Understanding indigenous arts matters because they are of a different kind and make you journey through time. They tell stories and educate. Native arts take you on a journey painted of human struggle, but of beauty. Their ingenuity depicts a path filled with sadness, but with pride and resilience. Ultimately, they uphold a sacred legacy to preserve. Get on a a journey towards understanding indigenous arts. Read through to discover these insightful native voices
We are Resilient by Tara-Lynn Kozma-Perrin – Photo by Paul Gino Ulysse Photography
I had the chance to attend two Native gatherings in Montreal, Quebec, and in Ottawa, Ontario. Both times, I felt a surge of emotions since guests were taken on the path of aboriginal history.
The Montreal workshop provided the audience with an insightful window into indigenous life in Canada. We learned about their struggle, their pride, their courage, and their pledge for ultimate peace.
Shifting of Energies by Cedar-Eve Peters – Photo by Paul Gino Ulysse Photography
We also tasted delicious indigenous dishes and admired captivating pieces of native arts.
The Ottawa’s gathering was an intense workshop with role plays that took every participant to relive an indigenous personal experience through time in the Canadian landscape.
They say seeing in believing. I’d say feeling is believing to a greater extent, feeling is understanding. I think it is from such beliefs that this indigenous group invites Canadians of all backgrounds to participate in an exercise to walk a mile in an indigenous person’s shoes.
Through emotional role plays, participants learned about Native history in Canada. After the story was unfolded, we got to touch the feather of peace and was able to feel this deep human connection. There was a call to stop fighting one another, to forgive, and instead to start building together. One thing I learned during these meetings was the importance of learning and acknowledging the truth because this will free your soul. You will then be free to forgive, to understand, and accept others. You will be free to love, freed of fear.
Your voice is your number #1 weapon. It can lift somebody’s spirit and lighten your own soul. And Christmas is the time of the year when your voice matters the most. This is the perfect time to make an impact on the world, one person at a time, one voice at a time. Use your Voices of Christmas to uplift and inspire.
Your voice allows you to express yourself, to tell the world you matter. Your voice has healing powers. The kind words you utter with your voice can make people feel better, can even save somebody’s life. Your voice can bring joy to someone and brighten their day. Your voice can comfort and empower others to raise their voice for good.
This Christmas is the time to shut down all negative voices inside of us. These voices that remind us about hurt and pain, about failures and mistakes.
Use the power of your voice to remind yourself that you are deserving, that it’s okay to make mistakes, that you deserve forgiveness, you deserve to be loved, you deserve to be happy.
Use the power of your voice to bring joy and happiness to others this Holiday.
To help you achive your Christmas goal, VoiceOasis is inviting you everyday until two days after Christmas to inspire yourself with words from a wise voice. Check out our website and social media channels for inspiring, comforting, and healing words. Get into the magic of the season!
To start off, some wise words from Helen Steiner Rice
Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.
The story I am about to tell you is a story of passion, dedication, and how to shoot art. In addition, it’s a tale of how photography meets art, in a way to revive a particular form of urban art in a big and busy city. Most importantly, this adventure will tell you how to rediscover the mural boxes.
Mural Boxes – Kindgom Crossed – Box 2, Iguana
Rediscover the Ottawa’s Mural Boxes – How to bring arts to life
This story started in the Nation’s Capital, the city of Ottawa, only weeks ago. That is to say a story about a man with a camera, and a passion for photography. In addition, this tale portrays a man on a quest to give a second life to one of Ottawa’s most impressive urban arts. Most importantly, this is about how reviving the Mural Boxes Art Exhibit Tour.
In Search of Incredible Arts
It was a cold Saturday winter-like afternoon. Paul Gino Ulysse decided to take his family on a discovery journey in the downtown core of the city. Above all, his idea was to bring back the Mural Boxes to resident’s consciousness. But, how to achieve this: by designing an online photographic exhibition with renewed shots of the utility boxes.
