New book helps young readers understand the meaning behind Red Dress Day

Tess's Red Dress is a children's book by author Carolyn Roberts.

A new children’s book is helping young readers understand a difficult part of Canada’s story.

May 5 is “Red Dress Day” in Canada – a National Day of awareness and remembrance for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (MMIWG2S+) inspired by Métis artist Jamie Black’s REDress Project. Black used empty red dresses as a visual representation of the lost lives, which has now become a symbol of the crisis.

Author Carolyn Roberts is an Indigenous educator at the University of British Columbia. Her book, “Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family,” provides a resource for parents and educators to navigate the difficult topic with children aged six to nine.

A St’at’imc and Stó:lō woman belonging to the Thevarge family from N’quatqua Nation and the Kelly Family from the Ch’íyáqtel Nation, Roberts is a proud member of the Squamish Nation. She believes it is important to recognize the impacts of colonization on Indigenous women.

“I really want that day to be recognized and honored and taught about so that we can start to change that narrative and our communities don’t have to go through so much loss,” she told CTV Atlantic’s Melanie Price.

Roberts helps educators across the country teach Indigenous education. She says she is often asked how to talk about Red Dress Day to younger grades.

“I would always lean into what we need to talk about is the matriarchs in our community, and that they’re knowledge holders and language keepers and all these big important pieces,” she said.

“Prior to colonization, most of our societies on this land were matriarchal and then when the settlement came the systems changed and then put us at risk, at higher risk for being murdered or going missing.”

Inspired by those conversations with educators, Roberts decided to write a children’s book on the topic.

The story focuses on six-year-old Tess and her mother, who is pregnant, as they prepare for a Red Dress Day march. Excited for the arrival of her new sibling, Tess asks her mother to share stories of what it was like growing up with her Auntie – who is one of the missing.

“Tess is a really beautiful story between a mom and a daughter. They’re both fictional characters in the story, but all of the moments in the book are part of my story with my own kids, my mom, my sisters, my nieces, my grandnieces,” said Roberts.

“It’s really about them getting ready for Red Dress Day, honoring aunties voices, and sharing the stories of those beautiful little moments that we have in life that we learn about each other.”

Because the book is targeting a young age group, Roberts says the main theme is connection.

“We don’t go into depth about things; we just know that Auntie is missing and it’s a glimpse at how this family is navigating that loss,” she said.

“Then after the story is read, there’s an activity that you can do with the students about showing their connections to who’s important in their lives. So, giving them the steps of being able to work and navigate through that.”

Roberts recently read her book to a group of students at Capilano Little Ones School (Xwemélch’stn Etsimxwawtxw) on the Squamish First Nation. She says the students were excited to see themselves and their culture in the book’s illustrations.

“The braids and the beautiful cedar hats that we wear… and our beautiful Salish shawls as well. So, that representation for kids who don’t have a lot of books that show them,” recalled Roberts.

The pictures were done by Tlingit and Filipina illustrator Kelsey Mata Foote, who Roberts says included some personal touches in her artwork.

“She created these beautiful, amazing pictures that brought Tess to life… Not only did she listen to all of the words and feel the story, she also included things like a Salish robe that I wove personally. My cat is in there, I’m in there,” said Roberts.

“So, all these personal connections really bring to life what the story is, and I think that that’s what makes it magical, is that all the moments are my real-life moments, and then all the pictures are connected to that and to Kelsey. So that weaving of our stories is just beautiful.”

Roberts says her culture and community influence everything she does, including her storytelling.

“I feel like the stories come through me. I don’t necessarily see me as the writer. I feel like there’s these moments in time where writing happens, and Tess came to me really quickly,” she said.

“Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family” was released on April 7 and Roberts says the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“It’s been so amazing. People are so thankful and they love the book so much. It’s just getting so much traction,” she said.

Roberts has plans to write another children’s book, which will focus on the spindle whorl – a tool used in weaving.

“I’m hoping that I’m going to work with somebody from my community to put this into story form because I think it’s really important to have those pieces of culture, of who we are and how it tells our stories for us,” she said.

“I would really love to see it in picture book form.”