LIHU‘E — A new mural has cropped up on Kress Street.
The massive image of a red handprint was painted on May 5, in observance of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls Day.
The national event shines a spotlight on a widespread-yet-under-reported pattern of violence throughout the U.S. and Canada.
“It is nothing but true that we should care about all people who are murdered and missing regardless of race,” Nikki Cristobal told a small crowd gathered before the freshly painted mural Thursday afternoon.
“However, the sad reality is that the types of violence that lead to murdered and missing people, namely sex trafficking and domestic violence, disproportionately impact Indigenous women, girls and mahu,” Cristobal continued.
On Kaua‘i, Cristobal is perhaps best known as the executive director of the nonprofit Kamawaelualani. But she is also principal investigator of the Murdered and Missing Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Report for the Hawai‘i’ State Commission on the Status of Women and Office of Hawaiian Affairs. As such, she organized Kaua‘i’s MMIWG Day event.
The first draft of the statewide Murdered and Missing Native Hawaiian Women and Girls Report report, mandated by Hawai‘i legislation, is due next month. It will examine the long history of violence against Native Hawaiian women, a demographic historically left out of national studies.
This is in part due to a lack of centralized data collection and inconsistencies in jurisdictional protocols between each Hawaiian island, according to Cristobal.
On Thursday, the researcher and muralist cited a 2018 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute that utilized data gathered from 71 cities in all the states except Hawai‘i.
“Indigenous people made up 21% of homicide victims, even though they are only 3% of the population,” she told those gathered. “Shockingly, murder is the third-leading cause of death for native women, which is a startling statistic, as native people only make up 2% of the overall U.S. population.”
Attendees included members of the YWCA of Kaua‘i, the Zonta Club of Kaua‘i and the Kaua‘i County Committee on the Status of Women.
Many hung red dresses and added their own red handprints to the Kress Street mural following Cristobal’s remarks.
The red dresses, which spring from an Indigenous movement in Canada, symbolize more than bloodshed.
“The fact that they are empty is a ghostly reminder of the families that are forced to clean out the closets of their lost women, girls and mahu,” Cristobal said, “and to honor the spirits of those who have been ripped from this earthly realm by systemically bred hatred for the feminine and Indigenous.”
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Scott Yunker, reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.
