Red Dress Day must result in more than just awareness, says mother of murdered Indigenous woman

After her daughter was murdered, Charlotte Wol‐ frey spent decades fighting for better services to help women fleeing violence in coastal Labrador.

She was successful in ad‐ vocating for RCMP presence in their communities. She's done interviews, formed ad‐ vocacy councils and testified at the national inquiry for missing and murdered In‐ digenous women and girls.

When Red Dress Day comes around each year on May 5, Wolfrey still thinks of her Diedre Marie - but also of all the work that remains to be done.

"It reminds me of my daughter," she said. "[But] unless there's something done that will affect the lives of women and children in‐ volved in those situations … it's only for awareness, real‐ ly."

Diedre Marie Michelin was murdered by her partner in 1993. She left behind four children.

Wolfrey said she spent the next eight years focused on a mission to improve women's safety in coastal Labrador but didn't take time to prop‐ erly grieve.

"Then when we finally got police in a couple of the com‐ munities, Makkovik and Rigolet, I realized then that, like, what am I going to do now? And then … after that I really started to deal with the tragedy that happened in our lives."

Wolfrey said she learned to live her life in a different way - one in which grief and loss were a part of her.

"It's been wishing she was here, watching her children growing up without her, someone else raising them, you know, all those things that we've missed and that she's missed, and that her children has missed. So it's been a nightmare."

Housing, mental health services remain big problems: Wolfrey

The national inquiry resulted in 231 recommendations. Fifty of them were geared to‐ ward the Inuit, and Wolfrey said they shouldn't be viewed as recommendations but as mandatory changes to pro‐ tect women and girls.

When asked what the biggest unresolved issues are, she pointed to the hous‐ ing crisis. While people coun‐ trywide are experiencing challenges with housing, the problem is much more acute in the Inuit communities along Labrador's coast. Houses are overcrowded, wait-lists are long and much of the existing housing stock is in a state of disrepair.

"Even though it doesn't sound as if it's related, it cer‐ tainly is related because a lot of people go back to their sit‐ uations because they can't

find housing," Wolfrey said.

Wolfrey also called for better mental health services for the people of Labrador. Wolfrey said that although the provincial government champions programs like Doorways or Bridge the Gapp, the level of service minimal.

"We're all told that there's these walk-in services and there's these drop-in services and whatever else. But the reality of it is, is that we don't have very good mental health services."

Red Dress Day events

Sisters Gifts N.L., a small family-run business, will be holding a stuff-the-truck event in Grand Falls-Windsor with proceeds going toward the regional status of wom‐ en's council.

Co-owner Jennifer Kelly said she founded the busi‐ ness, which sells crafts from Indigenous artists, to recon‐ nect with the culture their family lost after their grand‐ father went to a residential school.

"This little business is our way of recovering as much culture as possible," she said.

WATCH | The CBC's Troy Turner talks to people in‐ volved in Red Dress Day events in Gander:

Kelly said they partnered with Status of Women Cen‐ tral because the group provides essential services for women leaving violent sit‐ uations. They're asking peo‐ ple to consider what they would need if they left their home right now with only the clothes on their back, and donate some of the items that come to mind.

"People that live with vio‐ lence, they experience that loss and hardship and they all suffer in silence. And when they leave these violent situations, they typically leave with nothing," Kelly said.

The event takes place in the Walmart parking lot from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC New‐ foundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our land‐ ing page.