Bradford residents may have spotted bright red garments silently blowing in the wind like ghosts this week.
On Monday, Bradford’s newly formed Odenaang Circle hung 20 red dresses on the trees outside the library at 425 Holland St. W., where they will also be hosting a gathering to recognize National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Girls and Two-Spirit People (also known as Red Dress Day) on May 5 starting at 2 p.m.
“It’s definitely something that has affected our Indigenous communities,” Jennifer Bahinski, a member of the group said. “We all felt a need to come together and help raise awareness here in Bradford as well as pay honour to all the families that have been affected and the women and two-spirit lives that have been lost.”
While she revealed that the matter has impacted her personally, Bahinski requested the details not be published out of respect for the rest of her family, who she said still struggle with the issue.
Red Dress Day began in 2010 as a campaign and art installation by Winnipeg-based Métis artist Jaime Black, in memory of the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across Canada.
A 2014 report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found more than 1,000 Indigenous female homicide victims between 1980 and 2012.
Sunday’s gathering is planned as a ceremony including an opening prayer, smudge, poetry and a walk of the west lawn perimeter where the dresses — about 15 of which were donated by CONTACT Community Services’ The Clothes Line — are hung as “an opportunity for us to take a moment to honour those lives that have been lost.”
Anyone is welcome to attend and are encouraged to wear red if they can, but it is not required.
Bahinski emphasized the importance of raising awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S), as she feels there is a lack of media coverage.
“I don’t think many people could name on their hand the specific names of women that have gone missing, and it’s often mishandled by our police and authorities,” she said, clarifying that she was speaking about police in general and not the local South Simcoe Police Service. “Cases that are reported aren’t taken as seriously or are more easily dismissed by stereotypes that exist about Indigenous women, that maybe don’t exist for our non-Indigenous women.”
This will be only the second event organized by the eight-member Odenaang Circle who formed earlier this year in response to a public call from the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library looking for a planning committee for the upcoming National Indigenous Peoples Day.
After holding their first event, Indigenous Imagination, at the library on March 28 — including a meet and greet, children's arts and crafts and storytime with ‘Together we Drum Our Hearts Beat as One’ by Willie Poll — the group is already evolving into more.
“There’s definitely a need here in Bradford and South Simcoe to have an Indigenous-based community group to come together,” Bahinski said.
The group is hoping to hold monthly events open to anybody interested in Indigenous culture, according to Bahinski, and those could include: a beading circle, teaching about sacred medicines, and the seven grandfather teachings.
For more information, follow Odenaang Circle on Instagram.
