lauritadianita
Josephine
This is Josephine, a beautiful Iñupiaq woman I met at the Kotzebue Senior Citizens Center. I can't wait to return to Kotzebue to bring her these photos I made of her, and learn more about her (I wished I could have sat and chatted and ate ptarmigan soup with her, but I had to run off to help with a focus group.) She told me, as I said goodbye, "Friends always come at the right times." I told her, "and I will come back!"
I look forward to coming back and learning from her, because what I have seen from traveling to rural Alaskan places and from learning from Alaska Native people through my personal and professional life is that elder women such as Josephine with so much kindness in their hearts that is so immediately apparent also have so many skills that they acquired over a lifetime (fishing, skinning, butchering, sewing, beading, dancing, storytelling, healing, teaching young people about relationships, the list goes on and on), and have survived the incredible hardships of colonization and the unhealthy consequences that often occurred and occur within families as a result. I look forward to hearing her stories and skills.
Josephine
This is Josephine, a beautiful Iñupiaq woman I met at the Kotzebue Senior Citizens Center. I can't wait to return to Kotzebue to bring her these photos I made of her, and learn more about her (I wished I could have sat and chatted and ate ptarmigan soup with her, but I had to run off to help with a focus group.) She told me, as I said goodbye, "Friends always come at the right times." I told her, "and I will come back!"
I look forward to coming back and learning from her, because what I have seen from traveling to rural Alaskan places and from learning from Alaska Native people through my personal and professional life is that elder women such as Josephine with so much kindness in their hearts that is so immediately apparent also have so many skills that they acquired over a lifetime (fishing, skinning, butchering, sewing, beading, dancing, storytelling, healing, teaching young people about relationships, the list goes on and on), and have survived the incredible hardships of colonization and the unhealthy consequences that often occurred and occur within families as a result. I look forward to hearing her stories and skills.