TULALIP — Former Tulalip Tribes vice chairman Deborah Parker has been working for years to encourage legislation and other efforts to stop violence against women — “especially indigenous women” — who make up a disproportionate number of victims.
Earlier this month, Hibulb Cultural Center debuted a touring display titled “Sing Our Rivers Red.” The exhibit of 1,181 earrings, all just a single piece from a pair, and most finely crafted by American Indians, represent the native women and girls in the United States and Canada who have been reported missing or murdered since 1980.
The simple, colorful display is beautiful, with earring after earring hanging in a line.
“I have never felt so moved by an exhibit at a cultural center or museum,” Parker said. “I did not expect to be filled with that much emotion while I looked at the earrings and read all the letters sent by the people who donated the earrings.”
Indeed, the display includes notes from people all over the country, many who have lost relatives and friends to violence.
“Sing Our Rivers Red” is a project created by Diné (Navajo) and Chicana artist Nanibah “Nani” Chacon.
Chacon’s intention was to use the power of the art piece to raise awareness about what she terms “an epidemic of rape, assault and murder.”
More than 3,400 earrings were sent to Chacon for the art piece by more than 400 people and organizations from six provinces and 45 states.
Parker, who pushed for the reauthorization of the federal Violence Against Women Act, said the issue needs to be kept alive and the exhibit helps do that.
“I know this is such a somber, such a hard issue to think about, but it’s so important for us to discuss.”
Parker said she has visited the exhibit several times in the past two weeks, stopping to pray for the families of the women represented by the earrings.
“We need to bring justice to our families, because the effects of this violence crosses the generations. The damage is significant. It’s unbelievable,” Parker said. “I have my mom and my daughter, but many people do not know where their mothers, aunties, sisters or daughters are. My heart breaks for them.”
American Indian women have been targeted and many laws don’t protect them well, Parker said. “No woman or man deserves this kind of violence.”
The earrings were given as gifts, made with love and respect, Parker said.
“In our tradition, when we create a piece of art, we do it with a good heart. And that energy comes out through each bead and quill used,” she said. “Each earring in the exhibit signifies a memory for someone.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Hibulb Cultural Center: 6410 23rd Ave. NE, Tulalip; 360-716-2635; www.hibulbculturalcenter.org. The center hosts the traveling exhibit “Sing Our Rivers Red” through Jan. 31. The cultural center is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The center also is open until 8 p.m. the first Thursday of each month with free admission.
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