NEWPORT — Both beautiful and impactful, the ongoing exhibit “Portraits in Red: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Painting Project” features images of 40 victims and activists created by Nayana LaFond, a full time multidisciplinary indigenous artist and activist from Massachusetts.
On display at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center through May 7, the exhibit will come to life Thursday, March 23, and Saturday, March 25, when LaFond will participate in a panel discussion and lead a painting demonstration.
“I began this painting project without the intention of it becoming a project at all,” she said. “I intended to make one painting as catharsis as a domestic violence survivor and my matrilineal line. The response to the first painting was so strong I decided to paint another.”
Charging nothing to families and survivors for her work, LaFond has painted 107 portraits and has no plans to stop while indigenous violence so far outweighs that in other communities.
“Even when the perpetrators are caught and brought to trial, the prosecution rate for crimes against indigenous people is currently about two percent,” she said. “There is nothing okay about that.”
Among LaFond’s subjects in “Portraits in Red” are four members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians: three missing or murdered, Delight Attebury, Manuel Bayya and Anthony Tolentino and Lucy, an 18-year-old advocate.
Ongoing for the duration of the exhibit is an art therapy space in the gallery with resource materials and a large cloth banner hung on a gallery wall upon which guests can pin personalized red ribbons, provided by the museum.
The panel discussion on Thursday, March 23, begins at 6 p.m. LaFond’s art demonstration begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 25.
The Pacific Maritime Heritage Center is located at 333 S.E. Bay Blvd. in Newport. For more information, go to oregoncoasthistory.org or call 541-265-7509.
