RED DRESS DAY
This Mother’s Day, Wear Red — and Remember.
Native American women are being murdered and disappearing at rates ten times higher than the national average. Murder is the third leading cause of death for Native women. Their voices are missing. Their stories are often ignored.
Red Dress Day, observed each May 5th, raises awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). It’s a powerful movement of remembrance and resistance, symbolized by a red hand across the mouth — a cry against silence.
This year, the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) is joining the call.
At last November’s 240th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, we adopted Resolution 4, recognizing May 5th of each calendar year as Red Dress Day. The Diocese is also inviting all our worshipping communities to wear red on Sunday, May 4 (or the nearest Sunday), lifting up our indigenous communities in prayer, raising awareness to the issue, and standing in solidarity.
Why red?
Native tradition holds that red connects the physical and spiritual worlds. Native Americans believe that the dead can see red, so by wearing red, we invoke the help of our ancestors and spiritual guides and it calls the spirits of our lost sisters home. Click here to learn more:
This Mother’s Day, wear RED and stand in solidarity with Native women.