Student continues to raise awareness for victims
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RONAN — Marita Growing Thunder’s moccasins are showing signs of wear now that she is close to the halfway mark of her project.
As a senior at Polson High School, she is wearing traditional style Native American clothing including her beaded moccasins every day until the end of the school year to bring awareness to missing or murdered indigenous women in Canada and the United States.
Marita arrived at The Red Poppy on Tuesday wearing her traditional style clothing. Artist Alex Wright was waiting with a gift to honor Marita’s project.
“I wanted to do this to let her know that what she is doing is important and other people are thinking about this,” Wright said.
Tribal Elder Stipn Small Salmon sang an honor song during the ceremony. Wright presented Marita with a painting of the Red River in Winnipeg, Canada, where many indigenous women have been found dead. Wright created the landscape painting using a mixture of realism and abstract techniques. The painting’s focus is on Tina Fontaine, 15, a murdered teenager found in the river.
“I don’t understand how anyone could do this to another person,” Wright said.
Marita looked at the painting with tears in her eyes. Juanita Small Salmon was at the ceremony and said the issue needs more awareness whether it’s through art or any other form.
“Indian women are being dumped and forgotten and people need to know about it,” she said.
Wright painted the image about two years ago, and ironically, the murder victim was born the same year as Marita.
“She should be getting ready for graduation and preparing for her future,” she said.
Marita designs the traditional style dresses she wears and often uses inspiration from the stories people tell her about missing or murdered women. She has sewn about 65 dresses, so far.
Marita said she has a lot of work yet to do including sewing more dresses for the project. She looked at Wright’s painting and said she felt inspired to create one of her dresses based on the painting. She said a quote on the back of the painting explained exactly how she felt.
“It says, ‘We are not disposable,’ and that is exactly it,” she said.
