Soul Searching

The quest to find one’s place in the world never really ends, but the journey itself is enriching in so many ways

- Rosalie Favell, Winnipeg

I have always loved photographs, and I was very influenced by the photos of my family. As I started to study photography, I continued to point the camera at my family. I began to discover more about my Métis heritage. When I first learned photography, it wasn’t enough that I knew how to take pictures and make prints. I wanted the works to mean something more to me. At the same time, I decided I needed to look at who I was, and the colour of my skin was an issue. I had grown up not knowing my cultural heritage; I was not connected to it and I needed answers.

My quest to find my place in the world has taken me many places physically, intellectually and spiritually. My work comes from a culmination of searching for a way to comment on the worlds that I live in, investigating issues of personal and cultural identities. As a Métis woman, I am well versed in the difficulties of defining cultural identity. It is from this unique perspective that I map the territory that Aboriginal artists must navigate in imaging themselves.

Through my searching, I discovered the history of the Métis people of the Red River, and the Canadian experience.