The REDress Project

To commemorate Women’s History Month, the National Museum of the American Indian presents The REDress Project, an outdoor art installation by artist Jaime Black (Metis). Showing in the United States for the first time, the installation of empty red dresses centers on the issue of missing or murdered indigenous women. Black hopes to draw attention to the gendered and racialized nature of violent crimes against Native women and to evoke a presence through the marking of absence.

In her artwork, Black attempts to create a dialogue around social and political issues, especially through an exploration of the body and the land as contested sites of historical and cultural knowledge. The REDress Project positions the indigenous female body as a target of colonial violence while reclaiming space for an indigenous female presence. The dresses, collected through community donation, have been installed at several Canadian galleries, museums, and universities since 2011.