ECOCLUB Blogs™
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Stitching our Stories in Luang Prabang, Laos
We are excited about a new project to empower minority women to share their stories through photography, interviews, and video. In November, TAEC finished the first phase of the project with our partner, PhotoForward. The participants, primarily young Hmong women from the night market, were given cameras, taught basic photography skills, and then asked to document women at work in their communities. The results were insightful and showed the strength of women in Lao society. We celebrated the women’s creativity and hard work by exhibiting their photographs and embroidery at Children’s Cultural Centre. To view their images, visit the online gallery at http://www.photoforward.org/women-at-work.html
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We are now in the second phase of this project, working with a smaller group of women to further develop their photography skills and introduce them to basic research techniques. The women have been exploring topics of their choosing, from shamanism and polygamy, to single parenthood and festival food preparation. This project is a part of TAEC’s ethnic youth internship program , developing ethnic community researchers to document their own cultures.
To raise funds to continue the project, postcards featuring the women’s photography will be available for purchase in our TAEC Shop in March. We hope to expand this project into more remote areas of Laos and to develop a completely community-curated exhibition partnering with our community researchers.
