IMOW - We are Living Contradictions

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We are Living Contradictions
Jaime Koebel

Canada

GALLERY

CONVERSATION

I come from a rural community but I now live in an urban environment. I have small town values which sometimes don't fit in an...

I come from a place where family is important, and yet I live across the country, far away from my own family. As a young mother of three children, I was confident and proud of my pregnant, womanly body whereas my mother's generation and the ones before hers believe that pregnant bodies are fat and unattractive. Breast-feeding children is something that is just now being reintroduced to my community so nursing a child in public is frowned upon and largely misunderstood.

When I go back to my community, I make sure to nurse in public places a few times during my stay to show young women – and all women – that it's nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, one should be proud that they're able to provide sustenance to their child.

I believe that I'm a strong woman for my family, my community and for others but sometimes I feel weak and hopeless when dealing with things such as HIV/AIDS, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, STD’s, FAS, teenage pregnancy, racism and oppression, and death – so much death – that are rampant in my community and in Indigenous communities around the world.

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