DEER WOMAN by artist Karly Perez

Resin cast, mud pigmented muslin, black walnut dyed gauze & muslin, raw alpaca fiber, dried roots, cedar stump base, 7" length, 5" depth, 17" tall

75% of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC). NIWRC is a Native-led nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence against Native women and children.

The NIWRC provides national leadership in ending gender-based violence in American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian tribal communities by lifting up the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.

https://www.niwrc.org/news/justice-for-kaysera

The Deer Woman, sometimes known as the Deer Lady, is a spirit in various forms of Native American mythology that is primarily associated with fertility and love. Though primarily shown as a benign spirit, she is also shown to lure promiscuous men to their death. She appears as either a beautiful young woman or deer. The Deer Woman has equivalents in Greek Mythology and other mythologies across the world.

Deer Woman stories are found in many Native American tribes, told to young children or by young adults and prepubescents in tribes like the Sioux, Ojibwe, Ponca, the Omaha people, Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Choctaw, the Otoe tribe, Osage, the Pawnee people, and the Iroquois - and those are only the few that have documented Deer Woman sightings.

Other stories and traditions describe the sighting of Deer Woman as a sign of personal transformation or as a warning. Deer Woman is also said to be fond of dancing and will sometimes join a communal dance unnoticed, leaving only when the drum beating ceases.