CLICK HERE FOR MEDIA RELEASE FOR
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND THE BOX OF TREASURES
Check back regularly to see what news outlets are saying about
In Their Hands: The Keepers of the Box of Treasures!
Media Coverage for our 2016 Kickstarter "In the Hands of Our Elders"
2016 Article in Italian Journal Frontiere News
2016 Article on LinkedIn's Pulse
Background
WHO ARE DOS POLACAS?
We are Dos Polacas: Sharon Eva Grainger, photographer, and Pamela Pakker-Kozicki, project writer.
During our very first project together in the Copper Canyon of Mexico working with the Raramuri people, we got the nickname Dos Polacas (Two Polish Girls in Spanish) and it just stuck! After ten years working on “In the Hands of Our Elders,” it's time to publish this as a book, using Kickstarter to raise the funds.
WHY DO WE WANT TO DO THIS?
To paraphrase the words attributed to an aboriginal woman of Australia: We have not come to this decision as an effort “to help tribal people,” because that would be wasting the time of the elders, our supporters and the community of Alert Bay. We have come to this decision because our liberation is bound up with resiliency of the elders, the energy of their youth and the integrity of indigenous communities around the planet. Now let us work together.
QUESTIONS
The kaleidoscope of world cultures has not yet turned monochromatic but assimilation has swallowed up untold numbers of indigenous cultures around the planet
ANSWER
Every indigenous person we have spoken with answers the same: their elders. The spirit of tribal elders needs to be witnessed, honored, documented and passed on through their own words and imagery. The elders look both into the far-distant past and forward into the future. They are the heart and soul of our project In the Hands of Our Elders: A Project of Memory and Future with the Kwakwaka’wakw People of British Columbia. Both of us constantly learn from the elders. They guide us, intentionally and unintentionally, toward the visual presentation, the stories and the sounds of their complex culture.
WHY US?
SHARON GRAINGER'S BACKGROUND
Sharon is a 5th generation artist, a professional photographer of over 30 years with photography published in Smithsonian publications and a National Geographic Photography Instructor. She has given talks on the native people of the Pacific Northwest for decades, much of it while working for Lindblad Expeditions. As one half of Dos Polacas, she photographs, documents and celebrates the elders of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia. Sharon's camera lens acts as a bridge: connecting people through her images and translating indigenous cultures to the non-native cultures around them. Ceremonies and languages, stories and songs, crafts and art move back and forth across this lens-bridge.
Spending 40 years with native peoples of the Inland and Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada has dramatically affected Sharon's attitude towards how and what she sees. Against a backdrop of magnificent natural beauty, she has learned about the richness and drama deeply woven into the daily lives of these native peoples. They consider their land and territory as part of their community. This is reflected in Sharon's photography. She is honored to be allowed to create portraits of these elders and their hands for this book.
PAMELA PAKKER-KOZICKI'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 and Pamela listens. She records and broadcasts their voices, using their stories to strengthen the vital cross-generational and cross-cultural exchange. As the co-owner of R P Art, Inc. with her husband, Ulrich Pakker for the last 25 years, Pamela creates the written equivalent of Ulrich's monumental art through her descriptive writing. Translating his abstract contemporary sculpture to the written page challenges Pamela in much the same way as this project. Using the words of the elders, she supports Sharon's photography by creating a verbal context accessible to those who have never been in Kwakwaka'wakw country before, do not know what a button blanket is nor the carver's role in the Kwakwaka'wakw tradition.
We have worked together as Dos Polacas since 1997 when we produced the publication "Opening Hearts" about the Raramuri people of the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Pamela wrote the background pieces, sidebars and transcribed interviews. Putting the Raramuri into a historical and cultural context, she assembled the pieces for publication. For almost 20 years we have worked on numerous projects large and small. For "In the Hands of Our Elders," Pamela’s role is to not only capture the elder’s spoken words but create the interview’s context on both an intimate and universal scale. The project supports the Kwak’wala language education by recording the elders' stories in both their native language and in English. These recordings will be available on a web-link for students of Kwakwala.
OUR ACE IN THE HOLE
Dos Polacas’ real treasure lies in our 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 Kwakwaka’wakw elders and their humor, knowledge and personalities. This is one way their resilience will always be available.
THE BOOK
This project is for the children who are our greatest resource.
We are Dos Polacas: Sharon Eva Grainger, photographer, and Pamela Pakker-Kozicki, project writer.
