Red Shirt Day: Manitoba launches $15 million MMIWG2S charity

The Manitoba government launched a new charity Sunday for the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

A $15 million fund managed by the Winnipeg Foundation was established to support those who have lost loved ones.

“Anyone who says they believe in reconciliation, that they're on the road to reconciliation, they're going to take action and invest in charity,” said Nahanni Fontaine, Manitoba's minister of families.

Sunday's announcement at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights coincided with Manitoba's Red Shirt Day, or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Awareness Day.

It comes two days after Canada and Manitoba announced the partnership Red Shirt Alert System it notifies the public when a local woman or girl is reported missing.

“We need justice for our women,” said Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

“We have to be able to handle this work. We prefer to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to missing and murdered indigenous women.”

The pilot project is expected to help inform the national warning system.

“It warms my soul, my spirit and my heart,” said Ryanna Chartrand of the new alert system. “If there had been this warning (earlier), I don't think there would have been so many missing and murdered women.”

He was a close friend of Chartrand Ava Zaberlast November, he left a four-year-old son in the northeastern part of the city.

Chartrand said that while the new warning and Sunday's Red Shirt Day event have helped her recovery, she's saddened that the day is still needed.

“We don't have to celebrate May 5 Red Shirt Day here,” he said. “We need to stand up and make these calls to action a reality because this is a fight for people like me and for everyone who has to deal with the pain of having our loved ones killed and taken from us.”

Indigenous women and girls in Canada are overrepresented as victims of violence. Statistics Canada reported last year that homicide rates among Indigenous women and girls between 2009 and 2021 were six times higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Sue Caribou, the aunt of Tanya Nepinak, who went missing in 2011, is also calling for concrete action.

“Look for the Brady landfill and all landfills,” Caribou said.

Red Shirt Day was inspired by a 2010 installation project by Métis artist Jamie Black, in which red shirts were hung in public spaces across Canada and the United States as a visual reminder of the number of Indigenous women killed or missing.

Local communities held walks, events and educational gatherings, and the movement grew.

– With Canadian Press files