Strathmore celebrates Red Dress Day
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
In celebration of Red Dress Day, the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS) partnered with Kickstand and FCSS to host an awareness event in Kinsmen Park on May 5.
The event featured a free barbeque, speeches, dancing, and resources to engage the community with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
“We really want people to engage and realize this event is important and that violence happens in all cultures and backgrounds,” said Tiffany Carlson, Rocky View Wheatland local immigration partnership coordinator. “Red Dress Day is an annual event that happens every May 5, every year and this is important because when it comes to Indigenous stats, they are very high when it comes to domestic violence.”
Among the ongoing goals every year is to continue to raise awareness and have people stand up to the problem and aim to prevent it from occurring as much as possible.
Hosting the event in the evening, Carlson explained the aim was to make it convenient for as many people as possible to come out and attend, emphasizing that Red Dress Day is for everyone, not just those of First Nations backgrounds.
According to information made available by the Government of Canada, more than six in 10 Indigenous women have experienced physical or sexual violence.
More than half of all reported missing Indigenous persons cases in Canada are women as of 2024.
“Hopefully people were able to pick up their kids, get off work, and get to the park to enjoy the barbeque, look at the resources, hear the speeches, and then participate in the walk around the park and watch the jingle dress dancing and the drumming,” she said. “The jingle dress dance is important because … it is called the healing dance, so that is why we have the jingle dress dance at Red Dress Day and at Truth and Reconciliation because we believe that it heals when we have that dance.”
Carlson added historically, Red Dress Day events have been well attended, however numbers have been dropping off in recent years.
She estimates this may be in part due to timing, as several iterations have taken place during the day when the majority of the community is at work.
“Also, sometimes people think that if it is an Indigenous event that they are not invited, but everyone is welcome to come. We want you to come,” she said. “You do not have to stay the whole time if you are unable to, or if you show up late, that is fine, but we would really like you to come and at least learn about it because sometimes people don’t understand what the intention is or why something is important.”