The winner was a photo of crosses from which girls’ dresses hang, placed near a Canadian “boarding school” where the remains of 215 indigenous children were found last year.
The image captured by Edmonton-based documentary photographer Amber Brackenis “a calm moment of reflection … on the history of colonization not only in Canada, but throughout the world,” said juror Rena Effendi.
On the left of the photograph, published by the newspaper New York TimesGirls’ red and ocher dresses are hung from crosswalks alongside a highway in Kamloops, a small town in British Columbia.
On the left, a rainbow ends its curve near the place where the remains were discovered, at the headquarters of the “boarding school”, created a century ago to assimilate by the force the indigenous population.
This image “inspires a sort of sensory reaction,” declared a jury. This discovery was the first in a series that forced Canadians to confront their colonial past. Investigations and searches are currently being carried out in many former boarding schools for natives in the country.
Authorities estimate that more than 4,000 children could be in unidentified burial mounds or graves. Other award-winning photographs this year also highlight the visibility of indigenous communities around the world.
The Australian Documentary Matthew Abbott won the first prize in the category “Story of the Year” with a series of images showing how the native people of Nawarddeken in the far flung territory of Arnhem used fire as an effective land management tool against climate change.
Thanks to a practice called “cold combustion”, indigenous people light small fires during the cool seasonburning highly flammable undergrowth and bushland, helping prevent bushfires, which have devastated an Australia hit by rising heat waves.
The winners receive a reward of about 6 thousand 500 dollars and their works will be exhibited from April 15 in Amsterdam before being shown around the world.