The Fort Hope Photovoice exhibit at Kingston’s Tett centre features the work of roughly a dozen Indigenous youth from Fort Hope.
Fort Hope lies north of Thunder Bay and the community’s ties with Kingston aren’t obvious at first.
The exhibit started roughly two years ago, when Steve and Katie Koopman heard a radio documentary about Fort Hope’s all-girl hockey team.
The Koopmans decided to help the team that was facing challenges getting ice time, equipment and had to deal with racism at a tournament in Thunder Bay.
They managed to help fundraise for the team, allowing the Rez Girls 64 Wolves participate in a hockey tournament in Kanata.
The couple also donated their skills as photographers to document the girls’ experience at the tournament.
Since that time, the bond between the Koopmans and the Fort Hope community has grown.
The Koopmans have visited Fort Hope a couple of times, and most recently shared their expertise in photography with about a dozen grade 9 students there. The result was dozens of pictures — ranging from landscapes to wildlife to the people of Fort Hope — by those students now on display at the Tett Centre.
Four of the young, budding photographers made the trip from Fort Hope to Kingston for the showing of their work.
One of them is 15-year-old Warrior Oseamas.
Oseamas has two photo’s on display. One of them is a picture of his friend in silhouette, drinking from a blue translucent water bottle.
Soft spoken, Oseamas says he calls the print McBlack because his friend is backlit and unidentifiable.
“Yeah, I caught him when he wasn’t looking.” Oseamus said, grinning.
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Tara Justine Wabano is another Fort Hope 15-year-old with work on display. One of her pictures is of Eabamet Lake.
The ice is breaking up, the water like glass and the sky is a brilliant hue of blue. Wabano says she caught the moment in the early morning.
“I like how this island is set up with this tiny little island here,” she said, gesturing to her work. “The sky — how it gets really light over here and then gets dark over here in the corner.”
The photographs on display are for sale as well.
Steve Koopman says they are raising money several ways. Admission to the event is by donation, Koopman says, and there’s also a raffle and a silent auction.
The money raised, Koopman says, will all go back to Fort Hope.
“Any of that funds that we receive are going back to the John C. Yesno Education Centre in Fort Hope to be able to give additional monies to the community,” he said.
When the exhibit wraps up on Friday Koopman, says they will be closing the exhibit out with a documentary about Fort Hope and the Inuit film The Grizzlies.
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