During our very first project together in the Copper Canyon of Mexico working with the Raramuri people, we got the nickname Dos Polacas (Two Polish Girls in Spanish) and it just stuck! After ten years working on “In the Hands of Our Elders,” it's time to publish this as a book, using Kickstarter to raise the funds.
WHY DO WE WANT TO DO THIS?
To paraphrase the words attributed to an aboriginal woman of Australia: We have not come to this decision as an effort “to help tribal people,” because that would be wasting the time of the elders, our supporters and the community of Alert Bay. We have come to this decision because our liberation is bound up with resiliency of the elders, the energy of their youth and the integrity of indigenous communities around the planet. Now let us work together.
QUESTIONS
The kaleidoscope of world cultures has not yet turned monochromatic but assimilation has swallowed up untold numbers of indigenous cultures around the planet
- What supports the strength and continuity of native civilizations?
- Who insures a culture's stability?
- When a language dies, what remains of that way of life?
ANSWER
Every indigenous person we have spoken with answers the same: their elders. The spirit of tribal elders needs to be witnessed, honored, documented and passed on through their own words and imagery. The elders look both into the far-distant past and forward into the future. They are the heart and soul of our project In the Hands of Our Elders: A Project of Memory and Future with the Kwakwaka’wakw People of British Columbia. Both of us constantly learn from the elders. They guide us, intentionally and unintentionally, toward the visual presentation, the stories and the sounds of their complex culture.
WHY US?
SHARON GRAINGER'S BACKGROUND
Sharon is a 5th generation artist, a professional photographer of over 30 years with photography published in Smithsonian publications and a National Geographic Photography Instructor. She has given talks on the native people of the Pacific Northwest for decades, much of it while working for Lindblad Expeditions. As one half of Dos Polacas, she photographs, documents and celebrates the elders of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia. Sharon's camera lens acts as a bridge: connecting people through her images and translating indigenous cultures to the non-native cultures around them. Ceremonies and languages, stories and songs, crafts and art move back and forth across this lens-bridge.
Spending 40 years with native peoples of the Inland and Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada has dramatically affected Sharon's attitude towards how and what she sees. Against a backdrop of magnificent natural beauty, she has learned about the richness and drama deeply woven into the daily lives of these native peoples. They consider their land and territory as part of their community. This is reflected in Sharon's photography. She is honored to be allowed to create portraits of these elders and their hands for this book.
PAMELA PAKKER-KOZICKI'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 and Pamela listens. She records and broadcasts their voices, using their stories to strengthen the vital cross-generational and cross-cultural exchange. As the co-owner of R P Art, Inc. with her husband, Ulrich Pakker for the last 25 years, Pamela creates the written equivalent of Ulrich's monumental art through her descriptive writing. Translating his abstract contemporary sculpture to the written page challenges Pamela in much the same way as this project. Using the words of the elders, she supports Sharon's photography by creating a verbal context accessible to those who have never been in Kwakwaka'wakw country before, do not know what a button blanket is nor the carver's role in the Kwakwaka'wakw tradition.
We have worked together as Dos Polacas since 1997 when we produced the publication "Opening Hearts" about the Raramuri people of the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Pamela wrote the background pieces, sidebars and transcribed interviews. Putting the Raramuri into a historical and cultural context, she assembled the pieces for publication. For almost 20 years we have worked on numerous projects large and small. For "In the Hands of Our Elders," Pamela’s role is to not only capture the elder’s spoken words but create the interview’s context on both an intimate and universal scale. The project supports the Kwak’wala language education by recording the elders' stories in both their native language and in English. These recordings will be available on a web-link for students of Kwakwala.
OUR ACE IN THE HOLE
Dos Polacas’ real treasure lies in our 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 Kwakwaka’wakw elders and their humor, knowledge and personalities. This is one way their resilience will always be available.
THE BOOK
- The Kickstarter funds are for publishing, equipment, travel and production of the book.
- We will publish 500 to 1,000 books
- 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go toward indigenous language education. We will not take any royalties or any of the profits from the sale of the completed books.
- Intimate black and white portrait photography shot in British Columbia of approximately sixty Kwakwaka'wakw elders and their hands
- Additional photography of the stunning beauty of the Pacific Northwest coast
- Interviews of and stories told by the elders, written and recorded in English and in Kwak'wala, the language of the Kwakwaka'wakw people
- A link to a dedicated webpage where the recorded stories can be heard in both English and Kwak’wala
This project is for the children who are our greatest resource.