Project Description

Making art is entrenched in the bloodlines of the families I’ve chosen in this life. As a child I often wondered how my mother, grandmothers and aunts could stay up late into the night beading, sewing and making art. As I got older, i began joining them at the kitchen table for the all nighters. I came to quickly realize that in addition to crafting beautiful pieces of art, the kitchen tables are a place where families, relations and nationhood are discussed. And so I became a woman, daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece and aunt that took on the humble and shared responsibility of contributing to family, relations, nationhood and keeping our tradition of art-making in my family alive.

When these family connections are fractured due to our life-givers being taken, it causes extreme pain and seriously endangers our livelihood. I dedicate these vamps to those mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, nieces and daughters that are missing and murdered; and to the families that are left with those pains and fractures. I pray for healing for all of our families and nations.

by Winona Polson-Lahache