May 7, 2025
Portage College honoured National Red Dress Day on May 5 with a special gathering in the wanîskah ᐊᐧᓂᐢᑲᐦ cultural space at the Lac La Biche campus. The awareness day is held to bring attention to the issue of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit Persons.
Portage College's Robert Rayko welcomes Beaver Lake Cree Nation band councillor Leonard Jackson to the Red Dress event.
Other Portage College campus locations in communities across the region were video-linked to the event and also held their own recognition of the day.
The gathering in Lac La Biche was co-hosted with Lac La Biche County and drew guests from across northern Alberta, including speakers who gave personal and poignant accounts of their own direct experiences.
Lester St. Arnault was 11 on August 17, 1971, when his 15-year-old auntie Stella disappeared. She came to his house in the Little Red River Cree Nation in northwestern Alberta that morning, like she did often, this time telling St. Arnault’s mom she'd be back later that afternoon.
"She never returned. Never returned,” he told the gathering of about 40 people, his words, in both Cree and English, quiet and reflective.
He’ll never forget that day.
Lester St. Arnault stands inside the Portage College wanîskah space where a ceremonial red dress was placed for attendees to write messages. St. Arnault was one of several people who spoke about personal loss associated with MMIW Girls and Two Spirit persons.
There were community searches and police searches. He found her jacket near his house, but after two weeks there were no other clues. More than 50 years later, there are still no answers … and no closure. St. Arnault says he thinks about his aunt often.
“I remember her singing Loretta Lynn songs – old country songs. I remember that smiling,” he said, speaking barely above a whisper in the quiet Portage College room. “That’s the hardest part about losing someone – the not knowing. Where did she go? How did she go? Will they ever come back?”
All these years later, he said family members still hold out hope – it’s all they have.
“Every once in a while, the family will get together and talk about it … You still have the hope, that little bit of hope that maybe some day … we could get that closure.”
St. Arnault’s story was one of several shared during the Red Dress Day event at Portage College, and one of thousands shared by Indigenous families across Canada.
Robert Rayko, the cultural and community facilitator at Portage College says the institution owes its beginnings to the work of Indigenous People and the community-wide push more than 50 years ago to bring learning opportunities to rural communities. At that time, the facility was named Pe-Ta-Pun, or New Dawn. It’s time for that dawn to rise, says Rayko.
“We have to wake up and look at what is happening to our people, what is happening to us as Indigenous People. We have to take our stance and say no more. No more. It’s 2025, no more should there be stolen sisters and children who go missing. We need to make a stand. We need to make changes in our own lives and help bring changes to our families’ lives,” said Rayko, encouraging more people to talk about the issue within their own communities and with their local leaders.
Portage College Vice President Bev Moghrabi thanked presenters who came to the gathering to share their stories. Although not Indigenous herself, Moghrabi said the issue is close to her heart – and should be for all people. “From the human perspective, we are all together … and what is happening is wrong. It’s simply wrong. And for the world to just move forward like everything is OK, that is not right,” said Moghrabi, pledging to continue raising awareness and pushing others towards meaningful action. “It’s really important … this hurts us all.”
The Lac La Biche community will have another opportunity to raise awareness for violence against women and children on May 15 when Portage College and Lac La Biche County again partner to host the local Moose Hide Campaign awareness walk and gathering. The annual event is held in communities across Canada, raising awareness towards gender-based violence. Campaign pins featuring a square of moose hide are worn by those supporting the issue because the hide is considered to be medicine in many Indigenous cultures.
Organizers of the national Moose Hide Campaign say more than half a million people took part in community walks and presentations last year.
In Lac La Biche, the May 15 Moose Hide Campaign Community Walk begins at 10 am at the main Portage College entrance where a procession will make its way to McArthur Park for presentations.
All community members are invited to take part in the walk and gathering.
For VIDEO from the May 5 Red Dress Day, visit the Portage College social media pages or the Portage College YouTube channel.
We acknowledge that Portage College’s service region is on the traditional lands of First Nation Peoples, the owners of Treaty 6, 8 and 10, which are also homelands to the Métis people. We honour the history and culture of all people who first lived and gathered in these lands.