Walking with Our Sisters

Walking With Our Sisters is a commemorative art installation of over 1,763 moccasin vamps This art installation was created to remember all the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and each pair of moccasin vamps (tops) represents one missing or murdered Indigenous North American woman.

Project

Walking With Our Sisters Shingwauk Auditorium 2014

Walking With Our Sisters was initiated by Métis artist Christi Belcourt to acknowledge the grief families of missing and murdered Indigenous women suffer with, it also raises awareness of this issue and creates a discourse in which the issue can be acknowledged across communities in Canada and the United States. This project began in June 2012 with lead organizer Belcourt using social media to call for people to create moccasin tops in memory of Missing and Murdered Women. By July 25, 2013 more than 1,600 vamps had been received, far surpassing the initial goal of 600. Over 200 individuals contributed to the project. Over 1,725 pairs of vamps have been donated to this project created by a total of 1,372 artists, 331 from the United States, 9 from countries outside of North America, and 1,385 from Canada.

In 2014 the project expanded to include the addition of 108 pairs of children's moccasin vamps. The children's vamps were added to the exhibition through a similar call to the original vamps. Using social media families and survivors were encouraged to contribute children's vamps in memory of a loved one. The addition to the project occurred when the Walking With Our Sisters was at Algoma University, which is located on the site of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School. The children's vamps represent the children that never returned home from Residential Schools.

The art pieces will be made available to the public through selected galleries across North America, as a floor installation of the beaded moccasin vamps in a winding path formation.

Visiting

Visitors to the exhibit are asked not to use cameras or other electronic devices, to remove their shoes, and to be smudged before entering the exhibit. Each visitor receives a small pouch of snuff tobacco to hold in the left hand, which is closest to the heart, before entering the display area, which is covered in red cloth. Visitors move clockwise through the display area, and are asked to stay on the red cloth, not stepping on or over the vamps. At the end, they return the snuff pouches, which are later burned in a ceremonial fire, together with used tissues, provided at several points throughout the display. Native elders and volunteers are on hand to answer questions, or to hear visitors' impressions after the visit.

Our Sisters

Many organizations and communities have worked hard to raise awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and are calling for a National Inquiry of the issue which has been turned down by Canada's government because government officials believe that there has been enough studies done on the issue and another would be redundant. Researcher Maryanne Pearce has found that 80% of First Nations women who have gone missing or who have been found dead in North America, were not involved in sex trade, which it a huge stereotype about these women and girls.

Stereotypes effects on Indigenous women

The erotic and sexualized image of Aboriginal women originated from early colonial days, when settlers would associate First Nations women with the virgin land through the use of image of the Indian Princess. The image of the Indian Princess was created by colonizers to show the European world what Aboriginal women were like, describing them as virginal, mysterious, and for the use of settlers, much like the land during this time; furthermore, this image created a belief among settler men that Indigenous women and the land, were theirs for the taking.

Soon the image of the Squaw-drudge was created to replace Indigenous womanhood with European womanhood by focusing on the fact that Aboriginal women worked alongside the men of their society, rather than them staying at home obeying their husband, similar to that of European society. This justified the colonialists coming into First Nations land and saving the women from being the drudges of their society. The image of Squaw grew into the idea that Indigenous women were dirty, lazy, and poor parents, allowing colonizers to cover up the inhumane conditions First Nations people were forced to live in, and allowed the Federal government to take away Indigenous children and place them in residential schools.Soon after the easy native and dirty squaw were created to justify violent acts done by white settlers to indigenous women, and enforcing the idea that interracial marriages to Indigenous women would affect the purity of the white race.

First Nations women, are exposed to sexual and violent threats from an early age as a result of these stereotypes, and because of this idea Indigenous women are viewed as sexually available regardless of consent.First Nations women have come to be treated as inherently rapeable under the assumption of Indigenous women being easy, and are considered more violable. These negative images have affected the lives of contemporary Indigenous women, and have prevented fair treatment within public institutions, which is why movements such as Walking With Our Sisters was created to ensure each of these women are represented and treated as human beings.