What Makes Mia Ritter-Whittle
More Than a Photographer
With their work, Mia Ritter-Whittle seeks to make space for Indigenous people to exist in complexity: “I think when we expose, appreciate and think about complexity beyond the binary, we are more able to return to tradition in a more honest way, and we illuminate a more clear path to existing in a good way with the earth again.”
Mia's work is featured in PWB's Virtual Gallery 'Original 'Perspectives' for the 2020 CONTACT Photography Festival.
“These images are screenshots of Indigenous queer femme life. They display the emotion each person chooses, or chooses not to, let us, the viewer, the community, the stranger, the lover, see. They portray pride, boundaries, pleasure, wonder, trauma, shame, rejection, beauty, power, curiosity, pain, connection, quietness, and the act of falling in love. They are a consensual act of seeing, being, and collaborating.”
By Nabidu Taylor as featured in the Original Perspectives Exhibit
“I think two-spirit visibility is really important. As two-spirit people, we are always thought of as an afterthought, if thought of (positively) at all. We need more consensual and loving images of queer and femme Indigenous people. We need more images that allow us to feel our human-being-ness. I think the world is privileged to view these images. The reactions in these peoples' mirrors are holy. They are sacred. And I think the world and our communities need this medicine.”
Thank you Mia for continuing to express the need to respect past traditions and struggles, and a desire to inspire future generations of Indigenous artists to showcase their own unique perspectives
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