‘FORGOTTEN FLOWERS’
Grammer mural highlights missing and murdered indigenous women and girls
Shane Grammer teamed with other artists to paint a mural on a building at W. 2nd and Cedar Street on Saturday that was meant to highlight missing and murdered Native American women and girls.
Also on hand to take part in the mural painting were women from the Habemontolel Pomo of Upper Lake. The mural was something that Grammer, who drew national attention with his murals in the immediate aftermath of the devastating
Camp Fire, was always interested in doing.
“I do a lot of work with anti- trafficking,” he said. “This is a whole issue, that some people call Forgotten Flowers in Native American Tribes, a lot of younger girls and boys just disappear.”
He said that they are trafficked, beaten and abused, but there’s not a lot of media attention drawn to the issue.
Grammer painted a woman on the building that is actually a local Chico woman chosen from a photo shoot with Dan Campbell. The woman has a red hand print over her mouth, which is for the for the women being trafficked and abused.
Within the mural Grammer noted was hand prints from all of the local women who participated in the painting.
“We all just came together,” he said of the mural was was funded through his new Hope Through Art Foundation. “It’s been amazing project.”
Also helping out the mural was Christian Garcia, who was painting a wolf on the building. Garcia said that Grammer, who he met a couple of years ago, was in need of a wall.
“I think that it’s really important to acknowledge that most of the time, these are women that are forgotten and don’t get it to light when those tragedies happen,” he said. “This is bringing awareness and it’s important that people know about it.”
Al i Meders- Knight , a member of the local Mechoopda Tribe was painting Native American flowers called Indian Paint Brush on the building to balance the wolf and the Native American woman part of the mural.
“I wanted just wanted to help collaborate with this and have a local native on the paint crew,” she said.
For Meders- Knight , the mural means something to her because she has five daughters and a granddaughter. She said that one in four Native American women are either raped, beaten or murdered.
“Knowing those numbers, I really want to advocate for treatment of good native women,” she said. “Not only for myself but for my daughters, granddaughter, all of my family and my tribal members.”