An art installation honouring the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women of Canada and the United States is due to be exhibited at North Battleford's Chapel Gallery from Jan. 15 to Feb. 7, 2016, and the community is already preparing for its arrival.
The first of a series of community conversations is scheduled for Thursday, June 18 at 7 p.m. at the gallery, where the memorial exhibition will be introduced and potential activities related to the exhibition will be discussed.
Walking With Our Sisters is a massive commemorative art installation made up of more than 1,763 pairs of moccasin vamps (tops) plus 108 pairs of children鈥檚 vamps. The large collaborative art piece is being made available to the public through selected galleries and locations and has been on tour since 2013 with booking into 2019.
The work exists as a floor installation made up of beaded vamps arranged in a winding path formation on fabric and includes cedar boughs. Viewers remove their shoes to walk on a path of cloth alongside the vamps.
To create the installation, a general call was put out to all 鈥渃aring souls鈥� who wanted to contribute a pair of moccasin tops. Women, men and children, both native and non-native, gathered in living rooms, universities, community halls and penitentiaries across North America to bead, sew, quill, weave, paint, embroider and create mixed media pairs of moccasin tops out of the love, care and concern they have for missing or murdered women and their families, some of them their own.
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. The children鈥檚 vamps are dedicated to children who never returned home from residential schools. Together the installation represents all these women, paying respect to their lives.
In addition to the moccasin tops, of the exhibit. Those songs are heard while audiences experience the exhibit.
At Thursday's meeting, there will be an opportunity to sign up to volunteer as participants in upcoming events. Volunteers are also encouraged to join at any time by contacting the City of North Battleford's galleries director Leah Garven at [email protected].
