What can an 81-year-old woman do about a tragic injustice in aboriginal communities? It was a question Edmonton photographer Mufty Mathewson asked herself after reading the troubling headlines of 1,181 missing and murdered indigenous women. It inspired her to buy a handful of second-hand red dresses and take pictures of them wherever she went.
“Redress means to right a wrong. That’s a good thing to do because there was a whole lot of wrong done,” Mathewson explained. “If these pictures can right a wrong, I want to keep doing it.”
The senior admitted she had concerns because she isn’t aboriginal. But she’s been grateful to have received guidance and support for her project.
Her exhibit includes photos of her own and from other contributing artists who have been equally inspired.
“We threw the dresses in the North Saskatchewan River and let them float down as we photographed them,” she said.
“I tried to put the red dresses in areas dangerous to women – dilapidated buildings and trailers in backyards.”
Mathewson takes the collection to conferences and other galleries. She discovered the responses have been incredibly moving.
“One woman saw a photograph and said ‘how did you know where my daughter was found?’” she recalled.
Another mother whose daughter was murdered saw the photos and was compelled to share her story with Mathewson.
“A woman came up to me and said she had a photo taken from the Edmonton Journal 17 years ago and it’s of four police officers in white garb with a body bag. And that’s the last photograph she has of her daughter.”
Mathewson has since taken a photo of that final snapshot along with a hanging red dress.
The REDress exhibit is on display at the Three Sisters Gallery in Canmore. It runs until July 25. For more information, visit the Facebook page here.
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