Following Red Dress Day earlier this month, Stuart sits down with KC Adams, a Cree and Anishinaabe relational maker, curator, writer and educator based in Winnipeg, whose work uses photography, installation and public art to explore identity, cultural reclamation and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.

KC brings both lived experience and creative practice to a rich conversation about Red Dress Day, the evolution of Jamie Black's iconic installation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and what it really means to make art as an act of advocacy and community uplift.

We're talking:

Why national recognition of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Two Spirit people, and men matters so deeply
Why KC prefers the term "relational maker" over "artist," and how Western art terminology fails to honour Indigenous ways of knowing, creating and being in relationship
The story behind the reimagined Sky Woman installation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and how KC and Jamie Black collaborated to shift the conversation from awareness toward action and ceremony
What meaningful allyship looks like, and why KC believes moving forward requires bringing people into the circle, not pushing them away

Learn more about KC Adams and her work at kcadams.net

Learn more about the Red Dress Project by Jamie Black

Visit the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to see the Sky Woman installation in person.