Through photos and stories, the work of 47 women around the world is portrayed in the book Womankind: faces of change around the world.
By Andrea Markey
Posted: Feb. 9, 2005
Sharon Labchuk warns about the heavy use of pesticides on P.E.I. crops. (Photo: Nance Ackerman)
Naked except for a gasmask, Sharon Labchuk sits cross-legged in a plowed potato field, her waist-length hair flowing over her shoulders.
The photo of the P.E.I. environmental activist is an arresting portrayal of a woman who has spent the last 17 years researching and sounding alarms about the heavy use of pesticides on Island crops.
Labchuk, who works with the Island group Earth Action, says she had to think about posing for the photo. Ultimately, she concluded it was a good way to help publicize the issue of environmental degradation.
"I decided it was a good opportunity to spread the word about pesticide use in P.E.I.," she says from her rural home on the Island.
The photo appears in a book, Womankind: faces of change around the world, by Donna Nebenzahl, a journalist from Montreal, and Nance Ackerman, a photographer from Tupperville, N.S.
Nebenzahl was in Halifax on Feb. 7, speaking to students and the public at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
Donna Nebenzahl spoke in Halifax recently about her book on activist women in the world.
She told the crowd there is a need for a civil society of activists and that is what they tried to portray in Womankind -- the common link of women acting to change things for the better.
The idea for the book sprouted from annual daybooks, or agendas, the journalist and photographer team have published since 1994. They began with women activists in Quebec. In 1998 they spread out to cover Canada. The coffee-table book on activist women of the world was published in 2003.
Nebenzahl and Ackerman travelled around the globe photographing and gathering stories from 47 women in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and everywhere in between. It took them almost three years, with fundraising from corporate and personal sponsors happening continent by continent.
"We tried to get a variety of women working on a variety of issues," Nebenzahl said during her talk. The stories she heard amazed her.
"These women face difficulty and yet wake up each morning and do something about it. Some of them face jail time and fatwas, and still they continue their work."
Nebenzahl said she was surprised at the level of communication via the Internet she encountered and the similarities of women's activist work around the world.
"There is a shared story of hope and determination."
Womankind is also a forum to increase the support and communication of women's groups around the world by sharing their stories.
Through the Womankind website, factory workers in Mexico can access the contact information for Meilin Wu, a Hong Kong factory workers' activist, to share the struggle for fair labour practices from transnational corporations. Nebenzahl says Angry Mothers Against Nuclear Waste in France can get support from, and give support to, other groups around the world fighting for the safety of their children. Vandana Shiva's fight against genetically modified crops from Monsanto and other corporations can show farmers in South America they are not alone in the struggle to preserve their ancient seeds.
When Nebenzahl asked Shiva how she can fight transnational corporations, she replied, "because we are everywhere."
After years of environmental work, Labchuk is well connected with other activists in Canada, the U.S., and around the world. She views the book and the website as further avenues for sharing information and inspiration. People have come to her to tell their own stories, ask for advice and to gain research information.
"I don't know if it resulted directly from the book but it is great especially for people who are just getting started and just learning," says Labchuk.
One thing she particularly likes about the book is the mix of famous and not so famous women. Some women are known around the world and some are famous locally for their actions to make the world a better place.
As for what is next on Nebenzahl's project list, she says Womankind could be done a hundred times over with more women activists -- but she said she won't be doing it. She has taken a liking to documentary filmmaking. Nebenzahl shares women's stories in her weekly Woman News column in the Montreal Gazette. In 1997 she created Calling All Girls!, a forum for girls between the ages of 9 and 15 to meet prominent women such as activist Gloria Steinem, astronaut Julie Payette and Olympic diver Anne Montminy.