is a reflection of Canadian society allowing this violence to happen,” she continued.

Komatsiutikiak shared her own family’s experience of that violence, when her cousin was murdered at age 17.

“I didn’t know how to talk about it for a long time,” Komatsiutikiak said, adding community support and hearing other Inuit share their stories helped her to speak out.

Attendees at a vigil to mark Red Dress Day in Ottawa placed battery-powered candles by a memorial to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (Photo by Madalyn Howitt)

Attendees held battery-powered candles as they paused for a moment of silence. They later placed the candles by a memorial and a sign that read “No More Stolen Sisters.”

Nationally, between 2009 and 2021 the rate of homicide against Inuit, Metis and First Nations women and girls was six times higher than against non-Indigenous women and girls, Statistics Canada reported last October.

This year, Red Dress Day comes as the issue of violence toward Indigenous women and girls is gaining increased attention at Ottawa city hall.

This month, the city’s finance committee and city council will discuss a proposed land transfer to the Ottawa Aboriginal Coalition for a dedicated Inuit women’s shelter in the Hunt Club area, a proposal that received some pushback from residents.

Meanwhile, Rideau-Vanier city councillor Stéphanie Plante recently announced her proposal to rename a neighbourhood park after Mary Papatsie, an Inuk woman who had been missing from the area for five years before her remains were found in October 2022.

In Iqaluit, Red Dress Day will be marked Sunday through an art show at the Aqsarniit hotel sponsored by Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, an advisory group that supports women, girls and gender-diverse people in Nunavut.

The art show runs from 2 to 4 p.m. and is open to the public. It is part of the Qulliit project announced last year called RED, which stands for: Remember, Educate, Dedicate.

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(2) Comments:

  1. Posted by Same old axe, same old grind on

    Nobody is stealing anybody’s sisters. Inuit women are mostly murdered by other Inuit, including other women. They also die from alcohol, durgs, and accidents, and these three things are also big reasons why they go missing.

    If you want to actually solve this problem (I don’t think the activists actually do), you have to get real about the problem. The problem comes from within the aboriginal community. There isn’t a gang of evil outsider bandits kidnapping Inuit women, and activist wishes won’t make that so.

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    • Posted by Johnny Oh Ima on

      I am not surprised by this statement, not surprised that the moderator let it post too. Ignorant and racist comments, where is your statistics coming from? There are more chances that Indigenous women including Inuit will go missing and murdered not by only Inuit but other groups too.
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