The REDress Project at the National Museum of the American Indian
The REDress Project was established as a direct result of the missing or murdered Indigenous women of Canada. This installation is one that has travelled throughout North America to showcase and add visibility to the Indigenous women who’ve had their lives terminated before their time. The reason that these dresses are placed in very open public places is to raise the awareness of the mass numbers of Indigenous women who have been massacred as a result of violence against women. To provide an infinite voice to those whispers who’ve been bound tight with wire thread (Black, 2020).
Roots-Highway-Cry
why is there a dress on my branch?
my roots have started to tingle
i can feel the agony
of their representation
although these branches
are above ground the ache
below is a startling reality
embers burn through the splash
of crimson that elegantly
hangs on my branch
a string of plasma induced
hues for a necklace of humiliation
the fabric brushes against
my trunk and my roots
stretch through the land
in communication with other trees
to comprehend the definition
of why it is genuinely necessary
to acknowledge all the murdered
Indigenous women
whose disappearances
have been ignored
this loud battle cry
can be heard right
through to the tip
of the last centimetre
as they stretch below
our glorious terra firma
the levels of compassion
rise with mother nature’s
claim on this earth
made for women
annihilated and diminished
by society
i’ll never forget
i will always rise
regardless of those
why attempt to bury
my shell
a spirit to haunt
forever
References
Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.ca/sites/amnesty/files/iwfa_submission_amnesty_international_february_2014_-_final.pdf
“Newsworthy” Victims? Exploring differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing/murdered Aboriginal and White women By: Kristen Gilchrist
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2010.514110
About the REDress project By: Jamie Black https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/