Ryerson exhibition tells stories behind two young Indigenous lives lost

Patricia Carpenter, a young mother, was found dead at a Toronto construction site in 1992. Her death remains unresolved.

She was just 14.

SonyaCywink's death is a similar mystery an unsolved homicide. An avid writer, she was found slain at the age of 31 in Elgin County, Ont. in 1994.

But it's the lives not just thedeaths of theseIndigenous women that inspired a group of Ryerson University students to develop Shades of Our Sisters, a new multimedia exhibition honouring the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women through two deeply intimate stories.

The installation celebrates the memories of Carpenter and Cywink through soundscapes, documentary pieces, and artifacts from their lives be it Cywink's poetryor Carpenter's beloved Cabbage Patchdolls either on display orwoven through short films.

• Missing & Murdered:Sonya Nadine Mae Cywink
• Missing & Murdered:Patricia Carpenter

"The documentaries are a celebration of life," says Ryerson student Michael Rebellato, a writer and researcher on the project.

"And it is entirely about who they are, why they're loved, and how much they're missed."

The students worked alongside the two women's familiesto make the project a reality, by building relationships with people like Joyce Carpenter, Patricia Carpenter's mother.

Project a 'healing journey'

Carpenter praised the immense amount of "work, and dedication, and respect" that went into producing the exhibition.

"I was really honoured that they came to me and asked me to do this a celebration of my daughter's life," she says.

Carpenter says her daughter doted on her brothers, and was a "happy-go-lucky" teen who was already maternal.

"She would've been an amazing mother," Carpenter says, adding she only got to be one for six weeks before her death.

Participating inShades of Our Sisters was a positive step for Carpenter after so many years of pain."I've started on my healing journey now," she says.

'They're part of our lives now'

It was alife-changing experience for the students as well and a chance for them to give voices back to two silenced women.

"They're part of our lives now, even though we never knew them,"Rebellato said.

Theexhibition is running until Feb. 19at theTecumsehAuditorium in Toronto.

It will then make its way to the reserves of both families, first to theAldervilleCommunity Centre inAlderville, Ont.from Feb. 21 to22 before a final stopatEspanolaHigh School inEspanola, Ont. from Feb. 24 to 25.