Wathahine

Photographs of Aboriginal Women by Nancy Ackerman

Following the Oka crisis, a Canadian photographer, whose grandmother was Mohawk, made the decision to set out in reach of her aboriginal roots, with nothing to go on but a faded photograph of her family.

Travelling throughout Canada, from south to north and east to west, Nancy Ackerman captured on film the faces and expressions of twenty or so women working to improve the lot of their families. The exhibition Wathahine, which means the long journey, presents a collection of sober but eloquent portraits in black and white, each accompanied by a personal commentary that rings with truth.

We hid in the woods all night and waited.
And then at 9:30 in the morning we saw the jets all in line for takeoff.
We headed for the runway with our flag and sat down.
The jet was coming closer, but we never moved... we never moved.
The younger ones started to get up, they were frightened.
I never got up. I said, "To hell with it, I’m going to sit here".
I was so angry.

Rose Grégoire, Sheshatishiu, Labrador.