This ribbon skirt can be seen at Bruce County Public Library's Port Elgin branch for the month of May and June. The campaign, which sees one of a kind ribbon skirts displayed at various locations across Bruce County, aims to bring awareness to Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

Melissa Root from the Saugeen First Nation Public Library and Resource Centre has been working hard the past month organizing family and community from Saugeen for an important project. Together they have designed and sewn 20 ribbon skirts to be displayed at all seventeen Bruce County Public Library (BCPL) branches as well as in the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre (BCM&CC) for the months of May and June.

In a recent media release from BCPL, the project aims to bring awareness to the estimated 4,000 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and the continued risk they face today. Melissa, her daughters, Eden and Courage Root, as well as community members Letitia Thompson, Jocelyn Roote, Tania Ritchie, Julie Brown, Michelle Puddester, Holly Fontaine, Theresa Root, Melissa Root, and Melanie Cameron, came together to sew these skirts in honour of MMIWG.

Each ribbon skirt was created to represent a different story of their stolen sisters and efforts culminated into 20 unique designs that will be displayed with honour for residents and visitors to view. Prior to delivering the skirts to BCPL and BCM&CC, Melissa and her family performed a smudging ceremony to purify the skirts for their journey.

Sixty-three percent of Indigenous women have experienced violence and nearly half have experienced sexual assault, as reported by Statistics Canada in 2022. The Native Women’s Association of Canada’s research shows that Indigenous women and girls have accounted for 10 percent of all female homicides since 1980 while only making up 4 percent of the population. This year the House of Commons has declared the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls a nationwide emergency.

Visitors are welcome to stop by their local Bruce County Public Library branch or the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre to view the one of a kind skirts and learn more about MMIWG.

For more information or to read the final report on the National Inquiry, visit www.mmiwg-ffada.ca.