First Nation mourning serial killer victim Ashlee Shingoose holding 1st Red Dress Day event

A northern Manitoba First Nation is holding its first Red Dress Day event on Monday as the community mourns one of its own.

In March, Ashlee Shingoose of St. Theresa Point First Nation was identified as the previously unknown victim of a Winnipeg serial killer. She'd been given the name Buffalo Woman, or Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, by Indigenous community members.

Shingoose, who police believe was murdered in March 2022, is among several known missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls from the Island Lake and Red Sucker Lake region of northern Manitoba, about 450 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Red Dress Day has been observed on May 5 since 2010 as a day to honour and remember missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.

Organizer Tanya Dawn McDougall says Shingoose's case is part of why St. Theresa Point is marking Red Dress Day for the first time this year.

Community members will also honour Precious Pascal, Theresa Robinson, Kathleen Wood, Annie Little, Tammy Nattaway, Charlotte Wood and Andrea Harper.

The event is an example of St. Theresa Point's resilience, said McDougall, who is also the local school's mental health advocate.

"We're not going to shy away from how much it hurts. We're going to do our best to challenge and contribute to the solution," she told CBC News on Friday.

On Monday, high school and middle school students will first gather in the gym to hear speeches, light candles for the women and name them, McDougall said. 

After, they'll hold a spirit dance, then walk with all 1,200 school-age children and participate in a buffalo call — a collective prayer McDougall described as a loud and short call to release hurt and pain.

In recent weeks, organizations in the community have held several workshops on making red dresses and skirts for girls and women to wear on Monday.

McDougall said she also addressed boys and girls directly in their classrooms on the risks they face as First Nations people and the responsibilities they have to protect each other and themselves.

"It was heavy," she said. "It's a hard fact to state and explain to children, but they are getting older, and we have to prepare them to be warriors."

Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered compared to non-Indigenous women in Canada, according to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.