Qaspeq Project II

Description

The Qaspeq project is a series of ink-drawn portraits by Amber Webb depicting more than 250 murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls from Canada and the Northern United States. In this work, the portraits are drawn on a 13-foot-high cotton qaspec, which is a Yupik-style garment. Created as an acknowledgment of the sacredness of life and the decades of advocacy by Indigenous women across North America for their own sovereign right to health and safety, this life-sized reproduction of the monumental qaspec is also a reminder, as Webb states, “that we see your pain, we remember your relatives, and we will keep fighting for justice as long as it takes.” Amber Webb is a Yup’ik artist and activist from Curyung, Alaska who was raised in Dillingham and Anchorage, Alaska. Her work visually explores the continuing effects of colonial trauma and healing.

Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid