first interview/photographs completed!

So, I’ve finished the first interview and photography session, it was amazing! Unfortunately, my digital recorder decided to have a fit and not work (I guess reading the manual would have been a good idea…), so I used an old school cassette tape that the interviewee had. I have complete faith in cassette tapes. The problem now is finding a cassette player so I can transcribe the interview and post the photos and text together…who would have thought finding a (working) cassette player would be such a challenge?

01/11/11

January 11, 2011, I figured this is a fine day to catch up and do some explaining.  But first, thank you all for your patience. I know I’ve been moving slowly.

There’s been alot of changes in my life since last summer, most of them good and easy and some of them good and not-so-easy. I changed majors in school from Film, Video, & Integrated Media to Photography. I moved to a new apartment. And I found new homes for my feline companions of 10 years (that was really difficult).

After initially launching the project, I had a crisis of confidence. It was like all of a sudden I felt like I was not good enough. I felt worried and scared; scared to make a mistake, scared to offend somebody/anybody, scared to mess up and say something or do something wrong. I was scared to share my full self, my politics, my work with my amazing sisters in the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network, worried someone somewhere might disagree with our desire for freedom and safety. I froze. And I know this experience is not just mine. Feeling “not good enough” is something common to most women at some point or another. I mean, how many times have we heard we’re not good enough or we’re not smart enough or we don’t know what we’re doing, especially as Indigenous women? It took me a good couple of months to even recognize these feelings.

Once I did, I talked with my friends and with my family. And I remembered what an amazing woman, who passed away a year or so ago, said: “It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, what matters is you showed up and said it”. And I thought about all the amazing women I know, my friends, my family, my ancestors…and how proud I felt. I am proud of the things I do, the things we do, and I want to share that. I am proud of our accomplishments as the First Women of these lands, and I want to share them. I will show up, we will show up. I will say it, we will say it. I am good enough, we are good enough and smart enough and beautiful and kind and amazing. I let the responsibility of the project overwhelm me, because I forgot we’re all in this together.

I’m not sure if the end result of this project will be exactly what I want, things tend to shift and change a little as you move along. It may end up just being this blog, but what an accomplishment that would be! And whatever form this ends up taking, the message will be clear: we are proud and strong and we will fight for our freedom.

So, new beginnings all around. Let’s begin.

still here

while it might look like there hasn’t been much movement in the past little while, i can tell you there sure has been. i am hoping to start posting photos and parts of some interviews soon.

time sure flies…

third post already…

As I mentioned in the previous post, the response so far has been amazing! Please keep circulating the call out and telling your friends and family about the project.

I’m carefully reading through each email that I receive, and it’s taking me longer than I thought to reply to each one. Please know that your responses and questions are very important to me, and I will reply as soon as I can. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

As the project progresses, I will update the blog more regularly with updates, photos, this and that. Stay tuned!

wow!

Thank you all for your responses, support, and words of encouragement, they mean a lot. I’ve had quite a few responses from incredible women, and I’m looking forward to many more! So please continue to let women know who may be interested in participating.

I also want to let everyone know it may take a few days for me to respond to your emails, but I am reading each and every one and I am honoured that so many amazing women are willing to share their stories. You are all truly inspiring (and AWESOME!).

Again, thanks!

first post

“It’s a good day to be Indigenous”

(from Smoke Signals, 1998)