An art exhibit opened in Regina Monday in honour of missing and murdered Indigenous women and their families.
The Walking With Our Sisters exhibit will be available for public viewing at the First Nations University of Canada art gallery until Dec. 13.
Racelle Kooy, the director of communications at FNUC, says the project organized by Métis artist Christi Belcourt is a massive undertaking involving many people.
About 1,300 people from all over Canada and the United States took part in the project contributing a total of 1,725 pairs of moccasin vamps.
Moccasin vamps are the tops or tongues which are intentionally not sewn in and represent the unfinished lives of the estimated 600 missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Kooy adds the project is collage of many different Aboriginal cultures and traditions.
“There’s people who do birch bark bitings, there’s the style of the Mohawk where they do a raised style of beading – so there’s a lot of representation in the artwork,” she says.
She also says it is important the public remembers these women and their lives that have been unnecessarily cut short.
“It’s a public acknowledgement that these murdered and missing sisters are cherished members of families and communities, that they’re not forgotten, they’re not actually lost, they are remembered.”
Walking With Our Sisters was previously in Edmonton and will also make stops in Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Thunder Bay.