Paul’s idea took us to every corner of downtown Rideau because he aimed to shoot the artfully painted utility boxes. As we were moving from one street to another, the cold stopped bothering us. The cold weather gave way to excitement, hopes, and wonders. Suddenly, cold metal boxes warmed up while forgotten utility boxes turned into colorful urban arts with personality. From mundane everyday boxes of wires, art slowly started to come to life, another time.
Talking about personality, the Mural Boxes project is part of the Downtown Rideau Culture Walk. Moreover, this project includes two different exhibits that display the work of Ottawa artists. In addition, this is an award-winning program, and recipient of a Certificate of Merit from the International Downtown Association in 2017 in the category of Events and Programming. This project’s aim was to commemorate the celebration of Canada’s sesquicentennial 150th birthday in 2017. Similarly, the Downtown Rideau Business Improvement Area (B.I.A.) introduced this artfully designed project. In conclusion, it was part of its public art program in partnership with the City of Ottawa.
The list of principal artists part of the Mural Boxes Exhibit tour:
Retake the Culture Walk and rediscover the Ottawa Mural Boxes through Paul’s Lenses
Kingdoms Crossed – Box 15, Scarf
Box 17, Auntie Mame 17
Box 6, Auntie Mame Blue
See how Paul Gino Ulysse is bringing back the Mural Boxes to resident’s consciousness in a series of renewed and breathtaking shots of the boxes. By using his professional camera and his cellphone camera, he was able to create a mix of different shots that resonate with this amazing art work.
This is what Paul has to say When asked about the reasons that pushed him to do a photo-shoot of the Mural Boxes.
As a photographer, I am always looking for striking scenes to shoot. One day a view of the 1000 Arms Indian Dance painted on a utility box in downtown Rideau struck me. Although, this utility art box has been in this corner for a while, I had missed it several times. That’s why I decided to pay tribute to this amazing art work with renewed shots of the box.
To sum up, the idea of art mural boxes is not exclusive to the city of Ottawa. In fact, this is a worldwide trend that brings a new life to urban art in several cities. Some popular cities for utility box art are Mexico city, Mexico, Toronto, Canada, Calgary, Canada, Los Angeles, California, Glendale, California, Dublin, Ireland, and Madison, Wisconsin to just name a few.
A more diverse photoshoot can be found in Paul Gino Ulysse’s Instagram account. Check out @paulginoulysse for more gorgeous and surreal shots of this amazing urban exhibition and a new way to rediscover the mural boxes.
VoiceOasis has on board a group of men to discuss the conditions of women in the 21st century. This is a new chapter in the conversation promoting women’s rights we started two years ago. In March 2016, we invited a group of women to talk about women’s freedom through hairstyle. A year later, we had another group of women, millennial versus older women, confront their ideas on the parenting roles of women in our society.
Facts about Global Women’s Living Conditions to Help Promoting Women’s Rights
Men and women have walked the Earth together since the dawn of time. This relationship is interchangeable because men and women not only breathe the same air, but they cannot exist without one another. It’s a biological thing. It’s a human thing. This is the right time for promoting women’s rights.
However, some cold facts show that around the globe women are living in unacceptable conditions.
Women face inequality in almost all social, cultural, political, religious areas. Salary gap, violence, social, political and cultural abuse, religious bondage, and so on.
Canadian women working full time still earned 74.2 cents for every dollar that full-time male workers make. (The Globe And Mail)
Women in the US earn on average 78 cent for a dollar that a man earn while African-American women earn 64 cents and Latina women 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man. (The White House)
One in four girls around the world was married before her 18th birthday (Clinton Foundation)
Some African, Asian, and Middle East countries have more than 200 million girls and women alive today that have undergone genital mutilation (WHO)
In countries like Saoudi Arabia, women are denied the right to purchase, open a bank account or seek medical treatment on their own (Independent)
63 million girls worldwide do not have access to education (USAID)
Each minute, 28 underaged girls wed (Global Citizen). An estimated 140 million girls will marry before their 18th birthday between 2011 and 2020 (Clinton Foundation)
Promoting Women’s Rights Through Men’s Lenses
This year VoiceOasis joins voices to the initiative He for She to encourage men’s involvement the fight for promoting women’s rights. Some prominent figure support this initiative including Emma Watson, UN ambassador for the He for She campaign or Danai Gurai of Black Panther with her #LoveOurGirls issue.
