An artistic project that responds to violence against Indigenous women and girls in Nelson has been vandalized.

The REDress Project, featuring red dresses hanging in trees outside city hall and also in a gallery at Touchstones Nelson Museum of Art and History, is a dual by Winnipeg M茅tis artist Jaime Black.

On several occasions some of the dresses have been torn down (on days with no windstorm, Garlow points out) and the explanatory sign vandalized. One of these incidents was on International Women鈥檚 Day.

鈥淚 wish I could say I was shocked and surprised,鈥� says Touchstones museum educator Lesley Garlow. 鈥淲ith our Touchstones team, there鈥檚 been a bit of a disillusionment as to the progressive nature of our community.鈥�

Garlow said Touchstones went public with news of the vandalism because 鈥渋t was an opportunity to disillusion the community a little bit, to let people know that this is a serious problem, and that if we think that it doesn鈥檛 affect our communities, or that it鈥檚 something that only happens in Winnipeg or Vancouver.

鈥淚t happens here, Indigenous women are sexually assaulted here. It happens everywhere.鈥�

Red dresses have also recently been on Vancouver Island.

But positive responses have also been left at the guest book at the museum, at the museum shop, and through messages from the local Indigenous community, Garlow says.

鈥淚t has given people a place to mourn, to celebrate, and to feel heard on these issues,鈥� she says, adding that she heard from one person who was asked by her young daughter about the dresses as they drove by city hall.

鈥淭hat is a really great conversation to have about equality and about how it鈥檚 important to value all members of society,鈥� Garlow says, 鈥渁nd that when somebody goes missing, it鈥檚 important to make sure everything is done to find them.鈥�

Garlow, who is Indigenous, says the accessibility of the exhibition in a well-travelled outdoor area lends itself to healing even in a community that often sees itself as having few Indigenous people.

There has also been great interest in the Nelson exhibit among youth, several of whom have asked about the history of Indigenous people in the area, says Garlow.

鈥淭hey question how they can better interact with the local Indigenous youth. How can they connect with the Sinixt through the Colville Confederated Tribes across the border? How can they connect with the Ktunaxa?鈥�

Garlow says the youth are hoping for a lasting memorial piece.

鈥淭hey鈥檝e been asking what happens when the dresses come down. Will the community just forget? And so the youth have suggested a large red rose garden or something like that, for the community to use as a teaching tool.鈥�

Touchstones has planned a series of online community forums on the REDress Project, one of them already held on April 19, with two more on May 5 and May 17, and finally a Facebook Live forum with artist Black.

At the first forum, Garlow says she used the questions from the 25 participants to give context to the dresses.

鈥淚 draw a map from first contact through residential school systems and talked about the health effects that have affected Indigenous communities as a result of severe trauma and malnutrition, and those kinds of living conditions.鈥�

She then related that to over-representation of Indigenous people in the justice and public health systems, and which led to a discussion of what reconciliation actually means and what it will take to implement the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report.

鈥淲hat we know about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is that loss of land, and connection to culture through the land, is one of the most basic causes of this systemic and cultural loss,鈥� Garlow says.

To pre-register for the forums or submit questions, email education@touchstonesnelson.ca.

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