The REDress Project

The REDress Project

St. Catherine University hosts The REDress Project, a public installation meant to mark the absence and evoke the presence of Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered.

St. Catherine University welcomes The REDress Project, an outdoor exhibition created by Métis artist Jaime Black. Organized in collaboration with the Integrated Learning Series and The O'Shaughnessy, this exhibition will take place on the campus quad, and marks the beginning of the next two-year series theme: Indigenous Thought Leadership.

About this exhibition (from the artist): 

The installation consists of hundreds of red dresses suspended in public spaces to mark the absence and evoke the presence of Indigenous women and girls who have gone missing or been murdered. 

Indigenous women face higher rates of violence than any other cultural group in Canada and the United States. Indigenous families and communities have been advocating for generations to make changes to the colonial system that often treat the perpetrators of this violence with impunity. The REDress Project works to create space for families of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Persons (MMIP) and their supporters to tell their stories and to find solidarity in the struggle to protect the rights of Indigenous women and girls. The project provides a space to hear from frontline community workers, Indigenous women academics, elders and knowledge keepers on how we can work together as a community to bring justice to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and their families.

About The REDress Project

Founded in 2009, The REDress Project was first exhibited at the University of Winnipeg Campus in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the past ten years, it has travelled to over 50 locations across Canada and internationally. In March 2019, Black’s installation had its first United States exhibition at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

About the Artist

Jaime Black is a multidisciplinary artist of mixed Anishinaabe and European descent who lives and works in Winnipeg. Black’s practice engages in themes of memory, identity, place and resistance and is grounded in an understanding of the body and the land as sources of cultural and spiritual knowledge. 

This exhibition is free and open to the public. Exhibition viewers are encouraged to review campus COVID policies prior to visiting. Health screenings are not required for exhibition visitors.

For more information check out http://gallery.stkate.edu/exhibitions/the-redress-project

Image: Jaime Black, The REDress Project. Photo courtesy of the artist.


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