Michigan nonprofit remembers missing and murdered Indigenous women with red dress display
Red dresses on the LACASA Center's campus in Howell, Michigan, serve as a reminder of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls who advocates say often never see justice.
Across the country, Indigenous women experience murder, assault and disappearances at nearly 10 times the national average, according to Mona Shand, who works with LACASA.
"The challenges of solving these cases, you're dealing with a really complicated mix of local, federal, tribal jurisdictions, so it's hard to even prosecute these cases and move them forward," said Shand.
She said the dresses in the haunting display represent someone who is no longer with us.
"It symbolizes a life that was take too soon, a family that was shattered and a community in grief," she said. The color matters, too," she said. "There are certain indigenous cultures that believe that red is the only color that spirits can see, so the red dresses really pay tribute to the lives that are no longer here, but the spirits they believe are still with us."
Shand said raising awareness this month goes hand-in-hand with LACASA's larger mission to prevent and address domestic violence and abuse.
"We thought this was an amazing opportunity to use our facility and to use our platform to speak on behalf of those who have been silenced," she said.
The red dresses on display come from LACASA's collection, a resale shop whose proceeds help fund the organization. Shand said they hope to make the display even larger in the years to come.
"We have more red dresses; we just don't have enough of those hooks," she said. "In the future, we want to expand this and have red dresses through the trees on our property, all around us. We just think it makes a really powerful visual impact."
