Canada: First Nations women use ‘photo voice’ to tell stories

A group of First Nations women in Saskatchewan are telling stories about their lives through the lens of a camera. Ten women from Prince Albert are photographing what they see every day as part of a project that examines the lives of people living in poverty.

Brigette Krieg, a social worker and facilitator for the project, said it uses a technique called “photo voice,” which helps throw previously obscure topics into bold relief.

“It’s a participatory-action research method that was established in about 1994 by an American named Caroline Wang,” she said in an interview with CBC Radio.

“And basically it is using photography as a medium to address issues that the community sees as important.”

Lana Cook, one of the women involved in the project, takes her photos in the apartment building where she lives.

The building is in a gritty downtown neighbourhood that sometimes attracts a criminal element or homeless people sleeping in the hallway, Cook said.

“My apartment is right upstairs. And we make the best of what we have and it’s home to us,” she said.

“I guess the reason why I’m taking a picture of this is that I just want people to see that [people] that are living in this building - we’re just like anybody else. We have hopes and dreams.”

Women living in the neighbourhood don’t have a chance to talk about the things they see around them, she said.

“They don’t have a voice where they can address these issues. And so - this kind of project - when we’re taking photographs, would be able to speak to that type of issue of, like, homelessness and poverty and street life, prostitution, addictions. Stuff like that,” Cook said.

The finished product will be called The Marginalization of Indigenous Women.

The photos will be shown in Prince Albert in March and April and travel to an international conference in Vancouver this summer.