Sumaxs Affect

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Over the four years I’ve interacted with the young people of Prince Rupert, we have created over 4000 photographs. I wanted to take these images off harddrives and computers and display them in a way that makes them public and meaningful for the friends, families, individuals, and community members who are connected to them.

Overwhelmed by the material mess of images as we assembled the 96 square foot photographic jigsaw puzzle, elders visited and jokingly asked “what were you smoking when you thought this up?”

Clan symbols visually represent the heritage and identities of the North Coast peoples and their families. I hope filling the symbols with the faces and actions of people will connect those identities with the real people who embody them. For the community, the mural is a powerful reminder of very important moments of happiness in their lives. For outside audiences we hope it provides a connection between contemporary identities, meanings, and an alternative to popular representations of First Peoples. The youth and community would like to be honored as the people they are and who they will become, instead of a people of the past.

The overall design was created by an 19 year old aspiring artist Kyle Wesley. The final piece stretches 12 feet across and 8 feet high. The mural was displayed in the Prince Rupert mall where individuals spent long moments gazing and pointing out the people they know. Now complete, the most common first reaction is “wow” followed by “awesome” and “beautiful.” Now it travels to UBC and Vancouver for a few months before returning to its home in Prince Rupert.

One afternoon, in a park next to City Hall, more than eighteen youth are captured in a photograph. Everyone pictured regularly visited Planet Youth, a local First Nations teen drop-in center and gathered here on day when the center was closed.

When the faces are unfamiliar, the photo is a snapshot of teenage street life. For some, it pictures a gang of delinquent youth that takes over the center of town before usually being dispersed by police.   For the youth themselves however, it’s a picture of their family.

Images  provide an opportunity to move past stereotypes and take a second look. A chance to ponder over a girl sticking out her tongue, a young man sprawled on the grass, and the humorous ruckus in the left corner. For those teenagers who often feel kicked aside or ignored, the photographs are an opportunity to be seen.

Here, youth ranging in age from 13-18, were given digital cameras and asked to take photographs of the city through their eyes as part of a photo-elicitation collaborative research method.  Black and white photography was selected to reflect a street photography style, but the youth were given no instruction on composition or photographic theory. All of the images here were taken by the youth and express their perspectives.

Every teen described Planet Youth as a family and most referred to the place as a second home where they felt safe and welcomed. Some would joke that they were a “dysfunctional family,” but a family nonetheless. While all a part of multigenerational biological families, the youth prioritized taking care of friends. It is why they chose to take pictures of each other; their family of peers.

In fact, the youth actively refer to each other as a “street family.” They often called each other mom, dad, aunt, or uncle based on the close relationships they have with their friends. They have even mapped the 40 plus members on a fictional family tree. New members were  invited to join the family and find a place among the nephews, nieces, and spouses.

Why would the youth feel the need to formalize their friendships in kinship terms? It is a question the youth and I explored in the production of the film “For Our Street Family” (2008). In the 34 minute film the youth share both their street family and their personal experiences with racism, abuse, violence and foster care. The youth tell their shared experiences of tragedy and hope.

As the youth mature into adulthood the Street Family has disintegrated but many youth retain the feeling that there are “sisters who are born to your blood, and sisters who are born to you your soul.” The pictures and videos call us to wonder about their lives and how the meanings change if we actually know their stories of death, foster care, abuse, rehabilitation, friendship, love, and acceptance. For the youth, the project allows them to choose how they want to be represented instead of how they are judged. The result is a collective self- portrait of a group of youth frequently noticed, stereotyped, and governed by bureaucracy, but hardly looked at and rarely listened to.