A new take on “women’s work”

CHARLOTTE PETRIE

Northern women photographers are getting some high-profile exposure thanks to the interest and effort of Kerry McCluskey, fellow photographer and founder of the Film Fatale photo exhibit on display at Iqaluit’s Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum March 8 to 25.

Twenty-four women from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories combined their talents to create an exciting and celebratory display of female photography. Opening day coincided with this year’s International Women’s Day.

McCluskey, who has been living and working in Iqaluit for the past five years, has a long history of activism in women’s issues tracing back to her pre-Arctic years in Peterborough, Ont., where she organized feminist cabaret shows, violence-against-women campaigns and served as Women’s Commissioner while attending Trent University.

When she first moved North she decided to take a break from it, feeling burned out and needing a rest from the often taxing lifestyle of a committed social activist.

But it wasn’t long before her passions got the better of her and began to re-emerge.

“I started to look around and think, ‘OK, what can I do here? How can I combine talents I now possess with a need to organize something?’” And there, in the dark room of her brain, the concept for a collective women’s photography show with participants from Nunavut and the NWT began to develop.

Besides having a personal interest in photography, McCluskey has observed a lack of high-profile women in the field.

“It’s very, very obvious when you look at the field that it’s still very much male-dominated, and for all the same reasons that all the other fields are as well. Women just aren’t getting out there and getting into it because of all the barriers, like being busy with kids, lack of money, training and skills, and being intimidated.”

It will take a couple of years before they know they can depend on the show’s consistency and get into it, McCluskey asserted, but it gives women something to shoot for.

The number of women participating grew to 24 this year. The number of Iqaluit participants has increased as well.

Still, McCluskey would like to see the numbers grow even more, and to include more women from the NWT and smaller Nunavut communities.

“And definitely, definitely, the most important thing, more aboriginal women because it’s still largely a sea of white faces and I’d like to see more Inuit and Dene women participate.”

Now that women are catching on to the idea, McCluskey plans to raise the profile to a national level over the next couple of years. She’d also like to eventually include women from the Yukon and get the exhibit on the road and into museums across the country.

Upping the show’s profile will cost money, however, and as it stands McCluskey’s personal account is the only thing the exhibit is banking on.