A red dress marks what would have been Chantel John's 29th birthday

Rosie Hoskins clings to a white plastic hanger and the red dress it's holding.

She walks towards a branch in Bannerman Park in St. John's and hangs the memorial up, quickly backing away for a moment alone.

Chantel John, Hoskins's first cousin, would have been 29 Wednesday, and the dress is Hoskins's way of marking that.

• Conne River holds emotional vigil to honour slain woman

John was allegedly killed by her ex-partner in Conne River in January.

First birthday without her

"Normally I would be spending the whole week with her celebrating her birthday," Hoskins said. "This is the first year that I haven't been able to, and it's just very hard."

Red dresses have come to symbolize missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

A laminated strip of paper explaining that is pinned to John's dress, as well as her picture and a page about who she was.

"I just didn't really know how to deal with it so I just decided to hang the dress," Hoskins said. "I just felt like it would help me get through the day just to have recognition that she was Indigenous and she got murdered."

Accused killer

John's alleged killer, Kirk Keeping, is facing a first-degree murder charge in relation to John's death on Jan. 9.

He's also facing another attempted murder charge of a second Conne River woman from that same day as well as a charges for failing to comply with a condition of an undertaking and breaking a probation order.

He's due in court again in May.

In the meantime, Hoskins hopes when people see the dress Wednesday they think of her cousin, and the larger issues around her death.

"I'm hoping that people are going to start thinking enough is enough and just try and end domestic violence in the best way that they can," she said.

"I think the police need to take things more seriously and more awareness needs to be brought to things like this like about domestic violence, and just everything, to keep people safe."

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