Stories That Carry Us: Honouring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Through Advocacy and Education
Join the Office of Indigenous Relations (OIR) and the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office (SVPRO) on May 5th for Red Dress Day, a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People.
Elder Myeengun Henry will begin the day with a sacred fire beginning at 10:30 a.m. on the BMH green, where we will hang red dresses to symbolize those who are missing and murdered, inspired by Jaime Black's REDress Project. Following the ceremony, we will move to the Applied Sciences Expansion Building HLTH LHS-1621 where we will hear from researcher Tamara Bernard.
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location: BMH Green | HLTH LHS-1621, Applied Health Sciences Expansion Building
Program for Tuesday May 5 *all times approximate
- 10:30 AM | Sacred Fire (BMH Green)
- 11:30 AM | Hanging Red Dresses (Dresses Provided)
- 11:40 AM | Intermission (Snacks and Refreshments)
- 12:00 PM | Stories That Carry Us: Honouring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Through Advocacy and Educationwith Tamara Bernard
- 1:00 PM | Q&A
- 1:30 PM | Event Ends
Tamara Bernard is a proud mixed-race Anishinaabe Kwe and member of Gull Bay First Nation whose nearly two decades of internationally recognized work have helped shape education, research, and advocacy on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) across Canada. As a family member, survivor advocate, researcher, and community leader, Tamara brings a uniquely grounded perspective to the crisis of gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls—one rooted in lived experience, community accountability, and rigorous scholarship.
She is the first in Canada to publish storied Master’s research as a family member within MMIWG scholarship, a contributing writer to the National Inquiry into MMIWG, and a current contributor to Ontario’s first-ever provincial Indigenous death review report, which will include Indigenous-specific risk factors and is set for release in 2026. Tamara is also the co-creator of the See Me: MMIWG public education exhibit, a TEDx speaker, published researcher, and Doctoral Candidate at Lakehead University.
Tamara currently serves on the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee under the Chief Coroner of Ontario and is the owner of Tamara Kwe Consulting, an Indigenous-owned and operated firm with a strong reputation for leading Indigenous research, engagement, advocacy, and education across Canada. A recipient of the Northwest Ontario Visionary Award, Tamara’s life’s work is grounded in a powerful belief: education is a pathway to reconciliation.
Stories That Carry Us: Honouring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Through Advocacy and Education
This talk invites audiences into a powerful and necessary conversation about honouring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) through the interconnected pathways of story, advocacy, and education. Grounded in lived experience as a family member, researcher, and advocate, Tamara Bernard shares how storytelling serves as both remembrance and resistance—carrying the voices of those no longer here while restoring dignity and challenging harmful narratives. Drawing on nearly two decades of frontline, academic, and community-based work, she highlights the systemic nature of violence rooted in colonialism and calls for a shift beyond awareness toward meaningful, accountable action grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing. Centering education as a transformative tool, this talk challenges participants to reflect on their own roles in advancing safety, justice, and reconciliation in everyday practice. Through the weaving of personal story, research, and community insight, audiences are left with a deeper understanding of the MMIWG crisis and a call to action: to listen differently, act with intention, and honour Indigenous women and girls not only in memory, but through sustained, collective change.