Indigenous memorial makes it to Yellowknife
Walking with our Sisters is at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre through Jan. 24
Randi Beers
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 14, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Before taking it all in, visitors are asked to take off their shoes, take part in a ceremonial smudge, enclose a pinch of tobacco in their fist and take a tissue - it might be needed.
Nola Nallugiak, executive director of Native Women's Association of the NWT, says she's encouraged by the amount of volunteers - numbering more than 100 - who have taken part in the Yellowknife stop of Walking with our Sisters. - Randi Beers/NNSL photo |
The scent of burning sage and spruce fills the air to promote healing as a trail of 1,808 moccasin uppers - the artfully patterned material that adorns the top of the moccasin - reveals itself for those who visit Walking with our Sisters, a memorial dedicated to the unfinished lives of missing and murdered indigenous women across North America.
It opened at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre on Friday.
Some refer to the collection as an art installation - others a memorial - but altogether it's the work of 1,372 people across North America who wished to express what these unfinished lives mean to them.
Yellowknife is the ninth stop of a 32-community tour across Canada and the U.S.A.
On opening day Fibbie Tatti, a Dene elder who helped organize the Yellowknife leg of the tour, explained the significance of every one of the memorial's details, from a sled centrepiece representing the project's journey to spruce sprigs set in every corner - which she described as a gift from the wolf which provides protection.
She took a moment to point out an upper she identified as Tlicho work and went on to reflect on the wide variety of bead work that has come from different regions of North America.
"I do a lot of bead work but nothing compares to the quality, faith and emotion of the people who did these," she said.
The project's inception comes from Christi Belcourt, a Metis artist who lives in Ontario. She put a call out over social media asking for moccasin uppers to commemorate the lost lives in July 2012 and the memorial is 1,808 strong and still growing as people contribute as it travels.
Sara Kosmowska is one of the more than 100 volunteers who have donated their energy and time unpack the uppers, lay them out individually and be on hand for people who have questions.
"I heard about the exhibit a year ago when I found out it was coming to Yellowknife and I wanted to get involved," she said, explaining why she volunteered.
Just like everybody who takes part in the exhibit, certain uppers stand out to Kosmowska. For her, it's a pair splashed with an intricate purple beaded flower design against a dark background.
"I really like the work," she said, kneeling down beside it.
"Somebody put a lot of effort into it."
Each step through the exhibit takes the viewer past dozens of individual pieces of artwork that ranges from traditionally beaded uppers to a pair adorned with the Ottawa Police badge design to soapstone to birch bark bitings, an Ojibwa method of creating a pattern in birch bark using teeth.
Walking through with Nola Nallugiak, executive director of the Native Women's Association of the NWT, she remarked on how every single time she takes a walk through, she'll notice a pair she hadn't before.
This time, it was a pair that had been designed with the shape of the African continent.
"Oh, I hadn't seen those before," she said.
"We've gotten interest from people in Africa because I think the issues that are affecting us also affecting them."
Just outside the exhibit's exit is a box to collect the tobacco and used tissues that hold the tears shed by visitors. The tobacco and tissues will be burned in a healing ceremony when the memorial leaves Yellowknife on Jan. 24.
