YAKIMA, Wash.- An exhibit at the Yakima Valley Museum is remembering and celebrating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples across the nation.
The Portraits in Red display showcases the work of Nayana LaFond working through her own trauma of violence by replicating pictures of the missing and murdered for the families.
“She is a survivor of violence so one of the ways she’s processed that violence as an Indigenous woman is to create a series of portraits of other people who have experienced violence,” says YVM Director of Development Larissa Knopp.
It’s a violence seen far too often in the Pacific Northwest. The National Crime Information Center run by the FBI has Washington with the second highest rate of MMIP cases.
“Everyone knows someone, right?” says Knopp. “It’s just a way to bring it home for our community members.”
The portraits showing the MMIP with a red handprint over the mouth hits too close to home for some people.
One portrait highlights Esmerelda “Kit” Mora, a 17-year-old member of the Yakama Nation who was reported missing in October of 2022 and has yet to be found.
“It is just devastating to realize how many of our community members are just being forgotten,” says Knopp.
Mora is one of the portraits that has not been forgotten yet. Knopp says at the exhibit’s opening, many people recognized the portrait “Kit in Red” and left in tears.
The plaque next to Mora’s portrait includes the statistic, “As of September 18, 2023, the Washington State Patrol has 136 cases; 38 cases are missing Indigenous women and men reported missing within the Yakama Reservation and in Yakima County.”
Some plaques have no information about the person, something that Knopp is left stunned by after leaving the exhibit.
“I think that’s really telling how some people are forgotten,” says Knopp. “You can read the story and some of them are women. Some of them are children. Some of them are men. You see the stories, and that makes the ones that don’t have a story even more poignant”
The red handprint carries heavy significance to MMIPs. For Indigenous cultures, the mark is described as a “silent cry for justice,” raising awareness to the epidemic that MMIPs make up.
“I knew it was an epidemic,” says Knopp. “I didn’t realize how large of an epidemic and how relevant to Washington State it was.”
The artists says her intention was to do one portrait, but quickly found the community’s love of her work, now with over 100 Portraits in Red to date.
“By depicting these individuals through my art, my aim is to amplify their voices, foster healing, ignite conversations, and drive positive change,” says LaFond.
“That’s part of why they have the red handprint over their mouths,” says Knopp. “It’s because they’re not gonna be silenced anymore, we’re bringing this into the light, we’re bringing attention to it.”
Portraits in Red is a traveling exhibit that will move across the Pacific Northwest after its stay at the Yakima Valley Museum ends on January 14.
