Nayana LaFond (born ) is an American painter, sculptor, and curator of Anishinaabe, and Métis descent. A citizen of Métis Nation of Ontario, in 2020, she began the Portraits in RED: Missing & Murdered Indigenous People Painting Project, a series of over 110 portraits created to raise awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis. The collection, which features black and white acrylic paintings with red symbolic accents, has been exhibited at institutions including the Southern Vermont Arts Center and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. LaFond operates the project on a non-profit basis, gifting the original works to the subjects or their families.
LaFond was born and grew up in Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts. She is of Anishinaabe, and Métis descent, with ancestral ties to tribes primarily in Ontario. She is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario. Her maternal family history includes displacement. LaFond was legally adopted and raised by the grandson of Jesse Andre, a former mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts.
She attended public schools in Amherst, Northampton, and Hadley, graduating from Amherst Regional High School in 1999. LaFond went on to study painting and photography in college and holds an Associates in Visual Arts from Greenfield Community College. LaFond is currently a Frances Perkins Scholar at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Visual Arts with a minor in Art History and a NEXUS in Museums, Archives and Public History.
LaFond worked as a curator for eight years at the Whitney Center of the Arts in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Her professional background also includes running an independent record label and owning a cafe in Turners Falls. As an artist, she began as a semi-abstract painter working in color before transitioning to black and white media. Her switch to black and white was motivated in part by the lower cost of materials.
LaFond is a sculptor. Her large-scale sculpture Zoongide'e, a word meaning "to have a brave heart" in Anishinaabemowen, was constructed from concrete and rebar. The piece, which is approximately the size of a car, was displayed near Fenway Park.
LaFond began the Portraits in RED: Missing & Murdered Indigenous People Painting Project on May 5, 2020, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. At the time, she was in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project began when LaFond saw a selfie posted by Lauraina Bear, a woman from Saskatchewan, in a Facebook group called "Social Distance Powwow". LaFond asked permission to paint Bear's portrait, and after posting the finished work online, she received a significant response. Following the release of a second portrait, titled Natahne & Yana, she received 25 requests from community members on the first day alone, leading her to commit to painting everyone who sent her a request.
The portraits are typically created using acrylic on canvas in black and white, with the color red used as a symbolic accent, often in the form of a handprint over the mouth. LaFond uses red because, in many Indigenous cultures, it is believed to be the only color spirits can see, allowing the portraits to be visible to the ancestors. The red handprint symbolizes the silencing of Indigenous women, the blood of the people, and their resilience.
LaFond operates the project on a non-profit basis. She does not charge for the portraits or accept money for them, though she does accept donations of art supplies. The original paintings are offered to the subjects or their families, who may choose to keep, sell, or donate the works. The series includes a portrait of LaFond's own great-grandmother.
By October 2021, LaFond had completed 62 portraits, and by March 2024, the series had grown to 110 works. As of July 2025, LaFond was in the process of winding down the series. The collection has been exhibited at various institutions, including the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Oregon, the Southern Vermont Arts Center, the LAVA Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
LaFond resides in Holyoke, Massachusetts. As of November 2023, she was 42 years old. She identifies as a "survivor turned activist" and serves as a board member of the Native Youth Empowerment Fund. She is a leukemia survivor who underwent a bone marrow transplant in 2014. She has a daughter. In 2023, MassLive recognized LaFond as a leader within the Massachusetts Indigenous community.