We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jen Murphy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Without risk, there is no reward. I was so scared to take a risk and photograph other indigenous people with the red hand print on their face, raising awareness on this issue. But, I stepped out in faith and it has taking on a life of its own. It is not only a photograph now, its used to educate our youth, co-facilitate resiliency courses, became an Executive Producer for a short film tackling the issue and starting grad school. Risks are worth it – do it afraid.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a self-taught photographer in Montana and in June of 2018, a local young, native, woman, mother, friend and sister went missing without a trace. I had a front line view of how the investigation was mishandled in the beginning and how the family was organizing the searches for her. It lit a fire inside of me to do something – I just didnt know what. As I attended searches, weeks passed, and over a year passed – no trace. When covid hit, I had alot of time to sit around and do nothing and started to think about how I could help our indigenous people gain more attention on this issue. Then it hit me, I have always been a visual artist through photography and decided to reach out and see if anyone would be willing to have their photos taken with the red hand print on their mouth (which calls attention to our voices being silenced as native people). The first shoot, not many people came, but my ancestors told me to keep going – I listened. The second shoot, many showed and shared their stories. Lots of tears and photographs were complete. After I started to get these images, I begin to think about what is a platform that people have to see – and it was clear, billboards. I called Lamar Advertising and they were immediately helpful and amazing. I started placing billboards with these photos all over Montana and my hope to is have them all throughout the United States, into Canada and one day, globally. Sadly, I am doing this alone and rely on donations to the program. My website is www.mmiwproject.org.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Still learning how to get regular donors who care about this issue and want to contribute. I wish that I knew the answer to this problem and how to get people on board.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Facebook has been a great platform, under Tveraa Photography, more and more people are following the page and wanting to help in some way. I also have an Instagram account under the same name. I am a charter under a non-profit, so people can even write off the expenses. The only advice I can give is, tell a REAL story – share and pray someone will care.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mmiwproject.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TveraaPhotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TveraaPhotography
• Twitter: TveraaPhotoMT

Image Credits
All photo taken by me . Red hand is just a stock photo showing what is painted on the face.