Today is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. “Please recognize and honour them,” writes Nathalia Okalik of Iqaluit, who posted this image of herself with a red amauti. Red dresses have become a symbol of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. “Pray for them, as well as their loved ones.” (Photo courtesy of Nathalia Okalik)
Indigenous women have worked tirelessly with allies for years to draw attention to and stop violent crimes committed against women and girls in their communities. Last year, the federal government finally heeded their calls and announced a long-overdue inquiry into the disappearance and murders of Indigenous women across the country.
Mental wellness is the answer. The abused frequently become the abusers, without intervention awareness support a recycling of the garbage from one generation to the next generation happens. The most innocent, women and children, usually, are the more vulnerable in this insideous state of affairs. What compounds the problem is an ideal where money and making more money draws the attention creating a world into its particular madness. The happiness scale of Tibetians which is how they measure success rather than what we apply houshold income and GDP, Gross Domestic Production, would be an great improvement over what we have where red dresses are needed to draw interest to the abuse problem.
I have to agree with you up until the part where income comes into play. Most, of not all MMIW are not killed simply because of the spouses financial problems. The abused spouses know nothing different from what and how they were brought up. I know many of these MMIW, who just ended up being murdered and taken advantage of for who they were. Some of them being single, some of them married and murdered by people who are not even in the relationship. It’s a scary world when you can be picked up and murdered for being native and a woman. Even more so when the police don’t even bother to look into cases until they get cold.