We Are the Land 2017

The red dress hung on a black velveteen coat hanger that was tied with a red ribbon to the lowest branch of the bare tree.  As the cold spring wind gusted, the dress spun and swayed just as if it were worn by a woman who was dancing.  All the way along Philosopher’s Walk at the University of Toronto more red dresses, hanging from trees, were animated, brought alive by the wind.

All pictures from John Klein's post in Timeline Photo

This installation by Winnipeg-based Mètis artist Jaime Black is the most recent expression of her REDress Project and it is called We Are the Land 2017 .  The dresses which were collected from community donations are reminders of the more than 1200 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada.  Black hung nearly 120 red dresses in six locations at the University. 

I read about this installation in the newspaper on the last day that it was to be in that location and I visited it after finishing work that day.  Philosopher’s Walk is where I used to take naps on the grass when I was a student at this University in the 1970’s.  I felt safe enough to do that.  This was in stark contrast to the unacceptable level of violence that Indigenous women face here in Canada. In the same space that I felt safe in were short dresses and long dresses, dresses for thin women and dresses for larger women; dresses for evening wear and dresses for work; dresses for young women and dresses for older women. 

As the wind breathed life into the dresses, some danced, some thrashed as if fighting off an invisible attacker, and some had become tangled in the branches and lay at odd, crumpled angles as if injured.  Some had wrapped a sleeve or sash around the trunk of the tree as if for support.  I tried to imagine what a woman wearing each dress would look like.  How would she wear her hair?  How old would she be?  How would she move?  Who loved her?  Who were the people that missed her – mother, father, grandparents, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunties, children, cousins, community members?  Who was this woman gone from our sight but not from the hearts of those who loved her?

I noticed how students walked along the path, earbuds in place, looking neither to the right or to the left as if the dresses that danced and flapped were invisible.  I went to each dress in two of the locations to honour the women they represented.  I wished for them that the MMIW Inquiry which will soon start will bring answers, healing and solutions so that these women will not be forgotten and more women won’t join their ranks. As I spent time with the dresses and the women I imagined, they stopped being strangers, stopped being other.  They felt more like sisters.

Jaime Black began this project at the University of Winnipeg in 2010.  She feels that urban campuses create “space to speak about what Indigenous women are facing in a really public forum.” (Toronto Metro Mar. 22, 2017).

After I reached the last one I started to walk to the subway but something stopped me and I turned around.  Coming down the path flanked by red dresses walked a young woman in a bright red coat.  It was as if one of the dresses had become inhabited by life.  I stood and watched as she walked calmly, safely through the university.  That is my wish for all women in Canada and especially for Indigenous women, to be free to walk safely anywhere.  This won't just happen.  We have to want it to happen and work towards it happening.  That is part of our new story.