Walking With Our Sisters: A Healing Journey in Unfinished Moccasins

The exhibit touring Canada and the U.S. brings attention to the lives and stories of hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Moccasin vamps by Arlene Piddington are part of a touring exhibit that aims to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women #MMIW.

All images courtesy of Walking With Our Sisters

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Entering the room, the only space for walking is the path before you. There’s the feel on your bare feet of cedar and sage, which lie beneath the red cloth covering the floor, and your walkway is lined with 1,725 pairs of moccasin vamps that carry the comforting smells of sweetgrass and smudge.

Little else is in the room, except the prayers that went into each pair of unfinished moccasins for our missing and murdered Indigenous sisters, mothers, daughters, grandmothers, wives and aunts.

This display is more than an art exhibit. It is ceremony. And it is called Walking With Our Sisters.

Two staffs stand at the center of the Walking With Our Sisters exhibit.

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As it journeys across North America, the exhibit is raising awareness of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada and the United States. The issue is one that is profoundly affecting Indigenous peoples, with more than 1,180 victims in Canada alone since 1980, according to a 2013 study led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The United Nations special rapporteur on Indigenous rights this year released a report calling on the Canadian government to launch a national inquiry into what he calls a "distrubing phenomenon." But Prime Minister Stephen Harper rejected such calls, saying the disappearances and deaths -- and specifically the homicide last week of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in Winnipeg -- should be investigated by authorities as crimes. However, they do not represent a "sociological phenomenon," he said.

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, the lead coordinator for Walking With Our Sisters, is among those pushing for federal government action. The commemorative art installation takes four days to set up as volunteers arrange the moccasins. They are purposely left unfinished to represent the unfinished life journeys of many of the women who are being remembered.

Belcourt insists that although the idea for the exhibit may have started with her, it has been spiritually driven from the start. In June 2012, she put out a call via Facebook for moccasin vamps and by the July 2013 deadline, she had more than 1,372 artist submissions.

“We allow the grandmothers to do the work and we are just the helpers, helping it to move along,” she says. “It’s come from a whole different place. There is so much power—you can see it and feel it.”

Artist of the moccasin vamps pictured above from left: Kayeri Akweks, Carla Hemlock, Naomi Smith.

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The power in the project comes from the gentle approach to the way it is set up, viewed, taken down and journeyed to the next destination. It brings awareness of the issue and a chance for healing in a respectful, mindful and traditional manner.

Laurie Odjick (Algonquin) submitted a pair of moccasin vamps to the project, after hearing about it through social media and family. Her daughter Maisy has been missing for six years and the exhibit has offered her another method of healing.   

“Through sharing, we are surviving. It’s been six years of hell on the heart. On my saddest days I’ll smell her hair, strawberry shampoo. Sometimes I’ll just take a walk and cry, because I need to,” Okjick says.

The entire project was crowd sourced and everyone involved is a volunteer, Belcourt says. All costs are covered through fundraising and donations. Walking With Our Sisters has brought together people of all ages and communities, giving people a chance to participate in something Indigenous-led and Indigenous-driven. “People bring the best of themselves to it, and it’s beautiful the way people are coming together. It is exposing our ways and teachings to the broader public, giving them a chance to see us as we see ourselves—full of respect and care for each other,” says Belcourt.

Artist of the moccasin vamps pictured above from left: Thomasa Rivas, Chellie Goodleaf, Arlene Piddington.

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Writer Desarae Eashappie (Cree/Assiniboine) is a mother from Carry the Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. She currently resides in Phoenix with her partner, Jonas, and their two children.

For an exhibit schedule, go to . This story is an updated version of the feature story that appears in Native Peoples Magazine's Sept/Oct issue.

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