On Friday, Doreen Scow had a five-minute speech ready for the Red Dress Day ceremony in Langford that was attended by hundreds of students from the Sooke School District.
But she quickly strayed off her prepared remarks.
“I felt like I had to mention my late cousin Carsyn [Seaweed] too, because since her passing, Red Dress [Day] has been a lot more significant to me,” Scow said.
Carsyn Seaweed, 15, was found in a semi-conscious state last May, covered in twigs, leaves and a wooden pallet behind a Super 8 motel in Duncan. She later died in hospital.
After her speech, Scow briefly chatted with a number of students, including a few who knew Seaweed personally.
“I’m still trying to process everything that happened yesterday,” she said in an interview Saturday. “Hearing what they had to say just really, really shook me to the core.”
Scow, who is Kwakwaka’wakw and a member of the Tlowitsis First Nation, said the ongoing issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is important to teach to the next generation.
Students from Ruth King Elementary, Savory Elementary, Spencer Middle School, and David Cameron Elementary attended Friday’s Red Dress Day event at Veterans Memorial Park.
“I’ve learned over the years that there’s ways to not sugarcoat it, but also not traumatize the students,” said Scow, who does cultural teachings for the school district.
In memory of Seaweed — who was in Duncan the day before her death for a soccer tournament — the family has put together a soccer team named Forever 15 that will play in her memory at the June Sports soccer tournament in Alert Bay this summer, she said.
Multiple events on the South Island will mark Red Dress Day today, the national day of awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Events include a prayer circle in Duncan at Station Street Park, and in Greater Victoria, a 10 a.m. walk starting at the intersection of Hallowell Road and Admirals Road in part co-organized by the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, and a march and rally at 1:30 p.m. at the ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱ Tribal School in Brentwood Bay.
Two Indigenous women are organizing an overnight vigil at the B.C. legislature, that will begin today at 5 p.m. and end on Monday at 7 p.m.
The event, which is open to the public, will be streamed on social media.
Co-organizer Priscilla Omulo, who is a member of the Tsartlip First Nation, said the process of reporting a missing person, putting up posters, and searching for a missing family member is hard to convey to people who haven’t experienced it. “Until it happens to you, you don’t really understand the challenge.”
Recently, one of her family members went missing but was, fortunately, located alive a month later, she said.
Indigenous people searching for their missing loved ones have to contend with the additional challenge of anti-Indigenous racism that’s still entrenched in society today, she said, adding that systemic injustices facing Indigenous people did not go away when residential schools were abolished.
“We’ve had a family member who has been shot and killed by RCMP. We have a family member who was murdered, whose assailants have not been brought to justice,” she said.
Omulo’s voice becomes tinged with emotion when she speaks about why the colour red is used in events.
“Red is supposed to be the colour that people on the other side — the spirits — can see. It’s calling them back home.”
“It’s about being able to say that we see that your spirit is there. We see that you haven’t received the justice you deserve yet — and that we are doing the best we can to remember you in a good way.”
Elected officials at the legislature are welcome to drop by the 28-hour vigil, Omulo said. “These are real mothers, real cousins, real family members that are missing and murdered.”
