Drag the Red is a community volunteer organization in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Founded in 2014 by a group of co-founders that included Kyle Kematch and MLA Bernadette Smith,[1] the organization aims to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls by searching in and around the Red River of the North for bodies or evidence of missing persons.[2]

The group was founded in response to the discovery of the body of Tina Fontaine, an Indigenous teenager, in the Red River.[3] At that time Drag the Red comprised 25 volunteers; in 2019 it was reported that the group had "hundreds".[4] In 2021 the group received a donation of a custom boat commissioned by Unifor.[3]

Drag the Red is the subject of This River, a 2016 short documentary.[5]

References edit

  1. ^ Danton Unger (3 September 2021). "'We lost a huge champion': Community mourns death of MMIWG2S advocate, co-founder of Drag the Red". iHeartRadio. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  2. ^ Austin Grabish (17 June 2017). "Drag the Red searchers get grim lesson on finding, identifying bones". CBC News. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  3. ^ a b "New 'one of a kind' boat will help Drag the Red continue search for missing in Winnipeg rivers". CBC News. 21 June 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  4. ^ Leyland Cecco (9 June 2019). "Canadian volunteers scour river for missing Indigenous women". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  5. ^ Akeesha Footman (4 August 2016). "This River documentary searches for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls". Muskrat Magazine. Retrieved 30 September 2021.

External links edit