Auli'i Cravalho made a powerful red carpet statement to bring attention to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women: 'I felt a responsibility.'

• On a red carpet for Amazon Prime's "The Power," actress Auli'i Cravalho posed with a red handprint painted across her face.
• The symbol represents the growing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

On March 23, at the premiere of Amazon Prime's "The Power" in New York City, actress Auli'i Cravalho took the spotlight for her unique red carpet look. But it wasn't her floral-print Naeem Khan dress that drew the attention of photographers and reporters as much as the red handprint painted across her face.

The symbol represents the growing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, who are 10 times more likely to be murdered than other women in the US. "It is incredibly frustrating that there are not enough cases that are actually followed up with, and it points to police and how they are not using their funds correctly," Cravalho told Good Morning America at the event.

Oftentimes, these cases go unreported. In 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. However, the U.S Department of Justice missing persons database only reported 116 cases. Another 2021 report found that more than 4 in 5 cases of missing Indigenous people don't have complete information on tribal affiliation in NamUs, the federal missing persons database. According to a 2018 Urban Indian Health Institute report, reasons for the lack of quality data include "underreporting, racial misclassification, poor relationships between law enforcement and American Indian and Alaska Native communities, poor record-keeping protocols, institutional racism in the media, and a lack of substantive relationships between journalists and American Indian and Alaska Native communities."

Murder is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women, and while almost 60% of the reported missing and murdered Indigenous women cases are homicides, most of them remain unsolved. There are many factors that lead to this epidemic, one being a lack of media coverage paid to women of color and a lack of awareness around the reality that Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately affected by gender violence.

Gestures like Cravalho's decision to highlight this crisis at a nationally televised event are important in spreading awareness. Optimistically, the actress's red carpet look is one of many initiatives to spotlight the growing epidemic, with Showtime releasing "Murder in Big Horn," just last month. The three-part documentary examines the cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women within Big Horn County, Montana.

As Cravalho shared on Instagram: "I felt a responsibility to ground our work out of the sci-if realm, and back into the real world. I am humbled and deeply grateful to the many outlets who continue to share this message."