By Nayana LaFond

Jaylynn in RED

Acrylic on Canvas

“I am 12-year-old Jaylynn Wolfe and this is my story! When my mom told me about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis, I took a big breath. How could this happen? Why? I had a lot of questions. I asked my mom questions about why these Indigenous Women and Girls were treated so badly? Why were they murdered? Why is no one looking for them? I asked my mom, is this going to happen to me? I was scared! I started to cry! I wished I wasn’t native! I wished I was boy! No one should be scared to be an Indigenous Girl or Women! Please do not let this happen to me!” – Jaylynn Wolfe

Nayana Lafond resides in Massachusetts with her daughter Adelaide, where she is a full-time artist and mother. She attended college for fine art and photography at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She later dropped out to pursue her passions for art and curation independently. Nayana worked as Chief Curator for the Whitney Center for the Arts for 8 years and has published several articles on art in culture. Her own work can be found in private collections and institutions around the world.

Aside from her career in the arts, Nayana is an entrepreneur, owning and operating a small, independent record label and a Café. In 2014, Nayana was diagnosed with Leukemia and underwent a bone marrow stem cell transplant. Her diagnosis changed her outlook on life and she then decided to focus more completely on her art and activism, as a survivor of domestic violence.

Nayana is Anishinaabe from Wikwemikong Unceded Territory, Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario as well as Abenaki & Mi’kmaq from Three Rivers Quebec, French and German.

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