Logan Humphrey
During the 2022 Schuneman Symposium, presented by the E.W Scripps School of Journalism, freelance photojournalist Eugene Tapahe and journalist Erin Tapahe spoke about their empowering project, "Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project." As Native Americans, they use their platform to empower their native heritage and prove that they are more than the usual stereotypes.
A dream inspired their project that Eugene had, where he was at Yellowstone National Park where a few bison had been grazing, and women with jingle dresses were dancing. The dream felt so healing to him, and it inspired him to create this project to allow others to feel what he felt. So he started photographing four younger Native American women, two of which are his daughters. They wore Ojibwe jingle dresses with several metal cones that would make a sound when performing a ritual dance.
Starting, they visited the spiritual lands that their ancestors once inhabited to bring unity and hope to people across the world. Then, they traveled to several national and state parks for their project and several major cities, bringing attention and sharing hope and positivity everywhere they went.
When several social issues are being placed at the forefront, their project is more critical now than ever. The two mentioned that their project took off because of the many social differences in the world. Through their project, they embrace female empowerment, their Native American heritage, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. Overall, it was a significant learning experience for all who worked with the project and a very touching and emotional one.
Erin helped bring this project to TikTok, where some videos got thousands of views, while one video got up to almost a million views. Creating videos on this platform allows their project to be spread further, reaching younger and more impressionable audiences.
Hi Logan, I really enjoyed the way you tied everything together at the end of your post. I definitely agree on the part where you mention the speakers importance in their presence and presenting the speech. Sometimes as a journalist it can be so easy to report on and write about negative events, whereas this project spreads positivity showing younger journalist that there is more to it. Freelance journalist is still a thing however I feel like we see less of them and always receive a ton of pressure about having to work with a company or organization in order to be successful in the journalist world.
ReplyDeleteHi Logan!
ReplyDeleteReally great post! I wish I was able to attend this portion of the symposium, it seemed so interesting! The metaphor of the jiggling of the coins about unity and community is so powerful! Putting a spotlight on Native American issues and projects is so important no more than ever.