Shortlisted MMIW monument designs presented

The issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women has long been a priority of Saskatoon Police chief Clive Weighill.

As head of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Weighill has thrown his support behind the call for a national inquiry, but also hopes further study does not delay action.

Studies show aboriginal women are five times more likely to be murdered than non-aboriginal women. Weighill said social conditions such as poverty and racism are the primary cause because aboriginal women are placed in vulnerable situations. He said the social conditions are the cause that leads to symptoms like increased crime and violence.

However, he said he feels the monument outside police headquarters would send a clear message.

“I think it understands that policing in general has changed, we understand the issues, we’re very supportive of the aboriginal community and the hardships they’ve faced,” Weighill said.

The three prospective pieces will undergo public consultation before being reviewed by the monument committee, the city’s visual art committee and city council before construction could begin in October or November.

Mary Longman said even before the call was put out for entries, she had started working on sketches for a missing and murdered aboriginal women monument.

Much of her work has focused on raising awareness for aboriginal communities. “People really need to go to a place to pay tribute or memorialise someone,” she said.

She calls her piece Heart Lines and said it is an “organic and indigenous centered” idea. The abstract split heart shape is also reminiscent of bison tracks, two women figures sitting and facing each other, and a basic tipi shape.

The inside of the two pieces will be lined with hand prints from the families of missing and murdered women. Longman hoped to have the hand prints consistently heated to body temperature to bring the piece to life.

“So it always has that humanistic quality and snow will never settle on it,” she said. “I think it will be powerful for the women to do that, have that internal trace.”

Michele Mackasey usually works with paint but most of her work has focused on women.

A former victim of domestic abuse and mother to two children, including a 17-year-old daughter, Mackasey knows the importance of personal connection to such a work of art.

“It’s very real, the whole subject matter, with my kids,” she said.

She said she would like to work with communities to give them a sense of attachment to the piece.

Mackasey’s piece includes a large piece of loom beadwork that frays at the end to represent the unfinished lives of the victims.

“It’s also an inter-connectivity with the beads,” she said. “There’s a symbolism of inter-connectivity, community and a life line.”

When Lionel Peyachew was studying in Calgary, his roommate went missing. Her body was discovered years later, but the memories persist to this day.

The artist read many stories of aboriginal women before finding one which stood out to him. A mother was describing her missing daughter’s fancy dance, and the way she moved around the circle.

“When she watched her daughter dance, it was like watching an eagle in flight dancing on a cloud,” Peyachew said.

That image led him to design a dancer in movement above a cloud surrounded by stone pillars bearing the stories of missing and murdered women.

“So families can be able to tell their stories and have them read by the public,” he said.

Peyachew said he wants to encourage happier thoughts of the women’s lives and who they were in hopes of creating a better future.

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by Lasia Kretzel

Shortlisted MMIW monument designs presented

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