Inspired by the Cheyenne concept of “netaevananova’htsemane” (which translates to, “let us recognize ourselves again”), Annita Lucchesi is working to create a mapping tool that recognizes and honors the geographies in which missing and murdered Native women live and die. “Hand-drawn maps have great potential to reflect our ways of knowing,” said Lucchesi in an interview with Rewire.News. A recent example of this is a map Lucchesi created in preparation for the 2018 Women’s Marches. The map features an image of a ribbon skirt, often worn as sign of respect and honor among Native women, with names of missing and murdered indigenous women incorporated into the design of skirt. Using mainstream technology, Lucchesi seeks to infuse the work of the Atlas of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in the United States and Canada with Native ways of thinking or epistemologies that are guided by community needs. “Every element of the atlas is voluntary. My hope is that it will be a model to honor people dealing with these issues, by offering skills with which they can build the work themselves,” said Lucchesi. She added that “reducing peoples very real experience of violence into data points alone felt gross.”
Read More on the Story
Mary Annette Pember:
Mapping Out Missing and Murdered Native Women: ‘I Would Want My Story to Have Meaning’
(Rewire.News April 27, 2018)
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