SLC mural unveiled for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Awareness Day
May 5, 2022, 8:36 AM
SALT LAKE CITY — Healing through art is the idea behind a mural taking shape in a Salt Lake City garden.
Native American groups created the mural as part of the National Day of Awareness for the thousands of Indigenous people who go missing and are killed each year.
They’re also honoring the hundreds of Indigenous children lost to boarding school violence.
“A lot of kids went away to boarding school and didn’t come home,” said Kristina Groves with the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake. “We don’t hear about it. It’s a big issue.”
Healing through art is the idea behind a mural taking shape at a Salt Lake City garden.@TamaraVaifanua has more this morning on @KSL5TV on the significance of this artwork, and who's behind it. pic.twitter.com/XRUhYFy86m
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) May 5, 2022
They want to bring these conversations to the forefront.
Over the weekend, Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake and Restoring Ancestral Winds invited the community to help paint flowers to place on the mural. They hope Indigenous people feel supported as they work through these traumatic experiences.
“Our way of healing for Native Americans don’t always include things like just going to therapy or you know going to the doctor. Just the connection and cultural connection those things are really important too,” said Grove.
The finished mural will be revealed Thursday at the Carry the Water Indigenous Healing Garden located at 1459 S. 1000 West in Salt Lake City.
Organizers have planned a prayer service, dance and candlelight vigil for the public to take part in from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
You’re encouraged to wear red or orange to show your support.
