After being given permission to display red dresses within the Town of Qualicum Beach, the project has expanded in the Parksville Qualicum Beach region.
Indoor displays will be located at the Parksville Civic and Technology Centre, Qualicum Beach Town Hall, Qualicum Beach Civic Centre (after Nov 26), the MAC, TOSH, the Parksville Community Conference Centre and the Parksville constituency offices of Parksville-Qualicum MLA Michelle Stilwell and Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns.
The displays are open to the public during each facility’s normal business hours. Residents and businesses are encouraged to add to the project by hanging a red dress on their own property during this period. The red dress displays will formally open with blessings on Monday, Nov. 27. These will take place at Qualicum Beach Town Hall at 9 a.m., and at the Parksville Civic and Technology Centre at 1:30 p.m. The public is welcome to participate in each of the opening events.
RELATED: Parksville Qualicum Beach club to display red dresses throughout town
From Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, red dresses will be displayed throughout the community as a visual reminder of the more the 1,000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, states a written release from the Canadian Federation of University Women Parksville-Qualicum (CFUW/PQ).
CFUW/PQ is co-ordinating the initiative in the region. The release says CFUW/PQ has chosen the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence for the REDress project. Nov. 25 is the international day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day.
The REDress Project was started in 2011 by Winnipeg-based artist Jamie Black to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Aboriginal women. For more infomation, visit www.cfuwpq.ca or www.theredressproject.org.
— NEWS Staff