Kamloops university student's photography captures emotion of missing, murdered women | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
Subscribe

Would you like to subscribe to our newsletter?

Current Conditions Mainly Sunny  11.2°C

Kamloops News

Kamloops university student's photography captures emotion of missing, murdered women

Tara-Lynn, 29, poses with her photo "Missing Daughter'' currently on display at the TRU Old Main's photo gallery on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

KAMLOOPS — As a First Nations woman, Tara-Lynn Wilson considers herself lucky for never suffering the loss of someone close to her. But for many Indigenous families, dealing with the pain of losing family members through violent deaths or mysterious disappearances is a common reality.

Wilson, 29, is a Thompson Rivers University student who grew up in the Bonaparte Secwepemc territory. Her tribe is the Xen’ak’sa’lia. The topic of missing and murdered indigenous women is constantly in the media and Wilson wanted to bring more light to this issue through a photography assignment using her sister and her niece.

“It starts out with her holding her daughter and then her daughter slowly disappears,” Wilson says. “It is supposed to show the pain and sorrow all these mothers feel when they lose their daughters.”

Wilson is a psychology major at TRU and has also completed her Aboriginal Studies certificate. In her photo image “Missing Daughter” she also hopes people can understand the raw emotions some might see from First Nations communities when Indigenous women and girls go missing or are killed.

“I wanted people to understand what that feeling is and why we do what we do,” she says.

Wilson says when she was given the assignment, her young niece jumped at the opportunity to model for her aunt’s photography assignment.

“I asked my older sister who is my niece’s mother if she could stand in because I thought the connection would be better if it was an actual mother and daughter,” she says.

Although it was tough at first to get emotions, Wilson says she was able to get the shot portraying pain and sorrow.

“It was really hard, I knew for the final picture I wasn’t going to get the emotion right away,” she says.

Wilson says they tried to use fake tears but it wasn't the look the way she wanted.

“There just wasn’t enough emotion,” she says. “I didn’t want to break (my sister’s) heart right away so I just said, “Imagine if you got a phone call from the police that your daughter was missing and they are not going to do anything about it.”

Wilson says the tears started flowing and she was able to capture the image she needed. The photo has been hanging in the photo gallery at the university’s Old Main Art Gallery. She also posted it on social media where it got some attention.

“I knew it was going to pull a little bit of emotion from some people,” she says. “It’s been shared probably almost ten thousand times on Facebook and slowly it’s still climbing, so I did not expect something like that.”

Tara-Lynn Wilson is the photographer of this image titled
Tara-Lynn Wilson is the photographer of this image titled "Missing Daughter".
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Tara-Lynn Wilson

To contact a reporter for this story, email Karen Edwards or call (250) 819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2019
iNFOnews

  • Popular penticton News
View Site in: Desktop | Mobile