Red dresses hang at Regina Beach to bring attention to missing, murdered indigenous women

Artist Carol Daniels hung up a red dress about a week ago after seeing a social media post by the Conservatives asking if people agreed with Muslim women wearing a niqab.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, over these past several months, we have had hundreds of thousands of Canadians saying yes, we need an inquiry, we need answers to the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and, that, you haven't even talked about,'" Daniels said.

She said she started talking to her friends and neighbours about the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women and how the issue was reflected in the federal campaigns.

"When I look at where I live, in Regina Beach, there are about 1,200 or more year-round residents, Daniels noted. "So when I was talking, that would be like the whole town being murdered or going missing and no one says a word." 

She said soon several people she knows said they too wanted to hang a red dress in support. Daniels said the women who did so come from many different backgrounds.

"You don't have to be First Nations, or Métis, or Inuit to say, 'Enough is enough.' I'm really, really encouraged that the women who are hanging out the dresses are non-aboriginal."

At least 30 dresses are now hanging up in various locations of Regina Beach, Daniels said — including the one she hung herself. 

"I love seeing that dress hanging in the woods," she said. "Sometimes it's almost a ghostly figure which I think is important. Again to say, even if our women have gone into another world, the spirit world, again, we still think about you."

Daniels, a writer and an artist, said she will eventually turn the dresses into art.