Dozens of community members from Clearwater and surrounding area donned red clothing and ribbon skirts, their faces painted with red handprints, and braved the rain and cold to call attention to the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people.
Red Dress Day honours and remembers the disproportionate number of Indigenous sisters, daughters and mothers impacted by violence and discrimination in Canada. The handprints on their mouths symbolize that they stand in solidarity with the MMIWG and they will be silenced no more.
Gathered outside the Wells Gray Information Centre Thursday (May 5) evening, those in attendance joined in singing the Women’s Warrior Song before embarking on the walk.
Elder Rose McArthur explained the song was to honour those families that “still shed the tears of their daughters, of their wives, mothers and of their sisters,” and to invite the spirits of those lost to join them.
The group walked five kilometres, starting from the information centre, down Eden Road then back along Highway 5, through the roundabout and in Weyerhaeuser, circling back to where they started. Members of the Clearwater RCMP detachment followed controlling traffic to provide a safe route along the highway and through road crossings.
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