REDress Project

The REDress Project by Jaime Black is a public art installation that was created in response to the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) epidemic in Canada and the United States.

The on-going project began in 2010 and commemorates missing and murdered indigenous women from the First Nations, Inuit, Métis (FNIM), and Native American communities by hanging empty red dresses in a range of environments.

Jaime Black is Métis, an ethnic group native to parts of Canada and the United States of America, which traces their descent to both indigenous North Americans and Western European settlers.

[15] In 2018, Isabella Aiukli Cornell, a member of the Choctaw Nation, chose to wear a custom-made dress[16] made by Crow designer Della Bighair-Stump of Hardin, Montana to her junior prom in order to bring attention to the systemic violence and abuse indigenous women suffer.

“The bodice was made to incorporate a little bit of the (Choctaw) tribe by adding diamonds to the design.”[18] Cornell donated her prom dress and shoes to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

[21] In July 2019, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tanya Tagaq, and Maxida Märak prominently displayed a single red dress on stage when they performed together at Riddu Riđđu.