The 2,000 vamps (moccasin tops) are spread out artfully on the floor in a large room at the McEwen School of Architecture.
Most of them designed for women's moccasins, many are beaded, but some are painted, adorned with fur or even made with fish scales. They feature animals, flowers and even women's faces.
The vamps are part of the Walking With Our Sisters Memorial Art Installation, which has been touring the country since 2013. It will be on display at the architecture school until Jan. 17.
Created by artist Christi Belcourt of Espanola, this is the art installation's last year. Belcourt was on hand for the exhibit's opening Jan. 7, but declined to be interviewed by Sudbury.com.
The exhibit description on the Walking With Our Sisters website states each pair of vamps (or “uppers” as they are also called) represents one missing or murdered Indigenous woman, said information about the exhibit on its website.
The unfinished moccasins represent the unfinished lives of the women whose lives were cut short. There's also children’s vamps dedicated to children who never returned home from residential schools.
In 2012, a general call was issued on issued on Facebook for people to create moccasin tops. The call was answered by women, men and children of all ages and races.
By 2013, more than 1,600 vamps had been received, almost tripling the initial goal of 600.
Sudburian Lisa Pitawanakwat is part of the organizing committee that brought the exhibit to Sudbury. She was also involved in the project's early stages.
“When the vamps were coming by mail to Christi, she was getting overwhelmed by the amount,” she said. “So she put out a call for the people to come volunteer and open the packages and document everything.
“I had a chance to see some of these fresh out of the package. It was very overwhelming, because with some of them, clearly you could see that they represent somebody.
“And then being able to come here and lay them out again, it's like seeing old friends, I guess.”
A pair of vamps created by Pitawanakwat featuring purple beaded flowers is included in the exhibit.
“I didn't do it for one specific person I knew who was missing or murdered,” she said. “I beaded a traditional Ojibwe-style flower. I tried to use more traditional colours.”
The exhibit brings a lot of comfort to the families of missing and murdered aboriginal women, said Lisa Periard of Cold Lake, Alta., who travels with the installation across the country.
“I hear a lot of how some families never had the chance to commemorate a loved one in any form, in any shape whatesoever,” she said.
“This was their chance to be able to do that. For myself, it reminds me of the beauty of all of these people's lives.”
The exhibit will be open to the public until Jan. 17 between the hours of 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
