“to dress in red” by Weshoyot Alvitre on #MMIWG2S Day
MMIW
May is the month for awareness for Mission and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives, and today May 5 is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2-Spirit people (MMIWG2S).
We wear red to honor them and make them visible, to remember them and miss them.
Observed on May 5, this day calls attention to an ongoing crisis and reflects the work of Ethnic Studies to center Indigenous histories, voices, and resistance. Indigenous women, girls, and 2-Spirit people experience disproportionately high rates of violence, including cases of disappearance and murder that often go underreported.
Ventura artist and author Weshoyot Alvitre, author and illustrator of the children’s book Brave, composed the following
short illustrated story “to dress in red”–
by Weshoyot Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
MMIWG2S Alvitre
Here is Weshoyot Alvitre’s text:
The hole dug deep in their hearts.
Like snapshots left behind.
That will hold it forever on this land.
Glimmer in our eyes.
Weshoyot also writes —
- By standing by & not investigating these cases, police & law are complicit.
- By standing by & not covering this on the major news stations, radio & media, they are complicit.
- By standing by & watching this happen, the US & Canadian govts. have their hands in a history of funding forced sterilization of Native Women: they are complicit.
- By state & federal funding of separation of Indigenous children from their families within the foster care system, they are complicit.
- By private funding of the church systems in removal of Indigenous peoples from their sovereign beliefs, they are complicit.
Find (and buy!) Weshoyot’s work here.
Find an event or gathering near you. Learn more.
MMIWG2S+
https://csvanw.org/focus-areas/trainings-and-education/land-body-violence/mmiwg2s/
Two-Spirit:
https://www.ihs.gov/lgbt/twospirit/
Join us at Ventura College today:
May 5, 2026
Location: ASC 150
March: 10:00 AM
Keynote Presentation: 1:00 PM
VC MMIW
Join us at Ventura College today:
May 5, 2026
Location: ASC 150
March: 10:00 AM
Keynote Presentation: 1:00 PM
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