Jaden Shirley

Jaden is a proud member of the Navajo Nation. She is a passionate advocate and graphic designer dedicated to fostering community engagement, Indigenous representation and more. Jaden was also part of the 2025 CNAY Remembering Our Sisters cohort — her project focused on spreading MMIP awareness in Farmington, NM and surrounding areas. By providing resource bags to the unhoused Native population and collaborating with other local community organizations who focused on MMIP impact, like the Missing & Murdered Dine Relatives Coalition. In the future, Jaden wants to continue indigenous art advocacy and work with Indigenous-focused coalitions as a Native youth leader.

To me, “sacred” is the corn plant, which is central to many tribes and relatives, especially for my tribe, the Diné. In Diné culture we use corn for early morning prayers to the Holy Ones, using corn pollen (see top left). We also have origin stories about the First Man and First Woman coming from white corn (see top right corner). In addition, Diné people use corn pollen gathered from the top of the corn stalk as everyday protection and for prayer (see bottom right). Lastly, we can use several parts of the corn in traditional ceremonies (see bottom left).