BYTE’s Outreach Coordinator Angela Code is contributing a pair of beautifully beaded vamps to the Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS) art installation. Walking With Our Sisters is a memorial exhibit that honours and commemorates the lives of missing and murdered indigenous women, and it will be on display in Whitehorse at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre from April 11 – 25, 2015.
Angela’s vamps
Over 1,800 beaded vamps (moccasin tops) have been created and donated to this memorial exhibit by community members from across the country and around the world. The vamps have been intentionally not sewn into moccasins to represent the unfinished lives of thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Angela chose to donate her vamps on behalf of BYTE.
“I want to showcase BYTE’s support to the cause of missing and murdered aboriginal women, especially in light of recent events like the Brandi Vittrekwa case,†says Angela. “Through the workshops that we do at BYTE, we have a lot of interactions with Yukon youth, and I think it’s important to show that we care about the wellbeing of youth and young aboriginal women.â€
It’s a subject that hits close to home. In the Yukon alone, about 40 aboriginal women have been declared missing or murdered. When the news of Brandi Vittrekwa’s death reached the BYTE office, Angela looked through our list of applicants to her MOVE! program to see if she was one of them.
“It affects everybody all over the country. We have to change the way that we think about consent, safe partying, racism, and gender discrimination,†says Angela. “It’s important to showcase that this is a national problem that we as a country need to be aware of and proactive in terms of stopping it from happening.â€
Photo from Walking With Our Sisters campaign
The exhibit will tour to different communities in Canada and the United States for the next seven years with the intention of generating awareness and dialogue on the issue.
Angela and other BYTE staff will be volunteering to help set up the exhibit this week. To find out more about the exhibit or about how to volunteer, visit the Walking With Our Sisters – Whitehorse facebook page.