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Caption: "Close your eyes and open your mind
Take a walk into my T.R.I.B.E"
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Caption: T.R.I.B.E What is T.R.I.B.E? It stands for Testing Realities Invariably Binding Everyone. This is a concept I coined while exploring the culture and livelihood of numerous remote tribes in the southern region of Ethiopia. I embarked on this journey with a closed suitcase and an open mind, facing challenges for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I soon developed an appetite for destruction...of various social constructs I subconsciously had been confined by...which created Food for thought
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Caption: The idea of Image and body objectification was one I explored and was challenged by
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Caption: Women walked around topless and men were pretty much naked and yet there were no cases of sexual assault, rape or indecent approaches towards women. I found this liberating as well as uneasy to adjust to, the dichotomy of a western nomad.
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Caption: I found the innovation and self sustainability within the Dorze tribe incredibly mind blowing. They produced everything they required within their small village, they operated using trade by barter. Money was a very unused concept and the sense of community was very evident in the strands of their engagement.
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Caption: Women spun the cotton
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Caption: Men mainly rared Cattle
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Caption: They made food using false banana which is also used for their homes
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Caption: These are constructed using bamboo, false banana stems and leaves. They are designed in remembrance of Elephants that once inhabited these mountains and built to last 70,000 years and are portable homes. Dorze Tribe
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Caption: Beauty This was inward and outward for the Dorze tribe, a smile accompanied everything they did.
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Caption: The crafts(wo)manship and the vibrant colours were mesmerising to witness, which challenged me to think about what we do with the bountiful that we have?
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Caption: Scars A form of beauty for women
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Caption: Lip plates Also desirable by men of the Mursi Tribe
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Caption: The men of the Mursi are fierce, dangerous and aggressive. I had to learn about their ways before I stepped foot into their domain. They earn scars by killing rival tribes or dangerous animals and this is how respect is given.
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Caption: I walked in and had to face numerous challenges to battle due to my body frame and outlook. They needed to assert their manhood, so I became really acquainted with a Klashnekoff as a pacifist...hmmnnn
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Caption: I caught some beautiful sunrises and sunsets along the way as well as beautiful wildlife
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Caption: Walking barefoot was a delightful reacquaintance to an African kid like myself.
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Caption: Hamer Tribe
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Caption: 2 rings on the neck signified "2nd wife"
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Caption: Although poverty was rife in most of these villages and in huge parts of the country, there was a great sense of wealth attached to who they were as apposed to what they had. This challenged my idea of what wealth truly was to us?
Caption: I challenged myself to give time, not money to people, especially kids.
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Caption: "Take a walk into my T.R.I.B.E" Kay Rufai
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Caption: I found a smile to be the only language I needed.
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Caption: Truly captures what I felt in Ethiopia...Brotherly love
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Caption: T.R.I.B.E - Testing Realities Invariably Binding Everyone is a Photography & Poetry Exhibition that features images of rarely photographed tribes from Southern Ethiopia. The aim of the exhibition is to facilitate a cross cultural exchange for the viewers. I want you to be able to step in and feel surprised, challenged, inspired and ultimately enlightened by the journeys I undertook while documenting the images. I spent two weeks with these very remote tribes in the Horn Of Africa who still live as originally and culturally untampered with as they did thousands of years ago. In this time, my concept and ideology of what normality and livelihood is, was constantly challenged and at times my safety was threatened. I was inspired to capture the people of these tribes' daily lives in an attempt to understand and create a non judgmental forum for us all to explore, question, marvel and if nothing else just visually enjoy the differences in the ways of life, which in subtle ways create a thread of connection between us, therefore highlighting the over-arching theme of us ALL being one big tribe bound by the quest to meet similar needs with varying avenues in doing so.
An excerpt from the T.R.I.B.E poem, written by Kay Rufai:
"In this school of thought I ask your pupils to dilate,
Take in what you see and do teach your mind to graduate
From the elementary to life's higher education
No paper work dissertations or examinations
Just life lessons
Life lessons that span more curriculums than the glossary of your book of life
I implore you to turn the pages of a new book
Look into the contents of a new world that lies outside yours...
What is your Testing Reality Invariably Binding Everyone
What is your T.R.I.B.E
Close your eyes and open your mind
Take a walk into my T.R.I.B.E"
Caption: If you enjoyed the visual journey you were taken on through this story please like the facebook page and spread the word about the exhibition when it's announced. The poems and images will also feature in my Poetry&Photography book titled "Colours Of The Soul" coming soon.
Thank you for your time and I hope this raises the question in your mind:
"How different are we? What makes us different and is that right or wrong?"
Caption: www.facebook.com/Tribeexhibition
#ethiopia
#tribe
#africa
#people
#portraits
#hornofafrica
#travel #travelphotography #stellerstories
#seewhatisee
#mursi
#hamer
#dorze
#addisababa
#children
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