Photos give voice to youth

The camera lens never lies.
Two classes – the Grade 5-6 class at Migizi Wazisin Elementary and the communications class at Niimki Migizi Secondary – will learn this first hand over the next 16 weeks in a Photovoice project. The schools take in students from both Ginoogaming and Long Lake #58.
“See Us, Hear Us is a Photovoice project that will provide students with hands-on opportunities to learn and practice life skills that include art, photography, activism, writing, communication, event planning and marketing,” explained Celeste Pedri, the project coordinator and communications manager for Dilico Anishnabek Family Care. “This is about empowering the creativity of youth to find new, innovative and impactful ways to share their community’s strengths, resources, issues and potentials. This is about providing youth, whose voices are often ignored, experience with making a difference in their community.”
Photovoice is an organization that helps disadvantaged and marginalized communities build skills using photography and digital storytelling methods and to create tools for advocacy and communications for positive social change.
The project, which began Feb. 3, involves more than just handing out cameras to students and waiting for the images to come back, Pedri said.
“Students will dedicate class time on Thursdays,” she said. “During this time, a Photovoice facilitator will work through the project curriculum with the students.”
The facilitator will cover photography techniques, ethics, safety, training and editing, writing stories about the photos, how to plan an exhibit and media planning.
At the completion of the project, displays will be created in both Ginoogaming and Long Lake #58. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery will also host their work.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation provided $65,000 for the project. Those funds will cover the cost of the facilitator and the cost of cameras for each students.
Canon PowerShot s90 cameras were chosen because they can be used in manual settings to teach the students more about photography, Pedri said.