In 2019, quilt squares spelling out the words “YOU ARE NOT ALONE” blanketed the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was the first national memorial created for and by survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence. Such violence is prevalent through many communities, yet certain populations experience it far more often than others. Studies have shown that four out of five American Indian and Alaska Native women have suffered such violence, and thousands of Indigenous people in the United States and Canada are murdered or are declared missing each year.
The final display of the Monument Quilt was on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 2019.
Nate Gregorio
Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.
Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture
Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.
Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture
Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.
Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture
Monument Quilt Block 370 (detail), anonymous artists, 2015; cloth, plastic sheeting, acrylic paint, thread, metal grommets, ink, felt-tipped marker and glue; 93” x 93”. 27/0706.
Courtesy of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture
This Monument Quilt is a project of the artist and activist collective named FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. Artists and violence survivors Rebecca Nagle (Cherokee Nation) and Hannah Brancato said they founded FORCE in 2010 to “create space for survivors to heal in community.” The project also “makes room for understanding rape as a political issue,” said Brancato.
From 2013 to 2019, FORCE led quilt-making workshops around the United States, many in partnership with Native communities. They gathered more than 3,000 stories of survivors, told through 4-by-4-foot quilt blocks that were created using traditional sewing techniques such as appliqué and made from materials such as paint, permanent markers, ribbons and buttons, sewn onto a plastic backing.
While the quilt was being completed, sections of it were displayed on football fields, college campuses, prison yards, in public parks, American Indian reservations and other outdoor spaces 49 times across the United States and Mexico. In 2019, the entire Monument Quilt was displayed on the National Mall. More than 50,000 people visited it, and hundreds of thousands engaged with the project online.
The quilt sent a powerful message that lingers long after it was disassembled. FORCE is now archiving its 750 blocks in cultural institutions around the world. A grant from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum enabled the National Museum of the American Indian to acquire 10 sections of the quilt made up of four quilt squares each in 2022. As Nagle commented, “The history of genocide, rape and cultural decimation against Native peoples cannot be ignored.”