Lucya Spencer (left) and colleagues – Photo Courtesy: Dainton Haase
Women have been fighting for years to reach gender parity around the globe. The world has seen many great feminists whose fights in promoting women’s rights resulted in women’s rights to vote. These fights also led to women’s autonomy in several countries. Recently, women have stood up against inequality, salary gap, sexual abuse. Many popular hashtags such as #MeToo or #SheToo are icons and symbols of these movements.
However, having our male allies on board is imperative in promoting women’s rights. I have also been inspired by my husband. His involvement in our relationship, his stance on equality and his view on women’s rights have encouraged me to pursue this road.
I firmly believe that promoting women’s right is everyone’s fight.
We cannot succeed if our male counterparts are not involved. Luckily, many men are conscious of the barriers that are reinforcing gender inequalities, and are doing their part for equality.
When men get the opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of women in their lives, women they are closed to or women they are proud of, it expands the conversation on women’s conditions. When men are conscious of women’s issues, of inequalities based on gender, it makes them question their own situation and foster a desire to work together for true equality.
Let’s give the floor to our male guests in promoting women’s rights.
Throughout their words, so much admiration and love surfaced. Their testimonies showed an amazing awareness of women’s issues. They address questions such as abusive relationships, economical and social barriers of different kinds as well as sexism and racism towards certain groups of women. Their insightful points of view on the the topic is simply eye-opening.
How can men’s involvement help change women’s conditions?
What can men do to improve the situations of their mother, sister, cousin, friend, mentor, teacher or colleague?
Our male allies tackle all these questions . Join your voice!
Dainton Haase – Breaking down women’s issues and promoting Women’s Rights
Dainton-Haase
Dainton is a Project Manager and has established an organization to help more black women get involved in IT for promoting Women’s Rights.
When we think about women’s issues, we tend to overlook problems encountered by women in the western countries, particularly women from vulnerable groups. Today, it seems that we look at countries in Africa, South America, Asia or the Middle East to point to issues related to gender violence. We do the same for sexual abuse or despotic rules denying women their rights to vote, to drive, or to be educated.
During his interview, Dainton has tackled some well-known issues faced by immigrant women in Canada and other western countries, especially those from minority groups. He boldly discussed topics such as chronic racism, poverty, and sexual abuse that especially affect this group of women.
Lucya Spencer – Photo courtesy: Dainton Haase
Promoting women’s rights through their contributions to society:
Honouring the memory of Lucya Spencer, the Executive Director, Immigrant Women Services Ottawa, Dainton shed lights on this very organization created by this Canadian immigrant to help other immigrant women setting up in Canada.
In Dainton own words, “Lucya Spencer made Canada home and made sure every immigrant who came here has the tool to do so.” This is a powerful message that highlights the contributions of immigrants in making Canada a better country, and in this case a woman, a black woman.
Dainton’s testimonial shows how the quiet force of some unsung heroes, women like Lucya Spencer can serve as a springboard to foster changes and inspire others.
Chad Dubeau
Chad is a professional Information Specialist and a Master Graduate in Library and Information Science, and advocate of the promotion of Women’s Rights.
This ally talked about a dynamic and unique relationship with his wife, Chantale. While honouring his wife, Chad has denounced an erroneous view that portrays women as ‘irrational’ people. This irrationality bestowed upon women dated back to centuries ago and yet still plays a role in gender inequality.
He explained that ‘he and his wife both applied for a job to teach English in Asia. Although his wife ‘s competence in the language and teaching skills were vastly superior to his, he was offered the position and she wasn’t. He didn’t accept that job. What really stands out in the story is how differently they were interviewed for the same position.’
