Walking With Our Sisters is an art installation of about 1800 vamps or "uppers" honouring the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Communities are coming together accross turtle island in ceremony, while this sacred bundle travels over the next 7 years. The installation opened on Friday September 19th at the Thunder bay Art Gallery and will be open until October 12.
For several months the community in Thunder Bay prepared to receive the bundle by consulting with local elders about traditional Anishinabeg ceremonial protocols, as well as hosting community conversations, bead-ins, ceremonial teachings and film screenings.
Kara Louttit is a co-lead organizer for Walking With Our Sisters Thunder Bay and also a member of the Walking With Our Sisters National Collective. Erin Marie Konsmo is the Walking With Our Sisters Youth Coordinator and Media Contact. They both spoke to the importance of fostering youth leadership and the ways that Walking With Our Sisters is providing space for youth to connect with culture. They also spoke to the importance of meaningful engagement of two-spirit people and the ways that Walking With our Sisters honours missing and murdered two-spirit people.
For more information about Walking With Our Sisters and the tour schedule visit:
@WWOS1