Lens of Empowerment Project, UFV

Home/Land was an international conference held at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University, UK in 2012. The work began in 2009 with an international network partnership project entitled The Lens of Empowerment. In the lead up to the conference, supported by Loughborough University, the partner institutions – including the University of the Fraser Valley, the University of Cape Town and The International Art Academy, Palestine – completed projects for exhibition.

UFV developed and delivered a pedagogical project entitled:

Lens of Empowerment: a project on women’s citizenship and identity in Stó:lō territory at the University of the Fraser Valley

The curriculum for UFV’s project was first developed and delivered in 2011-12. That year, I co-taught and co-facilitated with colleagues Sarah Ciurysek and Shirley Hardman for Lens of Empowerment, which culminated in the exhibition Sitelines in S’ólh Téméxw: a Student and Community-Centred Photo and Documentary Video Art Project in Abbotsford and Chilliwack, BC, and at Loughborough University, UK in the spring/summer 2012.

As a member of the UFV delegation to the July 2012 Home/Land conference, I spoke about our pedagogical project along with three colleagues Sarah Ciurysek, Shirley Hardman and Jacqueline Nolte and three students Jessica Bennett, Andrea Smith and Jennifer Janik.

During the conference, I was asked by Jacqueline Nolte to work with the Home/Land book editors, Marion Arnold and Marsha Meskimmon, as UFV Coordinator of an essay we would write together. In this role, throughout the editorial process, Sarah Ciurysek and I had the full and continuing support of our colleagues and our students for our co-authored chapter:

Stephanie Gould, Jacqueline Nolte, Shirley Hardman and Sarah Ciurysek with Jessica Bennett, Andrea Smith and Jennifer Janik. “Women’s Citizenship and Identity in Stó:lō Territory: a collective essay from the University of the Fraser Valley’s Lens Project (British Columbia, Canada)” in Marion Arnold and Marsha Meskimmon (eds.) Home/Land: Women, Citizenship, Photographies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016.

See Liverpool University Press: https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/73646

Exhibition 2012: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ufv/albums/72157629810496945

The Lens Project 2014-15:

In 2014-5, I co-facilitated with Dr. Wenona Victor (Indigenous Studies) and taught for this lens-based media project delivered by Visual Arts and Indigenous Studies. A cohort of students took five courses: VA 160 Introduction to Video Production, VA 161 Video Production and VA 390 Community Arts Practice (with Stephanie Gould); IPK 277 Indigenous Art, Stories and Protocols (with Dr. Wenona Victor, Indigenous Studies); and Theatre 250 Introduction to Storytelling (with Dr. Michelle LaFlamme, English).

The project culminated in the exhibition of student work, Tel i’tsel Kwe’lo (I Am From Here) in UFV’s S’eliyemetaxwtexw Gallery.