He said that ‘he was treated as a professional and the majority of the questions they asked him were about his qualifications for the job. Her wife’s interview on the other hand revolved mostly around asking questions pertaining to her social life and how she would handle situations with male coworkers. In the end, she felt flustered and insulted.’
Promoting women’s rights to avoid dismissing them
Our society use excuses too often to diminish women, to give them lower wages than their male counterparts, and confined them within social, economical, cultural, marital and religious taboos.
Having men on board is a tremendous leap for gender equality. Men’s awareness can help stop violence against women. Male allies can help foster education for girls, reduce poverty among women and children. Sometimes, it may be something as simple as saying no to a type of injustice against a woman just like Chad didn’t accept the job in solidarity with his wife.
Robert is a Certified Human Resource Professional. He is also an advocate of Women’s Rights
He is paying tribute to his wife, whom from Robert own words is ‘an activist and environmentalist’, a woman who ‘follows her morals even in the face of adversity’.
In his testimonial, Robert is tackling a common problem faced by women: how ‘difficult’ it is ‘for a woman to be heard’.
Malala Yousafzai said: “We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.” Sometimes, in today’s world and particularly in the western societies, it’s difficult to imagine that women can be muzzled. However, religious fundamentalism that is imposing unfair rules on women and wiping away their independence, use of force to abuse women and silent them, denying women their fundamental rights to education are evident ways of muzzling women.
There are on the other hand subtler ways to silent women in their daily activities. Sexist jokes, taboos about women’s ‘irrationality’ and all these prescribed and internalized social and cultural rules that women are up against everyday. For instance, many girls will not choose to study in STEM areas because they believe it’s out of reach for them.
Some simple ways men can be allies in the fight for promoting women’s rights:
Conscious men can strive to respect women, listen to their concerns, and accept to learn from them.
Robert has proven to be an ally through his openness to women’s conditions and his willingness to learn from his wife. He said: “she has made me more open to different viewpoints and helped me learn about the issues. Without her, a lot of my views would be apathetic, but she has opened my eyes, and I am grateful for it.”
Amir is an Economics graduate turned front-end developer. He is pushing for the promotion of women’s rights.
He believes that men can be a voice for women’s rights. They can become an ally in the fight for promoting women’s rights.
Men can be an ally by recognizing women’s contributions, their strength, their intelligence. Amir said he’s been inspired by his mother all his life. He also mentioned being ‘in awe of her resilience and patience’.
How male ally can join forces in promoting women’s rights
Being an ally also means partnership with women without feeling that you are losing your territory to women. The fight for equality is not one gender against another. On the contrary, it’s about working together to reach fairness for both men and women. It is about joining forces to make the world a better place for all.
Amanda Seales – Photo credit: Wikimedia_Commons
Amir referred to Amanda Seales, an actress and a vocal woman who is promoting women’s rights. This advocate mentioned that he is particularly touched by one of Seales’ recent interview, where ‘she spoke on the fact that women’s rise does not represent the fall of men.’
This interview breaks down women’s independence by mentioning that ‘men must adapt’ for ‘women’ to become ‘empowered and attain equality’. And independence means ‘women wanting to be with a man as opposed to needing one’.
Alliance stands for working hand in hand
Being an ally means adapting to new reality and accepting the new roles deserved and slowly being assumed by women. It also means advocating for the advancement of equality by promoting ways to reduce gender wage gap, foster better education for women. An ally is someone who condemns violence against women and all kind of attempts to muzzle them.
Ultimately, it’s about openness and willingness to educate yourself as an ally, to question your privilege, and understand women’s conditions. As Amir put it: “after that interview my perspective on partnerships between men and women has definitely been changing to accommodate these new dynamics.”
Please, join us in promoting women’s rights!
Are you a concerned man, are you a #MaleAlly ? We would like to hear from you.
Princess Yennega the Svelte – An inspiring story of courage, feminine strenght and love….
