Last summer I took part in the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC) video ‘Don’t Need Saving: Aboriginal Women and Access to Justice’ directed and produced by Audrey Huntley of Wolf Dog Prodductions. METRAC wanted to investigate why Indigenous women have greater reports of violence. There are currently over 600 women who have gone missing or murdered in Canada. Native women are 5X more likely than other women to die a violent death. Startling facts.
This is a short video that probes the conversations around violence against Indigenous women and the issues surrounding this epidemic. It features many female members from the Toronto Native community who share their opinions.
My part in this video was portraying the stereotypes that face Native women, and actually women all around this world. You are labelled as either the Madonna or the Whore. It’s no different in the Native community, where the stereotypes are that you are either a traditional woman connected to nature (Pocahontas vibes), or a street worker. It was weird playing the latter because cars were actually slowing down and were somewhat serious until they saw the film crew.
Here are some of the photos from behind the scenes last summer. Although the topic at hand was serious, we all did our best to have a good time and enjoy our time together hanging out and shooting.
Hey look I glow.
Mike Barber doing his magical camera work.
Christine the brilliant makeup/hair artist and Audrey running the show.
Checking out the footage before we moved on to the next scene.
En route to the second “set.” It looks like I could be going to a club w/ the jacket on.
But NOT that kind of club!
