A Tribute to MMIWG2S and Our Planet

Article by Allison Hotti 

What do you get when you mix design students, recycled textiles, and a passion for the planet? The Upcycle Design Competition! 

I was amazed to see this stunning and powerful display when I visited the library at KPU’s Surrey Campus. May 5, 2023, is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. To help draw attention to this day, KPU Library displayed this amazing red dress by Jennifer Lamont, a Métis artist, and Wilson School of Design graduate.

This display features a red dress that earned Lamont second place in 2022’s Our Social Fabric, Upcycled Design Competition whose theme was “Awareness”. Lamont says, “I wanted to give awareness to Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women as this is a topic that doesn’t get enough attention, especially in the media.” 

Jennifer chose to create a red dress with red handprints in the shape of birds with the name of an Indigenous woman that has been missing or murdered, “The birds symbolize each woman and her journey towards rising up to our ancestors in the sky. This will show that her name is being heard, seen and not forgotten.” 

We are planning to have the red dress design at our in-person STA Convention event on May 5, 2023, and Jennifer has agreed to be on our Red Dress panel that will be both at the in-person and virtual event that day.