Faceless Dolls Project

Faceless Dolls Project

Sam Alkenbrack of the Metis Nation of Ontario (Kingston Office) will be providing information about the Faceless Doll Project to students in the Grade 11/12 Indigenous Studies course on Tuesday, 9 October.  

In 2010, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) released the report “What Their Stories Tell Us”.  The five-year report by the Sisters in Spirit Initiative revealed there were 582 known cases of murdered and/or missing Indigenous women and girls in Canada.  NWAC wanted to create a visual representation of these women and girls so they would not be forgotten. The Faceless Doll Project introduced by the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) became the visual remembrance.

Why are the dolls faceless?
The Indigenous women and girls who are missing or murdered are victims of crime, and like most victims of sexual crimes, their identity is irrelevant (…therefore faceless).  As persons, they are devalued in life and in death.  Society has forgotten them even though they are sisters, mothers, aunts, grandmothers and friends.  Thus, they are faceless.  These women and girls are faceless because society has stopped looking for them.  The dolls are a visual representation of the girls and women who need to be remembered.