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In early March, 2009 Canadians Alexander Suvajac and Jennifer Leski and Australian Amy McDonald spent five days in a rural village of Thailand: Huay Sara Phom.

Over those five days Alex, Jen and Amy captured in photographs, film and sound the lives of twenty of the village women. With the assistance of a translator, the team learned about the lives of each woman. Over food and laughter, Alex, Jen and Amy gathered a flavour of daily life of Huay Sara Phom.

Each of the images in this exhibition is supported by the words of the women photographed. All of the words are illustrated with a photograph.

The exhibition will be shown at the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, 210 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. It opens on Friday October 9 and concludes on October 30, 2009.

The why part

International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice (IWP) is a spiritual based feminist organisation working to support grassroots women’s activism in Thailand and the Asian region. Founded in 2002, IWP leads workshops, retreats and training courses which share in common the integration of feminism, social action and spirituality.

Each year IWP runs retreats for women. Yoga, meditation, healing, discussions and workshops provide activists and community leaders from all walks of life the opportunity to grow and strengthen, recharge and regroup.

The mindfulness and peace, skills and networks they develop during these retreats enable the participants to return to their home villages, towns and cities and be even more effective leaders and inspirational teachers.

All over Thailand—and the world—there are women who would benefit from a retreat like those offered at IWP. Unfortunately, and despite a drastically subsidised fee, the cost of participating in a retreat is simply out of reach for many women.

By purchasing a photograph from this exhibition, you will directly assist one woman—maybe a woman from Huay Sara Phom—to take part in a retreat at IWP.

how it works

Meet these women from Huay Sara Phom. Get to know them. Listen to what retreat means for them. Find out what their happiness is. Then, fall in love with one of our beautiful photographs. Love it so much that you want to take it home.

Now comes the best part: decide how much you want to spend. We ask you spend upwards of $500 on a photograph. While the exact amount is up to you, here is some guidance:

$500

Take home a beautiful, framed, single edition photograph and know that you have enabled one woman to attend a retreat at IWP.

$650

Take home a beautiful, framed, single edition photograph and know that you have enabled one woman to attend a retreat at IWP. You’ve also paid for her bus or train fare to get to the retreat centre in Chiang Mai.

$800

Take home a beautiful, framed, single edition photograph and know that you’ve enabled a woman to travel to Chiang Mai and participate in an IWP retreat. You’ve also helped develop new training materials for IWP training courses, supported advocacy work with refugees or assisted with the upkeep of the retreat guest house and meditation hall.