Friday 4th February 2022…..green thumb, red dress!!

 A big shout out to my friend of over 40 years…happy BIRTHDAY Lorenzo!!!!!

Green thumb I am not!!!!

My lovely neighbor and sometimes tennis partner, Diane, offered me some plants yesterday and today I potted them and re arranged my plants on the roof….

The new plants are in the pots the last three on either side, Diane tells me they are flowering plants and will look very colorful!!

I like I fly the Mexican flag and if you are wondering why the red top is hanging there it is in commemoration and support of all the Indigenous woman in both Canada, USA and Mexico that have been murdered or missing!!

In downtown Nelson, British Columbia, just outside of Nelson City Hall, about a dozen red dresses currently hang from the tree branches leading up to the main building: off-the-shoulder maxidresses, minidresses, and long-sleeve styles. Their bright red hues certainly stand out against the stark, industrial surroundings. These dresses, of course, hang there with a purpose. They are part of artist Jaime Black’s ongoing art series, titled The REDress Project, which highlights the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women. Each dress symbolizes an Indigenous woman who has been murdered or is missing, representing just a portion of thousands of people. 

The dresses travel from place to place, but the location is always intentional. Right now, they’re on display at Nelson’s Touchstones Nelson museum until May 2, and just outside of it, near the city hall. “We install the dresses in more high-traffic spaces, so more people can see them,” says Black. A Métis and Finnish artist based in Winnipeg, Black began this impactful art series in 2010. She was inspired by a demonstration she saw in Bogotá, Colombia, when she came across a group of local women who had gathered in the capital’s public square. “They were all women who had experienced having people in their families go missing, without any kind of recourse,” says Black. “There were about 40 women wearing red dresses. One woman in a red dress climbed to the top of the statue in the middle of the square, and she called out, ‘Where are they?’ I thought, We need to bring this energy home.”

Small steps have been taken to address this epidemic, which is often the result of systemic racism. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland—the first Indigenous woman in that role—announced the creation of a new unit that will investigate missing and murdered Native Americans. But the issue rages on. With her REDress Project, Black hopes to give these Indigenous women a much-needed voice, while educating others who may not be aware of what’s going on. “The art replaces statistics in a way,” says Arin Fay, the Touchstones Nelson curator who worked with Black on the exhibit. “People get really bogged down and don’t know how to respond to the numbers—but the dresses powerfully communicate it without all of that.”

In North America, the scores of missing and murdered Indigenous women—known as MMIW, an acronym created by Indigenous journalist Sheila North Wilson in 2012—don’t get the mainstream attention they deserve. In the U.S., homicide is the third-leading cause of death among Native women ages 10 to 24, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, and Native women are victims of murder more than 10 times the national average, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In Canada, the government’s National Inquiry found similar horrifying statistics, including that Indigenous women are seven times more likely to be murdered by serial killers than non-Indigenous women

Black showed her first REDress Project at the University of Winnipeg in 2011, and the project has since traveled to many different cities across North America. The red dresses displayed have all been donated to Black from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. “I ended up getting 300 dresses donated from all across Canada and beyond within the first year of doing the work,” says Black. “People were really receptive to showing their support for families.” The color red symbolizes many things—blood, anger, love—but was ultimately chosen because it’s eye-catching. “Those dresses have such a powerful presence. They are a reflection of the power and strength of Indigenous women that have come before us,” says Black. “When people walk by the red dresses, they can’t [ignore them.]

Stay safe and healthy!!

Yashi Koch!!