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The Tillikum Lens Project is a program created and administered by the International Sustainability Education Foundation (ISEF). For more information about ISEF please click here.
What is the Purpose of the Tillikum Lens project? Empowering youth to see local issues through a global lens – enabling indigenous youth to tell their stories through photography.
Tillikum is a Chinook word that means people (or nation or tribe) but really it is people. The Chinook language was once used from California to Alaska by all people from around the world to communicate. It was the unifying language of this region and it allowed people to share their stories and cultures. While the language has fallen into disuse it can still unite us through the Tillikum Lens, the People’s Lens. We look through a lens to gain different perspectives and understanding and in this project it means a camera lens – telling stories through images.
Images are powerful storytellers – it is often said that an image tells a thousand words. Images are also very strong emotional statements and give great empowerment to the creators of those images. They transcend languages and cultures to communicate with all people.
How often do we say ‘Let me show you” when we can’t explain in words?
This project is inspired by a story behind the wall of images at the Osoyoos Desert Cultural Centre which show paintings done by the children of the Osoyoos school in the 1930’s; images and stories which were instrumental in keeping the school on Osoyoos land and under Osoyoos Band control. Images, in particular photography, are very powerful tools to enable youth to tell their story from their perspective. Here is a link to the story and the images which inspired this project:
In association with the Osoyoos Indian Band and the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations (Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw and Lil’wat7ul) and in collaboration with an interdisciplinary group of Liu Scholars, the International Sustainability Education Foundation (ISEF) has created “The Tillikum Lens project” a program focused on empowering indigenous youth by enabling them to tell their own stories through images. This project features internationally known photographers teaching local indigenous youth from these communities how to document their lives and stories through images.
We have Conferences following up on these workshops which bring the participants from the different workshops together so they can share their experiences and images with each other.
Following these conferences the images the participants create will be shown in various venues around the country ranging from galleries to hotel lobbies to cultural centres. Through this and through the conferences the Tilliukum Lens project shares the participants stories and images with the world at large.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Jonathon Reynolds is the Executive Director of the International Sustainability Education Foundation and he started Tillikum Lens in early 2015 after being inspired by the story and images at the Osoyoos Desert Cultural Centre.
Lily Yumagulova is the Tillikum Lens Program Indigenous Community Outreach Coordinator and Curator
The Tillikum Lens project enables indigenous youth to tell their stories through global lens. This participatory program brings together indigenous youth, their communities and Canada’s leading photographers to create a platform for expression and to strengthen youth participation in policymaking and planning through digital storytelling.
Selected events:
· June 2016 Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre and Canadian Canoe Museum workshop –
· Nov. 2015 – Jan. 2016 Tillikum Lens Photography Show at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC (Featuring work from the Squamish First Nation, the Osoyoos Indian Band and Xet’olacw Community School in Mount Currie).
· April – September 2016 The Tillikum Lens Project is part of the View Finders Exhibition at the ArtStarts Gallery. View participant interview. View video.
· January 2016 Curve Lake First Nation – Indigenous Youth photography show
· 2016 Silver Canoe Dinner Exhibition, Lockport School Student Photographs and Paddles, Fort Gibraltar, Winnipeg.
· 2016 Squamish Youth Paddle Carving & Paddle Together Photography Exhibition, Creekside Community Centre – False Creek