All across the world women are victims of patriarchal taboos, sexism, and the well-too-familiar lack of understanding from their male counterparts. To make matter worse, violence against women is still raging. How many women are still dreaming of the day the world will finally see their full potential, will judge them on their skills and not on their gender? When will sexist jokes stop being part of our everyday routine?
Yes, women are still faced with unacceptable inequalities and discriminations based solely on their gender. However, we should question ourselves about how much we truly want things to change for us, how much we are willing to go the distance to make the changes we need a reality.
Hey ladies, time’s up! Let’s stop being princesses and become the queen in our own life.
If we want things to change for us, we not only have to stand up for ourselves but go to the source of the problem and redefine the concept of independence.
Most modern women including myself love to say that they are independent women, the kind who do not need a man’s help. Nevertheless, if we want to be honest and dig deep within ourselves we’ll find some really shameful thoughts, these kinds of thoughts we don’t want to loudly voice, these thoughts that are real setback on our way to become true independent women.
We will come back to these thoughts. Before that, I’d like to highlight the life of a woman who is a great example of femininity, strength, and independence.
Presenting Yennega the Svelte (who ironically is the Princess of Gambaga, a part of present-day Ghana).
However, the story of her life is more epic than any fairy tales.
As shown in the recent Black Panther movie, the history of Africa is filled with skilled female warriors and fearless women like the Dora Milaje inspired by the Amazon of Dahomey of Benin. The story of Yennega the Svelte is similarly the story of an amazing African warrior and Princess.
A Woman to Look Up To
Although there are some variations in the story of Yennega, Records show that Yennega was the daughter of King Nedega of Gambaga (also called Na Gbewa in other African Oral stories[i]) and has lived between the 14th and 15th centuries. Yennega was very close to her father and as such was raised like a boy. She learned at a very early age the arts of hunting, horse-riding and fighting and grew up to be a tremendous warrior who could use a bow and a spear like no-one-else.
Princess Yennega was brilliant, fearless, and a badass woman referred to as Yennega the Svelte. The kingdom counts many victories because of her. The princess was so phenomenal that her father, the king, wouldn’t let her wed for fear she would leave and the kingdom would lose one of its best warriors.
Feeling betrayed by her own father and with a growing desire to have a family of her own, Yennega found the most inventive manner to show her dad how she was feeling. She planted a field of Ocra in front of her father’s house and let it rot. When her father asked about her behavior, she explained that’s how she felt by not being able to start a family of her own.
Unfortunately, the king wouldn’t agree to let her daughter marry, saying she was still very young. He ordered that she be locked up like you would send a child to her bedroom for misbehaving. So Yennega came up with a plan to break free of her prison and take control of her own destiny.
Doing so, Yennega was technically not a princess anymore. She became a queen from this very moment by taking responsibility and taking charge of her life. Her bravery is an act of defiance against patriarchy.
A legendary woman
Having enough of her father’s mistrust and lack of understanding, Yennega broke free of her prison with the help of some guards. She fled in the middle of the night and galloped till her last strength to a faraway land, the forest of Bitou, in the south west of today’s Burkina Faso. She then faced her destiny and met the man of her life, an elephant hunter named Riale.
From this day on, Yennega added elephant hunting to her numerous skills, worked alongside Riale whom she later intertwined her destiny with. They conceived a son to whom she transferred her bravery, knowledge and wisdom. That’s how she became the mother of the moose people. Yennega had thought her son well! Later on, the boy became the founder of a powerful army and create the Moose kingdom whose descents are still alive today and remember the story of Yennega and her son.
Now let’s get back to these deep shameful thoughts, so deeply rooted and somewhat unconscious.
What are these thoughts or feelings and why do they make us feel so embarrassing?
Princess Yennega and Princess Shuri
They are what I call the princess thoughts.
Remember as a little girl—discussed in details in my recent Black Panther blog– you probably wanted to be a princess and growing up you tell yourself you don’t want anything to do with princesses. But the fact is deep down yourself those feelings linger, sometimes very difficult to identify.
These feelings are not merely about being a princess per se. They represent our unwillingness of becoming an independent woman, of becoming a queen, the responsible adult in our own life.
