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From the North Bay Nugget  

N'GINAAJIW: My spirit is beautiful

Posted By MARCI BECKING - July 12, 2008

The inner beauty and self-esteem of anishinaabe-kwe shone through during the three-day filming and photo shoot of N'ginaajiw" (My spirit is beautiful) advertising campaign.

A 30-second commercial will be aired on APTN and a calendar will be distributed through the Anishinabek News.

The aboriginal HIV infection rate took an alarming four per cent jump last year and two groups most affected are aboriginal women and youth. From 1998 to 2006 our women represented 48.1 per cent of all positive HIV test results -- compared to 20.7 per cent for non-native women," says HIVAIDS co-ordinator Jody Cotter of the Union of Ontario Indians.

During a keynote address one leader from the HIV-AIDS movement challenged our communities to take action and left them with this thought: 'If our women and youth are being infected at such high rates, where is our future?'"

Cotter's response was to step back and take a look at why First Nations women are in such a state and what she developed was the project N'ginaajiw.

N'ginaajiw begins to address serious concerns First Nation women face.

N'ginnajiw -- My spirit is beautiful -- is one of the most wonderful things that we need to acknowledge in our daily lives. One of the most amazing things about your spirit is that no matter what situation you are in you will always have your spirit. No one can take that away from you," says Cotter about the project theme. From residential schools to the sixties scoop, we are greatly impacted from the loss of our language, identity, pride and our rich culture. What was hurt the most was our spirits. Our spirits have been damaged and you can see evidence of that on any First Nation across Canada.

I, myself, am part of a generation affected by residential schools. My grandmother was at the Spanish residential school where she learned how not to be an Indian and to not be proud of who she was. They were held captive, against their will, physically and sexually abused. The dysfunctional parenting was passed down through to my generation. All of that hurt, pain and shame."

Suicide, abuse, substance abuse, alcoholism, food addictions and high rates of HIV infection all need to be dealt with by healing the spirit.

It is my hope that our women will acknowledge their inner beauty and let it shine through in their actions, smiles and everyday living on this planet. We need to retrain our brains so we can be aware of our inner beauty and let go of the pressure that most women feel and receive from the media," says Cotter.

This campaign will include First Nations women of various sizes, shapes, shades and ages following the 13 Grandmother Moon teachings.

Doris Peltier from Wikwemikong said that she's happy that HIV infected people are included in this project.

I'm HIV positive and my spirit is beautiful too," says Peltier.

Seamstress and Nipissing First Nation citizen Lorraine Goulais sewed outfits for the various scenes. Lorraine put everything together very quickly and with a lot of heart," says Cotter.

Elly Antone, AIDS-HIV educator for the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, assisted with the budget and provided some of the funding.

Ed Regan from Ed Regan Productions in North Bay says the project deals with the heart of the issue.

Healing the spirit makes sense. Dealing with self-esteem issues is the real problem that underlies all of the bigger issues," says Regan who also filmed the HIV-AIDS educational DVD Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself.