Intro to Dos Polacas' Book ProjectOur book project is called In Their Hands: The Keepers of the Box of Treasures.
The funds raised through Kickstarter from our wonderful supporters will go to producing this book, including any additional equipment or travel.
100% of the net proceeds from book sales will go toward Indigenous language education in the Kwakwaka'wakw community. We will not take any royalties or any of the profits from the sale of the completed books. This project welcomes you to witness the knowledge and experience of the elders of the Kwakwkak’wakw people. You will learn from them about resilience, reconciliation and strength.
We are collaborating in this tremendous book and online project with two women steeped in their culture. Andrea Cranmer is a traditional culture teacher and mentor. Pewi Alfred teaches Kwak'wala at the elementary school in Alert Bay and is a traditional dance instructor. They both grew up in the Kwakwaka’wakw culture in Alert Bay, British Columbia learning about their traditions from their mothers and fathers, grandmothers, other family members and their community.
As teachers and mentors they have devoted their lives to their culture, passing it on to the next generation. We are very thankful they are working with us, insuring the voice of the project is that of the First Nations community.
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This is Mrs. Lily Speck (above), an esteemed elder from Alert Bay who Sharon photographed in 2001.
Mrs. Speck was a real lady, held in very high regard and respected as someone who held and passed on the Kwakwaka'wakw cultural traditions and protocol to her family and the wider community.
We thank her family who has allowed us to use this image on a limited basis.
Her image has been the symbol of "In Their Hands" for many years. And now for our Kickstarter Campaign. Gilaka'sla.
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In Their Hands started 17 years ago
when Sharon was asked by Andrea Sanborn, the U’Mista Cultural Center’s executive director,
to photograph the older members of the community.
Pamela joined her to interview them while Sharon created their portraits.
The result is a book project of intimate portraits of these elders and in-depth interviews.
Please visit click HERE to read how Sharon sees the art of portraiture.
when Sharon was asked by Andrea Sanborn, the U’Mista Cultural Center’s executive director,
to photograph the older members of the community.
Pamela joined her to interview them while Sharon created their portraits.
The result is a book project of intimate portraits of these elders and in-depth interviews.
Please visit click HERE to read how Sharon sees the art of portraiture.
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What will you experience by being part of this project?
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By celebrating the elders, the youth and the earth, we build a bridge stretching between cultures.
Across this bridge travel traditions, healing, reconciliation, strength, stories, spirit, music and mystery. Looking around us, we see that the kaleidoscope of world cultures has not yet turned monochromatic but the threat is on the horizon for many Indigenous cultures. If First Nations cultures are diminished, we are all impoverished. Look at the faces and hands of these older members of the First Nations community. Listen as Kwakwaka’wakw elders share their life experiences. When we grow and learn together, we strengthen each other and celebrate our similarities as well as our differences. We ask you to join us to Accompany us on this fascinating journey |
What motivates us?
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A sense of urgency that energizes but does not make us frantic.
The feeling of being part of a groundswell, like a rising spring tide. A push toward greater things ahead. Working with people who have no time to waste. Honoring and celebrating the resilience of this complex culture. |
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Who has guided us in this direction?
First it was Andrea Sanborn, the executive director of the U'Mista Cultural Center.
Now it is our collaborators, Andrea Cranmer and Pewi Alfred.
But it has also been the older members of the Kwakwaka'wakw community who have been so generous with their time and encouragement, like Robert “Bobbie Joe” Joseph, Stan Hunt, Maxine Matilpi, Beau Dick, Vera Cranmer, Juanita Johnson and many others.
Now it is our collaborators, Andrea Cranmer and Pewi Alfred.
But it has also been the older members of the Kwakwaka'wakw community who have been so generous with their time and encouragement, like Robert “Bobbie Joe” Joseph, Stan Hunt, Maxine Matilpi, Beau Dick, Vera Cranmer, Juanita Johnson and many others.
Chief Robert "Bobbie Joe" Joseph
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Stanley Hunt
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Maxine Matilpi
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Chief Beau Dick
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What do we expect to accomplish with this project?
In collaboration with First Nations communities, and more specifically the Kwakwaka’wakw community, we are working toward a better future. This project is a model of how non-natives work together with Indigenous peoples to make a healthy planet with courageous youth and honored elders; where reconciliation, collaboration and resilience define our inter-cultural communications.
This book project and its accompanying online language resources highlight the resilient spirits of many older First Nations community members. They tell their own stories accompanied in the book by portraits of their faces and hands. In Their Hands provides a platform from which to broadcast the values of these elders’ Box of Treasures.
This book project and its accompanying online language resources highlight the resilient spirits of many older First Nations community members. They tell their own stories accompanied in the book by portraits of their faces and hands. In Their Hands provides a platform from which to broadcast the values of these elders’ Box of Treasures.
The older members of First Nations communities are the heart and soul of our project.
With your generous help and support through our Kickstarter, this project will add to work already begun: Indigenous language education, teaching community youth the age-old Kwakwaka’wakw cultural traditions, and involving the community in reconciliation through story-telling and portraits. By engaging non-native people outside of the Kwakwaka’wakw community in these efforts, through the sales of this book, our collaboration will support the continuing growth of this complex, resilient culture.
The Ace Up Our Sleeve
Dos Polacas’ real treasure lies in our unparalleled access to the Indigenous communities of the Pacific Northwest developed over the last twenty-five years. These personal connections allow us to sit at kitchen tables sipping coffee and in carving sheds watching artists at work. Every chance we get, we document the older peoples' humor, stories, knowledge and personalities so they are not lost to the passage of time.
What needs to be done?
We still need to:
- Make around 40 more portraits
- Record another 40 interviews or so
- Create more excellent photographs
- And publish In Their Hands.
What experience do we have?
Sharon's Background
As a fifth generation artist I am driven by the power of creative images. My camera is not just the tool I use to create photographic portraiture, it also allows me to stand on a bridge, that crosses between different cultures. Through my lens I am fortunate to observe ceremonies, photograph fine art being made, listen while stories and songs are shared and make portraits of those same story tellers and singers. Photography gives voice to my experiences and allows me a personal interpretation of the world.
Spending decades with Native and First Nation peoples of the Inland and Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada has dramatically affected my attitude towards how and what I see. Through experiencing the diversity of peoples I have learned to recognize the colors, the light and it’s shadow side, of my home, here in the Pacific Northwest, in a very distinct way. Against a backdrop of magnificent natural beauty that is the Northwest Coast these same decades have gifted me with life-long friendships within Native and First Nations communities. Through these dear friends, aunties, and uncles I continue to learn about the richness and drama deeply woven into the daily lives of Indigenous peoples. I am profoundly grateful and honored not only each time I lift a camera and exchange that moment that becomes an image...but also for the joy of presence and connection.
As a fifth generation artist I am driven by the power of creative images. My camera is not just the tool I use to create photographic portraiture, it also allows me to stand on a bridge, that crosses between different cultures. Through my lens I am fortunate to observe ceremonies, photograph fine art being made, listen while stories and songs are shared and make portraits of those same story tellers and singers. Photography gives voice to my experiences and allows me a personal interpretation of the world.
Spending decades with Native and First Nation peoples of the Inland and Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada has dramatically affected my attitude towards how and what I see. Through experiencing the diversity of peoples I have learned to recognize the colors, the light and it’s shadow side, of my home, here in the Pacific Northwest, in a very distinct way. Against a backdrop of magnificent natural beauty that is the Northwest Coast these same decades have gifted me with life-long friendships within Native and First Nations communities. Through these dear friends, aunties, and uncles I continue to learn about the richness and drama deeply woven into the daily lives of Indigenous peoples. I am profoundly grateful and honored not only each time I lift a camera and exchange that moment that becomes an image...but also for the joy of presence and connection.
