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As red sand filled the cracks along the sidewalks in front of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, community members stood in quiet solidarity as drums beat. 

The pouring of red sand marked another year of remembrance and healing for missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives, referred to as MMIWR.

The symbolic act of pouring sand was part of the HIR Wellness Institute’s ninth annual Community Activated Medicine & Red Sand Events on Nov. 14.

HIR Wellness, located at 3136 W. Kilbourn Ave., was founded in 2017 by Leah Denny, who serves as CEO. The organization provides a range of free mental health, wellness services and additional programming for the Indigenous community. The Electa Quinney Institute, where the event was held, was founded in 2010 to support the Native American community on campus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Started in 2017, the event has provided a sacred space for community grief and collective healing in honor of MMIWR through art, storytelling and community care.

Each year, the HIR Wellness Institute collaborates with the Red Sand Project to host the event. The Red Sand Project was designed to raise public awareness about human trafficking and modern slavery, using the red sand to represent those who have fallen through systemic cracks. 

A person with a backpack walks on a wide concrete path scattered with flowers and posters while a small group of people sits at a table in the distance.
A person walks down a path in between posters that have statistics about missing and murdered Indigenous women. One poster stated that 45.6% of American Indians/Alaska Native women in Wisconsin have experienced sexual violence.
A person holds a feather and a small bowl outdoors while other people are seated.
Analia Ninham, a member of Daughters of Tradition, an Indigenous youth group at the HIR Wellness Institute, offers attendees a cleansing sage.
A person wearing a patterned top and a feathered headpiece holds a microphone and blows into a large shell.
Malia Chow blows into a conch shell in all four cardinal directions as part of a Native Hawaiian tradition.
A person wearing a patterned wrap stands on a plaza near red sand shapes on the ground as people stand on steps in the background.
The RedNationBoyz, a Milwaukee-based youth and community drum group, performs.
A person wearing patterned clothing holds a microphone at an outdoor podium while people who are sitting watch.
Marla Mahkimetas, a Menominee water educator and artist, speaks about losing her daughter-in-law to human trafficking and her family’s healing journey since.

“Trauma is not a life sentence.”

Marla Mahkimetas

People sit facing a person standing at a podium draped with a red cloth in front of a wall labeled "The Ernest Spaights Plaza."
Dr. Jeneile Luebke, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing, speaks to attendees about her research on gender-based violence in the Indigenous community.

“We got to cry and say her name.”

Malia Chow 

A person wearing a feathered headpiece speaks into a microphone at an outdoor podium draped with a red cloth while another person stands in the foreground.
Malia Chow, community healer with the HIR Wellness Institute, speaks about losing her twin sister to violence.
Two people stand close together outdoors, one with a hand near their face while the other leans in.
Shanna Hickman and her daughter, Ziraya Sunn, listen to a woman tell the story of how their sister was killed due to domestic violence.
A person wearing a yellow shirt hands small red bags to people seated in a row outdoors.
Hanna Jennings, an intern with the HIR Wellness Institute, hands out a bag containing red sand, tissues and community resources.
Four people stand outdoors, with three of them holding drums in their hands, while appearing to sing or chant.
The RedNationBoyz, led by one of the founders, Isiah Nahwahquaw (second from left), performs.
A person leans down on a sidewalk writing red text on the concrete while a bag rests nearby and others walk in the background.
Monique Valentine writes the name Anacaona, a ruler of Jaragua (modern day Haiti), who was executed by the Spanish in 1503 and has become a symbol of Indigenous resistance.
A tattooed hand pours red sand from a small packet along a crack in the concrete.
Flower Harms pours red sand from the Red Sand Project, which was started by Molly Gochman in 2014 to bring awareness to human trafficking and modern slavery.
Bright red sand fills a long crack in the concrete.
Red sand fills a crack during the ninth annual Community Activated Medicine & Red Sands Event.
A person wearing a long multicolored skirt and sunglasses pours red sand into a crack on a concrete plaza while others stand nearby.
Rachel Fernandez, co-chair of the Wisconsin Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Relatives Task Force, pours red sand along a crack in the sidewalk.

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a photojournalist as well as a Report for America corps member and Catchlight Local fellow. Before coming to Milwaukee, he spent two years as a photographer at one of America’s oldest daily newspapers, The Blade, in Toledo, Ohio. Aguilar grew up in the Chicago suburbs. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from DePaul University and his master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism.