Missing But Not Gone: Shared Symbols and Community in Little Moons by Jen Storm

May 5 is Red Dress Day in Canada and the U.S. It’s also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit+ (MMIWG2S). Through the work of Métis artist Jaime Black the day was first dedicated in 2010. It was part of the ReDress Project to educate and raise awareness of the systemic injustices that contribute to violence against Indigenous women and girls. 

Trends and statistics can be found in Canadian and US government and Native nations sources, and in the findings of independent inquiries. (Quick aside: Note that the contents of the American government web page may be in endangered territory, now that the regime of 47 is doing its best to rewrite history.)

Jen Storm is an Ojibwe writer from Couchiching First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. In her graphic novel, Little Moons, illustrated by Ryan Howe and Alice RL, young Reanna mourns the loss of her sister, who goes missing on her way home from school. On the surface this slender volume is a deeply felt tribute to shared grief and healing. But it’s more that that, because the sources of the strength Reanna comes to feel as she navigates this impossibly difficult journey, are—everywhere!

There is a circle of support in the world around you, the story seems to be saying to the reader, if you only let yourself see it. The recurrence of symbols in her everyday modern world is a communication to Reanna from beyond her present-day narrative. Reflecting reality and heritage, they seem to scatter off the page. Here’s a work capable of bringing comfort to readers within this particular story circle as well as revealing the meaning of understanding and empathy to those outside it.