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Curious about the feather mobile on stage at Northern Lights? Here’s the answer

Created locally by Walking With Our Sisters, the mobile represents missing and murdered Aboriginal woman


Anyone who was at the stellar show by headliner — and icon — Buffy Sainte-Marie at the opening night of Northern Lights Festival Boréal was likely blown away.

Not only did Sainte-Marie give a command performance, but Iqaluit band Jerry Cans did, too, and Sudbury group No Reservations hit the stage for an incredible reunion show 15 years in the making.

It was a night for First Nations musicians to shine.

But as powerful as the performances were, there was a touch of melancholy as well. Aboriginal communities are struggling: too many communities are more like you would find in developing countries, not modern day Canada; too many young people are taking their own lives; too many missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

And in a prominent place on the stage last night, a cascade of feathers stood as a testament to that struggle. Created by the local Walking With Our Sisters committee, the feather mobile is a symbol of those missing and murdered women, each feather a symbol of a life cut short.

The mobile was crafted by students and community members, and modeled off a similar mobile that is part of the Shades of Our Sisters travelling exhibit and online experience created by families of missing and murdered Indigenous women in partnership with eight Ryerson University media production students.

“We wanted to create our own” after seeing the Shades of Our Sisters mobile, said Lisa Osawamick.

Osawamick is the Aboriginal Women Violence Prevention Co-ordinator with Greater Sudbury Police Service. Formed through a partnership between GSPS and N’Swakamok Native Friendship Centre, the two-year initiative aims to develop a proactive and preventative local strategy to combat violence against Aboriginal women and to educate young people. 

She is also working with the local Walking With Our Sisters committee, which is currently fundraising to bring the Walking With Our Sisters commemorative travelling exhibit to Greater Sudbury in January 2018. 

The exhibit is made up of more than 1,763 moccasin vamps (tops) and 108 children’s vamps created and donated to raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada and the U.S.

How does this relate to the feather mobile making it onto the stage on July 6? Osawamick said it was a case of wonderful happenstance.

The Walking With Our Sisters committee has an exhibit booth in Bell Park as part of Northern Lights Festival Boréal. Part of that exhibit includes a red dress, a nod to The Red Dress Project, an art installation created by Métis artist and Winnipeg resident Jaime Black.

The goal of The Red Dress Project is to collect 600 red dresses through donations that will be installed in public spaces across Canada as “a visual reminder of the staggering number of women who are no longer with us,” Black writes in the description on the project website.

Buffy Sainte-Marie was walking the grounds at NLFB and noticed the red dress, Osawamick said and stopped to talk about it. Sainte-Marie said she normally incorporates a red dress as part of her stage show.

“But she forgot her stand,” Osawamick said, so they offered one to her. When she saw the feather mobile, “She wanted to use it, too.”

Sainte-Marie also autographed a few items that will be auctioned off to help fund bringing the Walking With Our Sisters exhibit to Sudbury, where it will be exhibited at the McEwen School of Architecture.

For more information on The Red Dress Project or Walking With Our Sisters, visit the links above. For information on Northern Lights Festival Boréal, visit NLFB.ca.


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Mark Gentili

About the Author: Mark Gentili

Mark Gentili is the editor of Sudbury.com
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