NEWS RELEASE
CFUW GEORGETOWN
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Imagine your wife, sister, mother, or daughter vanishing without a trace. How would you cope with the feelings of this person’s unexplained disappearance?
Unfortunately, this is all too common an occurrence in Indigenous communities across Canada.
In 2010, Métis artist Jaime Black established “Red Dress Day” to honour the memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. The day has grown into a National Day of Awareness to educate and to call for change. The dresses symbolize sorrow and pain, but also hope and resilience.
Starting on Sunday, May 5, driving along Maple Avenue, people will notice red dresses hanging in the trees in the Old Seed House Garden, Georgetown. The dresses are one of three installations organized by CFUW Georgetown in honour of Red Dress Day.
In conjunction with the red dress installations, CFUW Georgetown President, Margaret Teasdale, invites people to a special ceremony at the gazebo at the Old Seed House Garden (located at the west end of Dominion Gardens Park) at 1 p.m. on May 5.
Speakers at the event will include Halton Hills Councillor Jane Fogal on behalf of Mayor Ann Lawlor.
“The CFUW is a group of women advocating for women. The homicide rate for Indigenous women is much higher than for any other group. We honour the memory of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people, and by participating in Red Dress Day, we hope to help raise awareness to this crisis,” says Teasdale.
CFUW will also have two other red dress installations in Halton Hills on May 4 and 6: Hillsview Active Centre, 318 Guelph St., Georgetown, and Hillsview Active Centre, 415 Queen St. E., Acton.
CFUW Georgetown is a self-funded, equality-seeking, advocacy organization that works to advance the human rights of women and girls. The Georgetown club is one of 90+ clubs across Canada.
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