Sharon (left) and Pamela (right) in the thick of things
Pamela's Background
The job of documenting elders belongs not only to the photographer’s eye but also to the writer’s words. The Kwakwaka’wakw elders talk to me and I listen, recording their voices, using their stories to strengthen vital cross-generational and cross-cultural exchange. Sharon and I have worked together on many smaller projects since 1997, when we produced the publication Opening Hearts about the Raramuri people (Tarahumara) of the Copper Canyon of Mexico.
For Opening Hearts, I wrote the background pieces and sidebars, transcribed interviews, and assembled the pieces for publication. I put the complex culture and history of the Raramuri people into a context that allowed for non-Raramuri to begin to understand this tribe’s self-imposed isolation from the Mexico around them. Since then we have worked on numerous projects large and small. For In Their Hands, my role is to not only capture the elder’s spoken words but create the interview’s context on both an intimate and universal scale in as few words as possible. I bring context and a written beauty to Sharon's photography.
The job of documenting elders belongs not only to the photographer’s eye but also to the writer’s words. The Kwakwaka’wakw elders talk to me and I listen, recording their voices, using their stories to strengthen vital cross-generational and cross-cultural exchange. Sharon and I have worked together on many smaller projects since 1997, when we produced the publication Opening Hearts about the Raramuri people (Tarahumara) of the Copper Canyon of Mexico.
For Opening Hearts, I wrote the background pieces and sidebars, transcribed interviews, and assembled the pieces for publication. I put the complex culture and history of the Raramuri people into a context that allowed for non-Raramuri to begin to understand this tribe’s self-imposed isolation from the Mexico around them. Since then we have worked on numerous projects large and small. For In Their Hands, my role is to not only capture the elder’s spoken words but create the interview’s context on both an intimate and universal scale in as few words as possible. I bring context and a written beauty to Sharon's photography.
We speak about the world in the same way. Sharon uses imagery, Pamela uses words.
Our goal is to have 90% of the words in our book be from interviews. You will read the words of the Kwakwaka’wakw community explaining their culture, not our words.
This online part of the project will supplement Kwak’wala language education. Whenever possible, Pamela records stories in both the speaker’s native language and in English. These recordings will be available through a weblink.
Our goal is to have 90% of the words in our book be from interviews. You will read the words of the Kwakwaka’wakw community explaining their culture, not our words.
This online part of the project will supplement Kwak’wala language education. Whenever possible, Pamela records stories in both the speaker’s native language and in English. These recordings will be available through a weblink.
Book Project Summary
- Approximately 1,000 books will be published
- Each book will contain 150 pages of intimate black and white portrait photography of the Kwakwaka'wakw Elders by Sharon
- Additional stunning photography of the Pacific Northwest coast by Sharon
- Personal, in-depth interviews and stories, recorded by Pamela, transcribed from recordings
- Additional information on the Kwakwaka’wakw culture to be provided by First Nations community members, edited by Pamela and community members
- A dedicated webpage with recorded stories in both English and Kwak’wala will be available for free
Additional Information
The funds raised through Kickstarter will go to producing the book, including any additional equipment or travel. 100% of the net proceeds from book sales will go toward Indigenous language education in the Kwakwaka'wakw community. We will not take any royalties or any of the profits from the sale of the books.
T h i s i s o u r g i f t.
We have been supported in this project by
T h i s i s o u r g i f t.
We have been supported in this project by
- the U'mista Cultural Center and Museum in Alert Bay, British Columbia
- the Burke Museum in Seattle
- the University of British Columbia's Belkin Gallery
- the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver BC
- Lindblad Expeditions
We
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Years of creating portraiture and recording interviews with the Kwakwaka'wakw community has gifted us with the portrait photography like you see here below. We are very thankful to all the older community members who have allowed us to photograph them and record their voices.
Chief Bill Cranmer, 'Namgis Nimpkish River
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Ida Lucy Smith, 'Nak̕waxda'x̱w
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Chief Henry Seaweed, ‘Nakwaxdaxw
Auntie Ethel Alfred with her wonderful smile,
Mama̱liliḵa̱la Village Island
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Christina McDougall, nee Scow, sewing a button blanket.
Barbara Hunt, Dzawada̱'enux̱w, Kingcome Inlet
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