Global Roundup: Indigenous Matriarch Circle in Canada, Botswana Women Safari Guides, Queer Muslim Identity, Art Addressing Colonial History, Trans Music Collective
Curated by FG Contributor Samiha Hossain
The Matriarch Circle has 18 people representing all of Manitoba’s nations, along with two grandmothers. (Photo Credit: Joanne Roberts, CityNews)
In the Canadian province of Manitoba, all Indigenous nations are represented in its newest Matriarch Circle, aimed to help guide the provincial government in its policies and laws regarding Indigenous peoples. They convened Thursday morning at the Legislative Building, preparing to help guide the provincial government through its strategy to address missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people.
The Matriarch Circle has 18 people representing all of Manitoba’s nations, along with two grandmothers who will be sharing their knowledge and giving input on policy changes and new laws surrounding Indigenous peoples.
Matriarchs are an important part of our families, our communities, and our nations. -Karen Swain, a grandmother and knowledge keeper working with the circle
The circle’s first priority is addressing the safety of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people, hoping no other family loses a loved one. Tina Keeper, who is one of the people in the Matriarch Circle, from Norway House Cree Nation, says it’s long overdue for Indigenous voices to play major roles in policy change.
It just feels so empowering and humbling. I don’t know how to explain the feeling. Just very uplifting. It’s very important. I have two children of my own … (I hope) they know that the sky is the limit. Just keep rising. -Rachael Clarke, member of Norway House Cree Nation who attended the meeting with Keeper
The circle plans to meet twice a year, on the summer and winter solstices. Keeper says she’s hopeful the matriarchs can help affect lasting changes to all of Manitoba’s people.
Bontle Cindy Mothogaathobogwe (centre) has been guiding for three years (Credit: Carmen Roberts)
In Botswana, mokoro guides, or "polers" as they are known, expertly cast tourists off from the shore of the Okavango Delta with their lengthy poles pushing deep into the delta's muddy bed. It's a trade that requires a challenging combination of balance and physical strength, as well as in-depth knowledge of wildlife and wilderness survival skills. Traditionally, this has been considered a man's job, but now a handful of courageous women are challenging stereotypes and steering change in the world of guiding.
At first I was nervous. At first, I was thinking, 'What will people say? This is a man's job!' Then something came into my mind that, no, I need to make a change and I need to set an example to every woman to show that anything is possible as long as you have passion, confidence and love what you are doing. -Bontle Cindy Mothogaathobogwe
Mothogaathobogwe grew up in the small village of Boro on the southern fringes of the Okavango Delta She has been guiding for three years. Like many polers, she first learnt to steer a mokoro when she was just a child, as this was the only means of transport for her community. And as she takes up the mantle of what male tour guides have been doing for decades, Mothogaathobogwe describes her new career with a sense of pride.
Mothogaathobogwe is part of the indigenous Bayei tribe from Maun, who live on the outskirts of the Delta and follow a sustainable lifestyle that has long preserved the integrity of the Delta's many different habitats and inhabitants. The Bayei play a vital role in helping to stem poaching and farming threats on this Unesco World Heritage site, helping it sustain and support 264 mammal species, 157 species of reptiles and 540 species of bird as well as the world's largest population of elephants.
Women in the safari industry have historically faced challenges due to the stereotypical belief that guiding is a rugged, outdoor occupation that requires huge amounts of physical strength in the wilderness – not to mention the remote working conditions that take you away from family for long periods of time. These preconceived conditions have always put women at a disadvantage.
Further north in the Delta, Chobe Game Lodge has a team of all female Botswana safari guides. Safari tour operator African Bush Camps launched a Female Guide Program in 2021. The two-year training accepts five women annually, focusing on skills like driving and animal tracking; last year they had more than 200 applicants.
It makes me feel very happy. I love nature and to be able to share the secrets of my homeland and tribal traditions with tourists gives me a great sense of pride as well as peace. -Bontle Cindy Mothogaathobogwe
Amrit Kaur is shown in a scene from the film "The Queen of My Dreams," in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Baby Daal Productions
Fawzia Mirza says her first short film 'The Queen of My Dreams' helped her embrace queer Muslim identity. Growing up in rural Nova Scotia in Canada in the ’90s, Fawzia Mirza says she connected with her Pakistani heritage by watching Bollywood movies. But with few Hindi films exploring romance between LGBTQ+ characters, she couldn’t fully identify with the love she saw on screen.
I was really struggling with whether I could be queer and Muslim and still love Bollywood romance. -Fawzia Mirza
“The Queen of My Dreams,” released in 2012, reimagined 1969 Bollywood classic “Aradhana” in a queer light. She says the film also played a role in her publicly acknowledging her queer identity.
