* Registration on our Eventbrite page here is not required but it is appreciated*
This free, public event is in honor of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit Individuals (MMIWG2S) Awareness Day, which is observed on May 5, and is followed by the MMIWG2S National Week of Action (May 5-9). Our event will take place in the Maxwell Museum Courtyard, where there will be an information table with statistics/facts on the MMIWG2S crisis, Laboratory Collections, and ways in which the Museum/Labboratory contribute to ongoing identification efforts, including the purpose and progress of the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program grant.
Another table will offer free drinks, snacks, and MMIWG2S stickers. Lastly, we will have a table with a community art project - visitors can write names of missing, murdered, and recovered individuals, thoughts, feelings, etc. on pre-cut pieces of paper. The cutouts will be arranged on a foam board or bulletin board in the pattern of a traditional Star Quilt (which there will be an explanation of the meaning and significance of this pattern) to be displayed in the Maxwell Museum north gallery "Ortiz Center Gathering Space"during the following Week of Action. Visitors will also be able to make a beaded awareness bracelet from red, black, and white pony beads and string.
At 1 pm, there will be a remembrance/honor ceremony for those missing and/or murdered, those identified, and those that remain in the Museum's Repository. The ceremony will be presided over by a member of the Native community.
There will be media promotion prior to, as well as signage on, the day of the event, and we will have coat racks with red dresses displayed near the sidewalks as a symbol of the MMIWG2S movement and to hopefully draw in students and visitors.
This is a family-friendly, all-age appropriate event. Its main organizers are the Maxwell Museum's Collections Manager of Human Osteology and Laboratory Supervisor, Ashley Burch, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Coordinator, Ash Boydston-Schmidt.
