The following article was submitted by Natasha F Khan, a Collections Assistant at the Rahr West Art Museum for their Art Forward series.
“Anything that ties emotional reactions to subjects that need awareness is a good thing. One of the reasons I used red lettering on a red dress was to indicate the quiet scars more modern natives carry around. Issues that are deep and critical but relatively unknown. The more discourse and understanding, the greater the chances of restoration for my people.” – Chloé Allyn, 2022
No More Stolen Sisters opened on April 24th at the Rahr-West Art Museum. This exhibit features Indigenous artists and allies. The focus is on the experiences and emotions surrounding the violence and loss of MMIWG2S (Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirits). This exhibit sheds further light on the epidemic of MMIWG2S, while also highlighting and uplifting the amazing work of those in the Indigenous community and its allies.
MMIWG2S started as a grassroots movement to draw attention to the high rate of disappearances and murders of Indigenous people— particularly women and girls. The U.S. Department of Justice found that Indigenous women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention found homicide is the third leading cause of death among for American Indian and Alaska Native women 10-24 years of age and the fifth leading cause of death between 25-35. A red hand over the mouth has become the symbol of the movement, standing for all the missing sisters whose voices are not heard. The title of this exhibit comes from the movement’s hashtag, #NoMoreStolenSisters.
Check out this site to learn about some policy initiatives that have been enacted to help.
An important part of this exhibit is the Culture and Community: a celebration of Regional Indigenous Art, Craft, and Tradition. It’s crucial to not only focus on the epidemic and the family, friends, and allies affected, but also on uplifting the Indigenous community.
Below we hear from four amazing artists featured in both parts of this exhibit:
Dinorah Marquez and Raul Deal
Poet Dinorah Márquez Abadiano was born in central Mexico, and lived on the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas from 1962-1979. Her mother worked as a seamstress in a maquiladora on the border. The border was not a safe place for women working in sweatshops . In 1993, with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the maquiladora industry grew, as women migrated to the border to work in the factories and violence against indigenous and immigrant women in the region increased. Dinorah writes about the border, the generational trauma brought upon women and girls by colonization and capitalism, and the suffering of families trying to escape the murderous historical forces that make their indigenous homelands dangerous and unlivable. La Frontera, based on Marquez’s personal experiences, reflects on this reality.
Raoul Deal ‘s linocuts, the first in a series based on the poem, speak to the disappearance of young women and girls navigating the contested territory of the desert. Dinorah Márquez Abadiano is the Director of the United Community Center’s Latino Arts Strings program, providing heritage music education to Latinx youth. Raoul Deal is a multidisciplinary artist and the coordinator of the Community Arts BA Program at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts.”
What does this exhibit mean to you?
Abuse and femicide are always unacceptable. It is profoundly disturbing that indigenous women are being sex trafficked and/or disappeared at such alarming rates.
What do you hope your pieces convey?
It should convey some of the sentiment expressed in Dinorah’s poem. There are narrative elements from the poem in each of the two prints. In the first is the young girl’s shoe lost in the desert. In the second is the tumbleweed and the night sky of the desert illuminated by the stars. I had no interest in aestheticizing trauma. The young women are not portrayed as desperate, but rather as innocent and hopeful. They are portrayed before their disappearance, or in a Polaroid snapshot afterwards. In the context of the US-Mexico border, innocence is lost under the crushing weight of colonialism, machismo, and its pernicious grasp on the lives of young Mexican indigenous and immigrant women.
How do exhibits like this one benefit the Indigenous community?
One of the primary functions of art is to interrogate injustice and to point us towards a better world. Few things can shed light on injustices like art. This exhibit holds that promise and serves that function well.
A. Thompson
“I believe art is a healing process for both the artist and viewers. Art is a havoc situation that makes perfect sense when there isn’t anything to make sense out of. I paint, make sculptures, design images, and create to save my mind and heart. I want to be, need to be where ever Art is. That is my purpose in this insane world.”
-A. Thompson
What does this exhibit mean to you?
Art is an expression. It seems to be always an, Indigenous Artist’s expressions brushed under the rug. Art is used to view the world through another’s mind, eyes, and emotions. This exhibit helps those who are affected by the “taking” of our sisters, their lives, and their innocence.
What do you hope your piece conveys?
Acknowledgement! Emotions. Stress. Grief. Loss. An understanding that this exhibit not only expresses on MMIW but the aftermath for those still living with it. An understanding that indigenous women, men, and all relatives are sacred and need protection.
How did you choose your medium?
I was living in Chicago before the pandemic and studying at the School of the Art Institute. We were learning new ways of working in different media. I really wanted to give an “almost” realistic form, an idea of conceptual art, a journey with the plaster, and also with the Rubik’s Cube. I wanted to express a powerful, connecting manner.
Website: https://athompsonsart.com/
Instagram: @athompsonsart
Chloé Allyn
Chloé, a literary artist, states, “Spider Silk Dress Process is an insertion of the multiplicity of Native women in this physical space. The words, like scars, lace fluidly and clumsily across the found garment to tell a story of the artist’s modern self. Silk is revered but easily damaged, and heavy words leave behind marks. Imagine you are a modern Indigenous woman, the scars of those being lost all around you, decorate you, and you carry them along. The pain is bright red, the history is immense, and there are still so many around you that do not read.”
What does this exhibit mean to you?
To me this topic, and public awareness of this topic, means life. It is crucial that the unaware be made aware when it comes to the epidemic of brutality against native women. This ranges from assault, sexual fetishization, violence, and decreased opportunities for the success of natives. This topic is sad, relatively unheard of, and grossly unavenged. Any opportunity I am given as a native woman protected by white privilege, I aim to use it. My piece is representative of carrying the pain of my people as well as the responsibility to celebrate native life.
What do you hope your piece conveys?
I hope my piece conveys a sense of loss as well as a share of burden. I’ve always believed that our nation in particular should focus on exchanging burdens. The more we understand each other’s narratives, histories, losses and successes, the less we rely on centralized government to facilitate that. The more healing we experience as a community. I hope my piece is visually inviting and informs those who view it. That way, the struggle of our cause against MMIW will be carried by many, where healing and retribution can begin.
Is there anything you want visitors to know?
Even though many of the art pieces and awareness work is being done by natives, women, and people of color, the emotional labor that goes into activism is not solely on our hands. Viewers have been invited into our world, to regard how we express our pain on this subject, and should leave with a sense of duty to carry on our efforts.
Website: https://chloeallyn.com/
Instagram: @hotspider & @bastardsreview
To learn more about the movement, ways to help, and ways to get help check out the following:
https://www.wernative.org/articles/what-is-the-mmiw-movement