Each December 6, 100 red dresses appear on campus: hung in trees, from lampposts, on buildings.

Because it’s December, and the campus trees are bare, they can be seen from everywhere – winks of red among the grey of the stone buildings, the bare trees and the sleeping gardens.

Like the Indigenous women they symbolize, each is different.

Each has a story to tell. Each is a reminder of a woman who is no longer with us.

The dresses are part of the REDress Project, an installation begun by Jaime Black, a Winnipeg-based artist, in 2010. Originally placed in downtown Winnipeg, red dresses have since been displayed in installations across the country as a way of drawing attention to the ongoing crisis of more than 1,200 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, including loved ones of students, staff and faculty at McMaster.

“It’s a garment women wear to look beautiful, but it’s also a representation of the racialization and sexualized violence against Aboriginal women,” explained Black, who is Métis, in a 2010 interview when the project began. “I think if you see that symbol over and over…the weight of the issue will resonate with people.”

McMaster displays 100 red dresses each December 6 as part of the university’s commemoration of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which marks the anniversary of the mass shooting of 14 women, 12 of whom were engineering students, at Montreal’s École Polytechnique.

Since the day was established by the Canadian government in 1991, it has served as an opportunity to remember the shooting as well on reflect on the greater issue of gender-based violence, both in Canada and globally.

This year, Jaime Black will be the keynote speaker at the commemoration hosted by McMaster’s Equity and Inclusion Office, which will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in CIBC Hall.

Before that ceremony, a men’s walk, held to demonstrate solidarity with those commemorating the Day of Remembrance, will be visiting memorials on campus for women who have died by violence. The men’s walk will begin at 10 a.m. at the Student Memorial Garden outside of MUSC.

“December 6 serves as the national day to remember all the lives lost through violent acts targeting women just because they are women or because they sought social and educational empowerment,” says Arig al Shaibah, McMaster’s associate vice-president of equity and inclusion.

“It is a day to reaffirm that women’s physical safety and security have long been profound societal concerns – nationally and globally – and to encourage continued work to end gender-based violence in all of its intersecting forms with racism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia.”

Because 2019 is the 30th anniversary of the shooting in Montreal, the Faculty of Engineering will also be marking the day with a ceremony starting at 4 p.m.

Read more: Faculty of Engineering to mark 30th anniversary of shooting at École Polytechnique