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Photovoices

Submitted by Dena on 05/07/2009
Region: 
USA World
Innovation Blurb: 
Empowering indigenous people through photography
Web Site Link: 
http://www.photovoicesinternational.org/

Photovoices International is an international program that empowers indigenous peoples by giving them a "voice" through photography.  The program provides cameras and training for people to document important issues in their lives like the state of the natural environment, their traditional cultural values and their community strengths and challenges.  By using simple cameras, photographs and stories, indigenous people, who are not often conversant in their country's dominant language, gain a potent means to communicate their knowledge and concerns to international organizations, and government officials.  The program is being implemented in China and Indonesia.

* In China, The Photovoices project selected four sites of ethnic minorities, encompassing 60 small villages and 200 photographers in the Yunnan Province. They produced over 50,000 images with 15,000 accompanying stories.

* In Indonesia, The Photovoices project is in the village of Lamalera, on the Island of Timor.  According to the Photovoices, Lamalera is considered perhaps "the worlds last traditional whaling village".  The project allows the native Boti people to document their lives for the outside world.

 

Their Description: 
Photovoices Provides:

 

  • A concrete way for local people to document what they value about nature, culture and village life and to record community concerns and strengths;
  • An innovative participatory method to empower local people with visual community-based information to inform and influence decisions;
  • A powerful visual art form to educate people around the world about the value of biological and cultural diversity in a rapidly changing world.
Contact: 

 

Photo by: Salu Sae ©
Photovoices International

Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai No. 121X
Sanur - 80227
Bali, Indonesia

Telephone: +62 361 285298

E-mail: info@photovoicesinternational.org

Image Permission: 
0
Image Notes: 

I made numerous inquiries without an answer, so I added the proper attribution from the web site. - seth

General Notes: 
Northwest Yunnan China

China's Northwest Yunnan Province is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots and home to 15 of China’s ethnic minorities--each with cultural traditions inextricably intertwined with the high mountains and deep river valleys that are the hallmark of the region. In 1998, the Yunnan Provincial Government and The Nature Conservancy initiated the Yunnan Great Rivers Project to develop a system of Nature Reserves, National Parks, and other protected areas. Photovoices was developed as a means of securing essential information from local people and engaging them in the future of Northwest Yunnan. The Photovoices project selected four sites, encompassing 60 small villages and 200 photographers. The project produced more than 40,000 photographs and accompanying stories. Click here for More about Photovoices Yunnan China project.

 

 

Hub Categories: 
Civic Vitality