Eureka workshop invites residents to build MMIP awareness installation
A free Eureka workshop will let residents help build a public MMIP installation, linking art on G Street to a crisis families say still demands action.
Residents in Eureka will be able to turn grief and urgency into something visible on G Street: a public art installation honoring missing and murdered Indigenous people in Humboldt County. DIY Art is set to host a hands-on MMIP and MMIW awareness workshop Saturday, May 30, at 2 p.m. at Old Town Ink Lab, 212 G St., Suite 103, with all supplies provided, donations welcome and RSVPs requested so organizers can plan accordingly.
The workshop is backed by the Ink People Center for Arts and Culture, the American Humanist Association, the Wiyot Tribe and the Eureka Cultural Arts District, a mix that puts arts, tribal leadership and civic support in the same room. Participants will make pieces that become part of a larger installation, giving residents a way to add to a public memorial without needing formal training, special materials or a large budget.
That local effort lands in a county where MMIP and MMIW remain deeply felt, and where advocates have repeatedly said the crisis is not abstract. At a May 5 MMIP Awareness Day rally in Eureka, more than 150 people marched to the Humboldt County Courthouse, and Wiyot Tribal Councilmember Vanessa Rios said Humboldt County has the highest concentration of MMIP cases in California. A Humboldt Area Foundation fund page says California ranks fifth in the nation for MMIP incidents and that the far north of the state accounts for most cases.
State officials have also treated the issue as a public-safety problem, not just a memorial cause. The California Department of Justice says its Missing in California Indian Country regional events are designed to elevate the state’s response, allow loved ones to report someone missing, get updates on active cases and provide DNA samples for the DOJ’s Unidentified Persons Database. Humboldt County hosted one of those regional events on April 22, 2023, at Blue Lake Rancheria’s Sapphire Palace in Blue Lake, with Blue Lake Rancheria, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, the Yurok Tribal Police Department, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police Department, the California Consortium of Urban Indian Health and the Humboldt Area Foundation among the co-hosts.
The workshop also fits into a longer North Coast push for accountability. The Yurok Tribal Court’s 2022 MMIP report described itself as the first roadmap to guide tribal, state and federal agencies’ response to MMIP cases in California, underscoring that local activism has moved beyond remembrance alone. In Eureka, the new installation is meant to make that same point in public, piece by piece, in a place where the pain is still close to home.
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