What began as a school project about indigenous issues has sparked a conversation, about missing and murdered women in Canada.

In the atrium at Balmoral Hall high school in Winnipeg there are a total of 1,017 red paper butterflies hanging from the ceiling. The butterflies represent murdered indigenouswomen in Canada.

Grade 11 student Fariba Ishrar came up with the idea.

She says it wouldn't have been possible, without the help of her fellow students and teachers.

“The feedback has been awesome,” said Ishrar. “I’ve had so many people tell us it’s helping generate a conversation, and also, even when they were just going up, ‘cause we couldn’t do them all at once, and there weren’t posters up explaining it, you could already hear people talking about what they could be about, and the few people that knew started telling others about it."

The butterfly installation is part of the schools "Take Action" global issues project.