The Faceless Doll Project

As the push for a national inquiry for missing and murdered aboriginal woman continues — several community groups in Brantford are working on a common art project — creating faceless dolls to remember all of those victims across the country.

This group from Brantford Community Living does crafts every week. But on this morning, the sparkles they’re gluing shine light on a dark topic.

Carrie Sinkowski: “It means it helps the people to understand native women that are missing did you know there was a problem? No. It was shocking.”

Carrie Sinkowski from the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant has been explaining that the faceless dolls are meant to represent all the missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada: “We want to create a presence so there can be more pressure, more awareness.”

“That’s just horrible. But just for me helping out, and just by doing this, it encourages me.”

THE RCMP have a list of nearly 1,200 aboriginal women missing or murdered since 1980. Sherry Lewis first heard of the problem in 2005, when the president of the Native Women’s Association returned from a summer tour of communities.

Sherry Lewis, Brantford Native Housing: “And she kept hearing, when our young women leave, we don’t hear from them again. There’s something going on here. She kept hearing that in all these small communities.”

Communities in Western Canada have had far worse problems than Brantford, but the idea is solidarity with other faceless doll projects. The groups hope to make at least one doll for every name on the RCMP list, and display them on October 4th. That’s when “Sisters in Spirit” vigils are held across the country, to remember the women the faceless dolls represent.

The groups are also circulating the petition that calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. Although the federal government has resisted that idea so far, the Prime Minister has said it’s not a societal problem — it’s a crime problem. That led to an online campaign in the past month, #aminext, trending on Twitter.

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