On some Native nations in the US and Canada, Indigenous women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average. These disappearances and murders are often directly linked to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, sex trafficking and intergenerational trauma impacting Native communities.

This MMIP (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons) mural was done in collaboration with LivA’ndrea Knoki of Wingbeat 88. Wingbeat88 is a Flagstaff based community organization that works to support MMIP victims, domestic violence survivors, Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ and Indigenous community members on the spectrum.

Liv with her daughters, Sophia and Fay.

This mural project has been a 10 month journey for me since I first imagined doing tintype paste-ups. But first I had to learn tintype photography. Numerous people assisted along the way. Thank you to my dear friend Bernaded Peters who came from Belgium last May with her large format camera to introduce me to wet plate collodion photography. We converted my bathroom into a makeshift darkroom and there was no looking back. This journey was further facilitated by photographers Joseph Wyman and James O’Connell of Silver in the Sagebrush tintype workshop. Shout out to photographer Will Wilson for guidance and the loan of a plate holder, photographer Eric Retterbush for a shoulder to cry on, problem solving and use of your studio; my buddy and photographer Margeaux Bestard for the the camera loan, inspiration and always positive vibes, LivA’ndrea Knoki who sat for me 4 times and who brought her daughters, Sophia and Fay, to the last shoot. Thank you to Robert Morgan who helped get the work on the wall yesterday; thanks to the folks who stopped by sharing love, @maiitsoh_ and @yelrahc.irot – I see you and appreciate you. And thank you to my printer at Reproductions who helped me translate the tintype tones to large format inkjet printing. Checkout the good work of @wingbeat88 (www.wingbeat88.org) Video by Rob Morgan. Peace.

#tintype #MMIW

#mmiw #mmip #tintypes #wetplatecollodion