Through making that film, I really found that yes, I can be all of those identities. But also, making art really saved my life. Showing the film at festivals really helped me come out and really helped me see the power of art and the impact, not only that it could have on me, but on other people. -Fawzia Mirza
Twelve years later, the writer-director has expanded “The Queen of My Dreams” from a short film to a theatrical play to her debut feature. The film’s mother-daughter dynamic closely mirrors Mirza’s own. Her 2015 play “Me, My Mom and Sharmila,” which “The Queen of My Dreams” is adapted from, tells the story of how she came out to her mother.
I was really trying to reconcile, at that point, my own understanding of who I am, and my relationship with my family and mother. I think at the heart of all my work is the question, ‘How do we become who we are?’ -Fawzia Mirza
Mirza structures “The Queen of My Dreams” as two coming-of-age tales unfolding across three decades. The story begins in 1999, when Azra, a queer Muslim grad student who flies to Pakistan after the sudden death of her father, and her mother Mariam grapple with their differences. Interspersed are glimpses into Azra's upbringing in Nova Scotia, starting from her family's arrival in 1989. The narrative also delves into 22-year-old Mariam's life in Karachi in 1969, when she contends with her own domineering mother.
Mirza says all of her projects come from a deeply personal place. Next, she’s planning a feature called “Heirloom,” about a woman who enlists her queer friends to help her steal a cherished family jewelry piece from her mother, who adamantly refuses to pass it down for her wedding.
Image: Emanuel Spieske
Cheryl McIntosh, who was born in Jamaica, uses her art to address colonial history. Her exhibition “Counter Thoughts, Counter Images" has been attracting a lot of interest and is part of the German city of Bonn's Culture(s) of Remembrance project that highlights themes of colonialism, racism, resistance and recognition.
In an installation in the entrance area of the villa where the exhibition is taking place, McIntosh confronts visitors with a quote from Germany's first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer: "The German Reich must absolutely strive for the acquisition of colonies. In the Reich itself there is too little room for its large population." Adenauer's quote from 1927, before he was chancellor, is probably unknown to most Germans. According to McIntosh, they know far too little about Germany's colonial history.
For McIntosh, the effects of the colonial era go far beyond economic structures as a result of unequal power relations. Colonialism is also inextricably linked to current discrimination in Germany, she said. Her own experiences are why racism and colonialism have been the driving force behind her work from the very beginning.
As a Black person, I have already been verbally attacked. For me, that is a sign of colonialism. -Cheryl McIntosh
McIntosh — who has been dealing with the colonial era and racism in her art for almost 10 years — hopes her works will sharpen people's view of the colonial past and create more awareness of colonialism’s consequences.
I would like people to start talking and exchanging ideas about what happened in the past. I think we need to start with a narrative and reflection. -Cheryl McIntosh
Photo: Texas Isaiah
Siren, the new Black and brown trans music collective made up of Asanni Armon, s.e.r, Demi Vee, PHARAOH RAPTURE, WHATSGOOD!, and SunChild released its first album, THE GREAT OFFERING: VENUS UNDERWATER last month.
The six members of the band have been close friends for almost five years, having met at the closing party for the queer Brooklyn nightclub Spectrum. After originally trying to start a trans record label with each artist pursuing their own music careers, they eventually decided to work together. The project features each of the musicians taking the lead on a collaborative song, embodying a different phase of love, and giving their own creative interpretations of a love song. But the whole thing is weaved together by a mystical afrofuturist world they build out in the interludes voiced partly by actress Sis Thee Doll.
In a world where trans musicians struggle to avoid being pigeonholed, downplayed, or trapped in predatory record deals, Siren hopes to pave a new way. Them caught up with five members of the group to learn more about the themes behind GREAT OFFERING and the group's goals for its new endeavor.
One of the things that we were all able to do was really prove that there's no genre that Black queer people don't have any business inside of, because we did create them all. So the through line is our Blackness, is our transness, is our queerness. And we're not being confined by these created genres in order to perpetuate white supremacy. We're saying, no, this all belongs to us and we could piece it together any way we see fit. And that's what we did. - PHARAOH RAPTURE
In the interview, the artists discuss the mythological story behind the album, queering romance, and their hope for the future to break down walls.
When I say storm the world I really do mean it. I think that the shit that we do is so unique, and it's just nowhere…I want everything to get bigger and better so that every time something comes out, it is far beyond what we did before. I think that the world needs to see us—and not on some vanity shit. But we bring such a unique thing to music that music will forever be changed because of what we're trying to do. -Asanni Armon
Samiha Hossain (she/her) is an aspiring urban planner studying at Toronto Metropolitan University. Throughout the years, she has worked in nonprofits with survivors of sexual violence and youth. Samiha firmly believes in the power of connecting with people and listening to their stories to create solidarity and heal as a community. She loves learning about the diverse forms of feminist resistance around the world.