Reclaiming Power and Place: Indigenous Women and Their Rights to Safety and Justice opens this weekend at the CMHR

Winnipeg — May 2, 2025 — An exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) co-created by the founder of The REDress Project aims to transform narratives of loss and victimhood into empowerment, resurgence, hope and action.

The reimagining of the exhibit featuring red dresses in the Canadian Journeys gallery is called Reclaiming Power and Place: Indigenous Women and Their Rights to Safety and Justice. The exhibit features the art installation “Only in Darkness Can We See the Stars,” that was co-created by Indigenous artists and matriarchs Jaime Black-Morsette and KC Adams.

“Only in Darkness Can We See the Stars calls in the teachings of the ancestors to lead us forward in dark times — re-connecting women to the power of creation and reclaiming our roles as keepers of knowledge and culture,” said Black-Morsette. “Sky Woman reminds us to look to the past to find our way forward.”

Visitors will experience the powerful story of Sky Woman set against a backdrop featuring birchbark biting, an Indigenous artform unique to Turtle Island. At the centre of the installation, Sky Woman reclaims her sacred power and rightful place within her community. Surrounding her are symbols of memory: the land shaped like a turtle, spirits of fallen matriarchs represented by stars, birchbark bitings and empty red dresses.

Two of the six red dresses feature clay handprints — potent symbols of advocacy and deep connection to the land. These marks pay homage to one of the earliest forms of Indigenous art and serve as a powerful call to action against the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.

This exhibit invites visitors to reflect on cultural strength and the importance of collective action. Through art, it highlights the vital need to honour, protect and uplift Indigenous women and Two-Spirit people, ensuring their rights to safety and justice.

The exhibit opens to the public in the Canadian Journeys gallery Saturday, May 3, in advance of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two‐Spirit People, also known as Red Dress Day. It is an extension of The REDress Projectthat has been part of the Canadian Journeys gallery since the Museum opened in 2014.

About the artists

Jaime Black-Morsette (she/they) is a Red River Métis artist and activist, with family scrip signed in the community of St. Andrews, Manitoba. Jaime lives and works on her home territory near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Founder of The REDress Project, Black-Morsette has been using their art practice as a way to gather community and create action and change around the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people across Turtle Island for over a decade. Black-Morsette’s interdisciplinary art practice includes immersive film and video, installation art, photography and performance art practices. Her work explores themes of memory, identity, place and resistance.

KC Adams (Ininnew/Anishinaabe/British), relational maker, educator, activist and mentor living in Winnipeg, creates work that explores technology in relationship to her Indigenous culture. Adams is an award-winning, nationally and internationally known maker with a B.F.A. from Concordia University and an M.A. in Cultural Studies, Curatorial Stream from the University of Winnipeg.