Image retrieved from Walking With Our Sisters, <http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/artwork/moccasin-vamps/>.
Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
Yesterday’s post looked at a powerful and eye-opening campaign that calls attention to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Today we focus on “Walking With Our Sisters,” a creative campaign that sheds light on the issue and honours MMIWG.
Christi Belcourt: The Birth of Walking With Our Sisters
Over the last 30 years, more than 1,181 Indigenous women and girls within Canada have been reported missing or have been murdered.[1] Seeing countless posters of these missing Indigenous girls prompted Christi Belcourt, a Métis visual artist, to begin “Walking With Our Sisters” in 2012. Belcourt expressed how one poster in particular moved her to start this initiative: “one day, I saw one that hit me harder than usual, because the girl on the poster looked like my daughter.”[2] The idea sprang to life soon after:
“I was driving to Ottawa thinking about women’s work and the traditional beadwork typically done by women, and it was almost like the idea was fully formed. I just saw people taking off their shoes and walking on this red carpet among these moccasin tops.”[3]
Upon her arrival to Ottawa, Belcourt sent out emails, and began a Facebook group page that gathered 2,000 members almost immediately. She put an open call out for moccasin tops, or “vamps,” with a one-year deadline. Belcourt received an overwhelming response, as members joined the national and regional collectives, resulting in the formation of over 65 beading groups to help create the vamps.[4]
A Commemorative Art Installation for MMIWG
“Walking With Our Sisters” has since grown to an immense commemorative art installation honouring the missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada and the United States. It is comprised of over 1,763 pairs of moccasin tops, as well as 108 children's pairs. The vamps are created and donated by over 1500 artists and thousands of volunteers wishing to draw attention to the movement. [4] The children’s moccasin tops represent the children who never made it home from the residential school system. The remaining vamps represent one missing or murdered Indigenous woman, with unfinished moccasins representing the unfinished lives of those women who were taken too soon. [5]
“Together the installation represents all these women; paying respect to their lives and existence on this earth. They are not forgotten. They are sisters, mothers, aunties, daughters, cousins, grandmothers, wives and partners. They have been cared for, they have been loved, they are missing and they are not forgotten.”[6]
The art installation has developed into a seven-year tour memorial, on display at select galleries and locations internationally until 2019. To date, over 30,000 people have walked alongside the winding path of the moccasin tops - walking alongside our sisters. [7]
Mâmawîkahkisohmonânaw
(we all pray for you)
Until next time,
Team ReconciliAction YEG
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[1] Walking With Our Sisters, About (2017), online: <http://walkingwithoursisters.ca/about/>.
[2] Leah Sandals, “Christi Belcourt Q&A: On Walking With Our Sisters”, Canadian Art (7 July 2014), online: <http://canadianart.ca/features/christi-belcourt-walking-with-our-sisters/>.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Christi Belcourt, Bio (2017), online: <http://christibelcourt.com/bio/>.
[6] Walking, supra note 1.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Belcourt, supra note 4.
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