Walking With Our Sisters

A Commemorative Art Installation for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

March 21 – April 12, 2014

Opening reception and ceremony March 21 (time to be announced)

Gallery hours are: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am – 8pm

ALL WELCOMED

Over 600+ native women in Canada are reported missing or murdered in the last 20 years. Many vanished without a trace with inadequate inquiry into their disappearance or killing paid by the media, the general public, politicians and even law enforcement. This is a travesty of justice. Walking With Our Sisters is a commemorative art installation created and donated by hundreds of caring and concerned individuals to draw attention to this injustice.

 

Each pair of vamps represents one missing or murdered indigenous woman. The unfinished moccasins represent the unfinished lives of the women whose lives were cut short by murder. Collectively together the vamps represent 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 have not been forgotten.

 

Moccasins are symbolic of the path a person walks in life and within some traditions; moccasins are placed on the body of the person in death to help them on their journey into the next life. Moccasin vamps are the top part of the moccasin that most often carry adornment of some type, whether beads, quills, embroidery or other materials. Whether fully beaded or partially, different nations have developed their own variations on the size, style, shape and choice of imagery on the vamps.

 

This art exhibit will also bring attention to this issue as the numbers of Indigenous women going missing and becoming murdered continue to grow. According to the most recent research, the numbers are currently estimated as being as high as 824 women and girls missing and murdered in the last twenty years alone.

 

Installation location:


Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Gallery


203-290 McDermot Ave


Winnipeg MB R3B 0T2


204-942-2674


urbanshaman.org

 

The exhibit is currently scheduled to tour to over 31 locations across North America and will wrap up in 2020.

 

This project is being solely supported by donations made by thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and women across North America.

 

Walking With Our Sisters web site: http://walkingwithoursisters.ca

 

Winnipeg FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walking-With-Our-Sisters-Winnipeg-MB/676607989040404 

Media Information:


Daina Warren- Director of Urban Shaman Gallery


E: daina@urbanshaman.org


T: 204-942-2674

 

Marcel Balfour


E: mbalfour@manitobachiefs.com


T: 204-987-4114

 

Walking With Our Sisters gratefully acknowledges the support of our friends, Elders, volunteers, community and all our relations, Assiniboine Credit Union, The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Secretariat Inc., Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc., Helen Betty Osborne Memorial Foundation, The Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN), Red River College DT
~GITCHI MIIGWETCH / HAI HAI


 

203-290 McDermot Ave., Winnipeg Mb, Canada. R3B 0T2


T: 204-942-2674 | E: info@urbanshaman.org | W: urbanshaman.org