Bringing Missing Indigenous Women Home, Through Art

AICHO Exhibit Raises Awareness of MMIW

DULUTH, Minn.- The number of missing or murdered indigenous women is hard to pinpoint, as many cases go unreported.

Friday, an exhibit at AICHO focused not on the statistics, but on bringing the stories of these women home.

The Bring Her Home exhibit started last year in Minneapolis, and is now ending its tour in Duluth.

The exhibit features artwork which, AICHO said, honors the women not as numbers but as the people they were before they went missing.

“I think it’s been just a really powerful exhibit to have, y’know, going on,” said Moira Villiard, Arts and Cultural Program Coordinator with AICHO. “It’s brought a lot of attention to the issue, I think of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, beyond, y’know, just making them statistics.”

“Y’know, this is artwork by people who have been impacted by that epidemic in some way shape or form.”

The curator is one of those people.

She said she was honored to work on a project which hit so close to home.

“I had a relative, a grandmother, that was kidnapped and murdered when I was a youth, and it was kinda one of the most prevalent memories that I have,” Curator Angela Two Stars said.

“It helps for the artists that are involved and the community that comes and experiences this show, to have a safe space to be able to share those emotions.”

The exhibit will be featured at AICHO throughout all of January, observing Human Trafficking Awareness Month.