These are moccasin vamps.  More than 1,700 have been created around kitchen tables and at beading circles for Walking With our Sisters, a traveling, commemorative art project to draw attention to the hundreds of native women in Canada murdered or missing in the last 20 years. The tops are intentionally not sewn into moccasins, to represent the unfinished lives of Indigenous women. They are exhibited on a pathway to represent a journey ended prematurely.

The exhibition is on a six-year, 32-stop journey through dozens of cities, including an opening in March at Winnipeg’s Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Gallery. (Above, the exhibition in Edmonton)

Above: Beading at University of Alberta – more here / Below: In Parry Sound

Métis artist Christi Belcourt is the force behind the project, which began in 2012. A pre-eminent artist, she has been featured on Canadian Art Junkie before and was the person who first reached out, hoping to assemble 600 pairs of vamps. The response was overwhelming, with more than 1,700 pairs contributed so far.

The Walking with Our Sisters website, here.

Exhibition schedule, here.

A previous post that touches on the issue of missing women, here.