An 'I Wear Red' photo taken by Freda Weeseekase featuring her niece holding a picture of Weeseekase's late daughter. (Facebook/Mooniaskwew Photography)

By Teena Monteleone

I wear red

“I Wear Red’ photography offers healing for MMIW mother

Sep 5, 2021 | 9:00 AM

On July 11, 2020, Freda Weeseekase joined a group no mother or family wants to be a part of.

That group is MMIW – Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Her 19-year-old daughter Hailey Belanger-Weeseekase was murdered in Saskatoon. The case is still before the courts.

Weeseekase said her daughter was involved with gangs and knew both people charged in connection to her death.

“It’s been a year and I’m still dealing with it. I can’t focus. I’m having a hard time starting again,” Weeseekase said.

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Freda Weeseekase holds a photo of her daughter Hailey. (Facebook/Mooniaskwew Photography)

Photography has been a great escape for the mourning mother originally from Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation. It was just a hobby at first. Now, there is meaning behind her work. She started taking ‘I Wear Red’ photos – a movement across the nation where people are called upon to wear red to acknowledge the thousands of women and girls who go missing each year.

“When you become a part of MMIW, you start seeing a lot more [people] that are a part of that group and you see the heartache and the heartbreak. And the reason I do the ‘I Wear Red’ photography is for the awareness,” Weeseekase said. “People are just starting to now see what is happening to Aboriginal women and it’s just to give notice, not just to my daughter, but for more out there.”

A photo by Weeseekase of Krista Fox – who plans on walking across Canada next year to raise MMIW awareness. (Facebook/Mooniaskwew Photography)

So far, Weeseekase has photographed people she knows like her niece who held a picture of her cousin Hailey, and others like Krista Fox, a North Battleford woman planning to walk across Canada next year to raise MMIW awareness. But, she’s open to photoshoots for other families who have lost someone. Eventually, she’d like to make a picture book made up of her ‘I Wear Red’ photos to show just how many cases there are, but also offer hope, comfort, healing, and closure for families struggling to find their loved ones.

“It’s emotional taking the photos. My daughter Hailey, I had her urn with me when I had my own ‘I Wear Red’ pictures taken and it was emotional,” Weeseekase said. “But I also remembered Hailey as she was. She was a jokester and laughing all the time.”

The ‘I Wear Red’ movement brings awareness to MMIW. (Facebook/Mooniaskwew Photography)

More of Weeseekase’s work can be found on her Facebook page – Mooniaskwew Photography.

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Teena.Monteleone@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MonteleoneTeena