Narrators. Documentarians.

Alice Sabourin Photovoice / Artistic Director

They might be unlikely terms for teenagers, but that’s what a group of First Nation youth from remote First Nations have become, says Thunder Bay’s Alice Sabourin.

“We hosted a project at three local high schools in Thunder Bay where we engaged youth from remote northern First Nation to narrate and document their urban lives while going to school in the city,” Sabourin, the project’s artistic director, said.

Through Photovoice, the youth created more than 300 photographs and a video as well as sculptures, collage and a montage called the Sacred Tree to express themselves to policy makers, schools, the community and each other, in order to encourage dialogue and create change.

During the project, the students focused on two key themes:

Spaces of Challenge: “People just hang out when they have nowhere to go. It’s too early to go back to your boarding home, but you still want to hang out with friends,” says one student of the bus terminal. Police cars and stairwells at school were also highlighted among this collection of photos.

Spaces of Joy, Celebration and Belonging: Participants photographed all aspects of student life, such as their homes, pets and families to capture spaces of joy, celebration and belonging.

Eabametoong’s Ardelle Sagutcheway, a Grade 12 student at the time she participated in Photovoice, photographed the Brodie Street Terminal in downtown Thunder Bay as well as one of the ever-present Thunder Bay Police squad cars that was assigned to monitor the bus station for her share of her work with Photovoice.

“While I was in high school, the Brodie Street Terminal was the place all the Aboriginal high school students went to gather to just ‘hang out’ together. It was viewed as a ‘bad place,’ but it was Our Place,” said the graduate, who is now employed as a diabetes worker in her community. “The other photo (of the squad car peeking out from the side of a building) was actually also taken at the Brodie Street Terminal. A couple of months before I took that photo, the city had decided they were going to station a police car at the bus terminal every single night going forward, and so they became this constant unwanted presence there watching us. We felt like there was no safe place for us to go to just hang out.”

Using 35 mm and disposable cameras, students took steps towards breaking down racial barriers, supported youth in positions of leadership, and shared their views, Sabourin said.

“Through the language of art, participants learned to listen, share and understand each other,” she said, adding the final results of the Photovoice project was showcased at three diverse venues to maximize community involvement, including the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Ka-Nah-Chi-Hih Solvent Abuse Treatment Centre and the Pavilion, a local amusement park, which is located at Chippewa Park. Sabourin also said the exhibition at Ka-Nah-Chi-Hih included Talking Circles to allow participants to discuss their photos and share the meaning behind the images with members of the community.

“I explained to them what photos I took, why and what they meant to me,” Sagutcheway said.

Aboriginal strategy groups, native counselors, high school administration, and city councilors alike participated in the dialogue of the Talking Circles, Sabourin said.

“I think Photovoice did a wonderful job of creating a new kind of dialogue in the community,” she said. “The young people involved learned that life is built upon relationships and that we can relate and come together through our stories.”