They are deeply rooted in our traditions, our societies, our families and within us, but not very easy to identify.
To illustrate, I asked some women on a Facebook post on one of my female friend’s wall, about whether they would be willing to buy a man an engagement ring if they were richer than their boy friend. My friend replied she would rather wait until the man was rich enough to buy her a ring.
Obviously, it would have been a sacrilege to go against traditions and taboos and be the woman who takes the lead in a traditionally realm of men. We want to be independent women and in the same time we want a man to lead our life. Hmm! Can’t work like this.
Remember most Disney Princesses before Shuri, the princess of Wakanda, their life is ultimately the same routine with some few exceptions. Whatever their skills, bravery, and courage their happily-ever-after always implies a prince-savior, a hero that will save the ‘damsel in distress’ and get the girl in the end.
How many times have we claimed to be independent to finally giving up on our independent desires in front of our male counterparts?
Is it me or all our social and religious institutions seem to have rules meant to keep women at bay. There are places and religions where women cannot go out with their hair or even their faces uncovered. There are religions where women can never be leaders and have to settle for the roles of religious assistants. There are even parts of the world where women are still denied education solely on the fact of being women.
Another fact is women are still largely the group that raises children, and so those who transmit these sexist behaviours and help maintain the patriarchy alive. So why? Have we ever asked ourselves why? Are we that helpless or do consciously or unconsciously we like playing the ‘princess in distress’ as a way to avoid responsibility? Are deeply have these feelings been internalized?
The answers to these questions are not obvious. However, it is clear that if we want to be free of social bondage, we have to be aware of these feelings and work to go pass them. Ultimately, we have to want the change we need.
Women very often paint the portrait of the perfect guy as the Prince charming. A strong but kind man who wears the invisible cape of the hero because they unconsciously desire to be protected. Somehow, we inwardly believe that we are not strong enough.
It’s a good thing some women have tried to defy the conventions and became models we can turn to in our fight to be heard, respected and be seen as equals. We have women who from the dawn of humanity have stepped up and stand up for themselves and those they love.
We are lucky to look up to Yennega. She is an example of a strong woman, a skilled warrior and a person who was not afraid to stand up against patriarchy and shape her destiny. We all have a Yennega inside of us. It’s this flame of courage and strength that we can call upon when the time comes to break free from sexist and patriarchal traditions that keep forcing women into bondage.
Our inner Yennega is this power that pushes us to stop being princesses and become queen in our own life. This power that leads us on the verge of responsibility for ourselves, on the brink of freedom.
Why do we feel so ashamed of these deep-rooted feelings?
The shame comes from received ideas that strength and femininity cannot work hand in hand. We need to review our feminist ideas. A woman can be both strong and completely feminine. Our strength does not need to come from getting rid of or try to weaken our male counterparts.
The feminist revolution should be one that teaches to value differences between men and women, to accept that men and women complement each other instead of being divisive. This is another great lesson from Yennega. She was a brilliant and fearless warrior and a strong woman with an even stronger desire of meeting a man she loves to start a family of her own. To Yennega, Riale was a partner, she learned from him to become an elephant hunter and thought him how to become a warrior. They have a partnership in which they complement each other.
Yennega as strong as she was never denied her feminine nature. Instead, this was part of her strength and what made her become a legendary woman and mother who raised her son to be as a strong a warrior as she was and an even greater leader.
There is nothing wrong with being a woman in charge and being feminine in the same time. We don’t need to mimic men’s behaviour to be strong.
How many times have we seen women in power dress completely like men when they need to deal with difficult work or business-related stuff?
A woman’s strength has to come from within. And it’s only by freeing ourselves from these received ideas (patriarchal or erroneous feminist views), by loving and accepting ourselves that we can accomplish that.
So, ladies, let our inner-Yennega talk and not be afraid of taking the lead in all areas of life including relationship, work, education, religion.
Why can’t a woman propose to a man or buy him an engagement ring?
