This is not a light book. It tackles a heavy, ongoing reality that continues to affect Indigenous women and communities. While my personal preference usually leans toward lighter themes, it is vital to see how artists and storytellers use their practice to illuminate the shadows – creating the connections necessary for healing and collective survival.
If your heart is already heavy today, please set this one aside; it isn’t for you right now.
However, if you have the capacity, this text offers a profound look at art, community, and the legal and societal frameworks surrounding MMIWG. It is incredibly beneficial to hear directly from the artists who created the foundational work of this movement, and the collection features contributions from women near and dear to my heart alongside introductions to new artists—all collectively responding to this international crisis. Rather than prescribing a universal path toward “moving forward,” it focuses on the personal commitment to that journey, however it may look for the individual.
While I do have my own criticisms of the work, those belong in private, nuanced discussions between Indigenous people rather than for public consumption. That boundary is an important part of the process, too.
Favourite quote: in the essay Heart Work by Jaimie Issac
“Art itself doesn’t create change, the people do. Art promotes awareness in various forms and actions, but it’s the people challenging systems of oppression, creating collective actions of building awareness and making political changes and policies that are Indigenously self-determined.” (89).
Read: May 2026
Score: 7/10 – This book offers an insider’s look at the complexities of creating art in response to MMIWG2S+, as well as providing an in-depth perspective on how families and communities continue to be affected. The presentation itself is beautiful, woven together through a balance of essays, interviews, poetry, and imagery.
Book: REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Prescence. Edited by Jaime Black-Morsette.
MLA: Black-Morsette, Jaime, editor. REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Presence. HighWater Press, 2025.
