Jaime Black
Jaime Black is a Canadian Red River Métis multidisciplinary artist and activist of Anishinaabe and Finnish descent. Jaime lives and works on her home territory near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.
Her work focuses on First Nations and Indigenous representation and identity. Black is best known for the REDress Project, an art installation that she created as a response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis in Canada as well as in the United States. A 2014 report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over the span of 30 years from 1980 to 2012. However, some Indigenous advocacy groups dispute these reports arguing that the number is much greater than the government has acknowledged.
Black centers her creative practice on Indigenous womanhood and the effects of colonization on Indigenous peoples in North America. Her art has brought significant attention to the continued violence against Indigenous women. Notably, The REDress project has received recognition from the Canadian government, with a national holiday, Red Dress Day which is focussed on commemorating MMIW.
Early life
Jaime Black was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and later moved to Regina, Saskatchewan. At age 12, Black's family moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she continues to live today.Education
Black studied English literature at the University of Manitoba, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Native Studies in 2004. In 2008, she received a degree in education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.Following her studies, Black taught at the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in The Pas, Manitoba, and developed an art curriculum for the Urban Shaman, an aboriginal artist-run center in Winnipeg. As an educator, Black developed art curricula for schools while involving herself in local writing groups near her home. In addition, Black is a mentor associated with the Mentoring Artists for Women's Art group. Today, she continues to work in various capacities for groups that focus on education and Indigenous rights.
Impact
In 2019, during a talk at the Safety for Our Sisters: Ending Violence Against Native Women Symposium in Washington D.C, Black commented that when people view Indigenous women in red dresses, she wants them to understand that “we are wearing these dresses, and our power is still real. We are going to reclaim it.”Since 2010, May 5 is recognized as Red Dress Day in Canada, where citizens are encouraged to hold grieving ceremonies, display red dresses in public spaces, and wear the colour red in solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement.
In 2016, Mi’kmaq artist Sasha Doucette photographed red dresses and shirts at locations where dead bodies of aboriginal men and women were found in her community of Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation in Nova Scotia. Doucette uses social media to share her visualization of violence towards Indigenous community members.
Two high school students, Trinity Harry and Joseph Ginter spent over 300 hours in 2018 welding a red dress sculpture- crediting Jamie Black as their inspiration.
At the 2019 Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, a group of Indigenous designers honored Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women by featuring the color red in their collections.
In the U.S. House of Representatives hearing on MMIW in 2021, then New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland wore red to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Artistic career
Influences
Black's artwork explores themes of memory, identity, place, and resistance, rooted in an understanding of the body and land as vital sources of cultural and spiritual knowledge. Her works have mainly been influenced by other Indigenous women. Particularly, her inspiration started on missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada when she cited a presentation by Jo-Ann Episkenew at a conference in Germany.In 2009, Black witnessed a performance in Bogota, Colombia where 300 women whose family members were murdered or had gone missing gathered in the public square to draw attention to the problem. During this performance, 40 women in red dresses performed a choreographed dance while shouting the names of their missing family members. Black was inspired by the public nature of the performance and aimed to channel that energy to make the critical matter of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada visible both inside and outside gallery walls.
In a 2017 interview with Toronto Life, she credited the book cover of Maria Campbell’s The Book of Jessica, which features a single red dress, as a subconscious influence on The REDress Project.
Major works
2010: REDress Project
The REDress Project is a public art installation launched in 2010 aimed at bringing awareness to the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women girls, transgender and two-spirit persons in Canada. Themes of feminism and Indigenous social justice are highlighted. The installation features empty red dresses displayed in public and land based spaces, symbolizing the violence faced by Indigenous women and serving as a reminder of those who are missing or have been murdered. Despite representing only 4% of Canada's population, Indigenous women account for 16% of all homicides, a disparity highlighted by the Canadian Government's National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Black's REDress Project acts as a direct response to these extreme rates of violence.The REDress Project is an initiative designed to address and challenge dehumanizing narratives about Aboriginal women by drawing attention to both their presence and absence within societal discourse. It seeks to highlight issues of invisibility, as demonstrated by insufficient police protection and governmental inaction, while advocating for the amplification of Indigenous women's voices. By resisting imposed silence, the project serves as a mechanism for raising awareness and fostering dialogue on these critical issues.She describes this work as having a spiritual quality, suggesting it serves to call back the spirits of the women represented, allowing their stories to be told and remembered, thus promoting reflection and healing within affected communities.The project engages local communities by collecting red dresses for the installations and has garnered widespread recognition, being exhibited in various locations, including the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Additionally, it has inspired other artists to address MMIW through the use of red and contributed to the establishment of Red Dress Day, a day of remembrance for First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Native American communities.