If you are looking for an opportunity to support indigenous communities this Thanksgiving, the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian is hosting an impactful exhibit that will shed light on one of the most grievous issues facing indigenous tribes across the United States.
The disappearance of indigenous women and Two-Spirits across the country is a crisis devastating families and tribes. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior on Indian Affairs, of 5,712 reports that have been made for missing Indigenous women, only 116 have been logged in the U.S. Department of Justice’s missing person database. Many tribes have come together in a grassroots movement they call the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) Movement.
This movement inspired 12 indigenous artists to collaborate and create an exhibit of 35 original works entitled “No Rest: The Epidemic of Stolen Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits.”
The museum website states, “rather than present the impacted individuals and communities as statistics, the Mitchell Museum will use an interdisciplinary approach through visual stories, interactive content, educational programming, community events, and an awareness campaign to humanize and honor the lives of Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.”
The creators of the exhibit wrote, “the lasting impact of colonization, combined with a complicated jurisdictional framework that limits the authority to prosecute perpetrators, continues to undermine the safety of victims, resulting in intergenerational trauma and the vulnerability of Native women.”
The goal of the exhibit is to educate and bring awareness to the victims and hopefully elicit support that will lead citizens to demand an active response from law enforcement.
The installation is open now and will run until Dec. 30. The Museum is located in Evanston, Illinois, about 35 minutes from the college. Admission for the exhibit is $12, all of which will go to support the MMIWG2S Movement. For those who cannot afford admission, the Museum’s main goal is education. So, there will also be free admission Dec. 30.
For more information visit the Museum website: www.mitchellmuseum.org.
