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Pine Manor Alumna cambridge multicultural arts center
Exhibition dates: August 5 – October 1, 2004 Panel Discussion with Bishnu Maya Pariyar 41 Second St. | Cambridge, MA 02141 These photographs were taken in 2001 in the village of Kot Goan in the district of Gorkha, Nepal. I had been to Nepal three times. On two of these trips I met with women and girls in shelters, drew with them and then brought their work back to Boston to tell their story and to show their work. In 2001. as I was wondering about returning to Nepal, I met Bishnu Maya Pariyar. We met through a mutual friend. She invited me to visit her village in order to meet the women there and to tell their story through photos or art work. Bishnu felt that people do not really know or understand what the life of the Dalit village women is like. People of the Dalit were formerly called "the untouchable caste." She wanted me to help the women by telling their stories. We traveled 6 hours by bus, went up the mountain on the only cable car in the country, and walked 4 hours to the village. Bishnu is from the Dalit caste. Because of her social standing, she was ridiculed in school until a Peace Corp volunteer, John Brugma, was assigned to her school to teach. Seeing how bright she was, he got her a scholarship to the nearest secondary school. She attended this district school for 3 years, walking three hours each way every day. She then went on to school in Kathmandu where she studied at Tribhuvan University. While there in 1996, she founded EMPOWER DALIT WOMEN OF NEPAL, a non profit empowerment program and human rights organization which provided literacy training, vocational programs, and savings and loan groups for low caste women, and scholarships for girls. In 2000 she came to Boston to attend Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She graduated in May 2004 with a Bachlelor of Arts degree. She won several awards while at Pine Manor. Should you want to contribute to her organization or speak further with her you can reach her at : pmbishnu@yahoo.com I am extremely indebted to Bishnu, her family and the village people
for welcoming me so warmly and so generously into their lives. The
lives of these women and men are difficult and bleak. They are finding
ways to change their system to make life better Myrna Balk Boston 2004 Myrna Balk is an accomplished sculptor, printmaker and photographer who has shown her work internationally. Her largely black and white photographs focus on the people of Nepal, painting a rich portrait of a complex culture and life. |
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