More than 300 people took part in the annual Red Dress Day memorial in 91原创 City's Douglas Park on Monday, March 5.
Hundreds marked Red Dress Day at Douglas Park in 91原创 City.
鈥� 91原创 Advance Times (@91原创Times)
As they marched through downtown 91原创 to mark the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQIA+ People, most people who watched them walk were supportive, but some were a different story.
Cecelia Reekie, president of the Lower Fraser Valley Aboriginal Society, was outraged.
"I could hear somebody yelling, 'run them over,'" Reekie said.
"Let that sink in," Reekie said. "Run them over.' In our community, in 91原创, right here, a male was yelling, run them over. It infuriates me in our society that [because] we have inconvenienced somebody for a few minutes that he has to take out his anger on us. How dare he?"
Reekie talked about the stress of driving the infamous Highway of Tears between Prince George and Prince Rupert where so many Indigenous women have disappeared.
"All I see are billboards of young women who have gone missing," Reekie said.
"I have to pay attention when I pull into a gas station, to see if there's a male in a car behind me, and [wonder] will I see him at the next stop? Those are things that we have to think about as women in this country, as Indigenous women in this country."
One of the speakers, Sesmelot of the Kwantlen First Nation, was wearing an image of a friend's granddaughter who went missing at a soccer tournament.
Sesmelot called on young Indigenous men to join the campaign to end the violence.
"We need to put a stop to it. And young men, I know it won't take much effort for you to just, [say] yeah, I'm here for you."
Red Dress Day began in 2010 when Jaime Black, a M茅tis artist in WInnipeg, hung hundreds of empty red dresses in public places to bring awareness to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Aldergrove resident Ashley Baresinkoff explained how attitudes towards Indigenous women made her keep her ancestry a secret.
"Growing up I had to keep my Indigenous heritage hidden because of racism, fear of racism, and also how I'd be treated as Indigenous woman," Baresinkoff told the 91原创 Advance Times. "It wasn't until I was older that I was able to actually be more open with my Indigenous heritage.'
Glen Valley resident Michelle Bucholtz said she didn't determine she was Metis until she was in her 30s.
"It was hidden and met with rejection and shame in my family of origin," Bucholtz said.
Also present was the family of Kristina Ward.
The 20-year-old from Abbotsford once frequented 91原创 City and made visits to local homeless camps.
She was last seen on surveillance video at 144 Street and 104 Avenue in Surrey on Sept. 27, 2017, between 7:50 and 8:45 p.m. with a man wearing a white shirt and black pants, who was pushing a bicycle.
