WINNIPEG, MB, May 4, 2023 – At tonight’s Full Moon Ceremony, we will honour National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples (May 5th, also known as Red Dress Day). This Full Moon Ceremony is celebrated by the following partners; Women’s Health Clinic (WHC), The Link, Ka Ni Kanichihk, Sunshine House, Manitoba Moon Voices, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO), Huddle, and Queer People of Colour (QPOC) Winnipeg.
National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples exists to remind everyone that there continues to be many sisters, mothers, daughters and gender diverse folks that are still missing and that the violence causing the genocide against Indigenous women, girls and gender diverse folks must end.
We would like to invite everyone to join us to celebrate the Full Moon. Following this event, we will walk to the pedestrian walkway on the Provencher Bridge to tie red ribbons as a memorial to MMIWG2S and gender diverse folks. This practice started over eight years ago as a way to remind folks that this issue is still alive and well across Canada. Many of our sisters have never returned home and their whereabouts or what happened to them remains as unsolved cases.
In conjunction with this Ceremony, we call upon the federal government to support Gigaanaawenimaanaanig, the Implementation Committee for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ peoples – to declare the ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people a national state of emergency.
Jeannie Whitebird, co-chair of the Manitoba Coalition of families and survivors of MMIWG2S+, agrees.
“In this context we are also supporting the families of survivors of violence. The numbers keep growing with our sisters and aunties as they continue to go missing and get murdered due to the ongoing colonial violence that still exists,” says Whitebird.
On this day – and every day – we stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and join the call to speak out and to take meaningful action to stop the violence experienced by Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse people, wherever they may live. We also remember and honour the people – far too many generations of people – who have lost their lives to colonial, gender-based violence. We carry their memories and the grief of their families and communities with us as we act to answer the calls for Reconciliation.
Full Moon Ceremony May 4, 2023 8:30 PM Oodena Celebration Circle, 1 Forks Market Road (behind the Old Spaghetti Factory)
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For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Kristen Einarson Lead Communications Specialist, Women’s Health Clinic keinarson3@womenshealthclinic.org 204-612-1776
