No More Stolen Sisters (2023)

by Nick Alan Foote and Kelsey Mata Foote

About the Project

The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (NIWRC) embraces the intersection of art and advocacy through several partnerships. Most recently, NIWRC considered artists to create a piece for this year’s National Week of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Artist Nick Alan Foote was eventually chosen to create an MMIW piece as a collaborative project alongside his sister, fellow artist Kelsey Mata, as the supporting NIWRC staff member.

About the Artwork

Native communities continue to face the highest rates of assault, abduction, and murder of women; American Indian and Alaska Native women suffer the highest rates of domestic violence and sexual assault, with more than 4 in 5 — a staggering 84.3% — having experienced violence in their lifetime. In addition, 96% of American Indian and Alaska Native female victims of sexual violence experienced violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator (i.e., individuals of other races). The most disparate rates of intimate partner violence are experienced 50% higher by Native Hawaiian women aged 45-59 years old than non-Hawaiian women (12.6% vs. 21%). This violence continues to be multi-layered, occurring over a lifetime. The pervasiveness of this injustice represents a dire need to: (1) address the systemic barriers that allow this horrific reality to persist and (2) amplify the voices of advocates and families that work tirelessly to share their stories, demanding justice and the restoration of safety. In response to the critical and ongoing MMIW crisis across the nation, the creation of No More Stolen Sisters was undertaken with the intentional reflection on what has persisted for generations and what it means to stand in solidarity with the daughters, sisters, mothers, and aunties who were taken from their nations and communities.

About the Artists

This piece was a digital collaboration by sibling duo, Nick Alan and Kelsey Mata, both Tlingit, Taakw.aaneidí. Despite their geographic separation of over 2,000 miles, the artists engaged in an extended process of reflection and discussion on the impact of the MMIW crisis in their Southeast Alaska hometown. They shared multiple drafts and compositions over the course of five months

Nick Alan (Website) (Instagram)

Kelsey Mata (Website) (Instagram)