Painting with a Purpose: Local Artist Works with Community to Create Murals in Honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Local artist Moira Villiard paints a mural with UMD students by Kirby Bus Hub on Oct. 17. Photo by Izabel Johnson

A local artist collaborated with UMD students on Oct. 14 and 17 to create murals on campus in honor of Indiginous Peoples’ Day, which was on Oct. 14. 

Moira Villiard is an artist who specializes in collaborative and interactive pieces within the Duluth community. She is also the cultural program coordinator at the American Indian Community Housing Organization. 

On Oct. 14 and 17 Villiard visited UMD’s campus and assisted students in painting two murals designed by herself meant to honor the indigenous people of Minnesota. The murals are located outside of the Multicultural Center and the Kirby Bus Hub. 

“It’s a great reminder to people that we...are surrounded by indigenous cultures,” Jamie Ratliff, an associate professor of Art History at UMD, said. “These cultures aren’t of the past. They’re living and they’re all around us.”

The bright designs in the murals signify different aspects of the Native American culture. According to Villiard, the piece outside of the Multicultural Center depicts the migration of the Anishinaabe people from the East to Minnesota. 

UMD students painting a mural outside the Multicultural Center on Oct. 14. Photo by Zack Benz

The Bus Hub mural was created in honor of the Land Acknowledgement event occurring at 3 p.m. on Oct. 22 in the Kirby Ballroom on campus. Villiard said that the piece is an open design meant to symbolize time. It illustrates this through the use of various natural elements and animals used by the Anishinaabe people to tell time.

“I hope people just are curious,”  Villiard said.

The painting of the murals was an event open to all UMD students as well as the community. 

“We collaborate and we all have a common goal and we communicate to each other,” student Mckenna Murphy said in regards to her experience creating one of the murals. 

“In a lot of spaces and academic spaces it’s hard for I think Native students to find...recognition of home...or recognition of...people acknowledge that my ancestors were here and our history is still alive and I’m here,” Villiard stated regarding her purpose behind the murals.