Revision To My "The History Of Faceless Dolls" Article

This morning I got a comment notification from Blogger.com that Gloria Larocque had left a new comment on my 6/2006 post The History of Faceless Dolls!

Here's Gloria's comment:

Hello Linda,

For some time, I have been wanting to respond to your article, and then for a while, I couldn't find it. But I've come across it again, and I'm glad. My name is Gloria Larocque, and I'm glad you wrote about the doll project I created a few years ago, and your summary was very descript and accurate. I just wanted you to know I acknowledged your acknowledgement and thank you for bringing together the issue behind the project in light of your collecting information on something you value. All the best - Gloria

I had included the following paragraph in my original 6/2006 post The History of Faceless Dolls post and in my The History of Faceless Dolls - REVISED 5/19/09 post.

Another article about "faceless" dolls concerned the dolls of Gloria Larocque. She has created 100 or more "faceless" dolls based upon the Iroquois legend that warns young girls about the dangers of vanity. According to the article her purpose, however, is different. Her dolls represent Canada's murdered aboriginal women, a group made faceless not by vanity but by neglect. Her project has helped draw attention to the plight of the murdered aboriginal women.

I can remember how moved I was reading about "The Angel Doll Project" back in 2006 and have to tell you that I was as equally moved re-reading about it once again.

Gloria Larocque is the founder of the Aboriginal Angel Doll Project and the KETA Society which teaches traditional awareness through cultural acceptance.

According to the Keta Society websites - The Kookum Educating Traditional Acceptance Society was incorporated on August 24, 2005 to acknowledge and raise awareness of the issue of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women of Canada and to promote a variety of educational initiatives in order to instill stronger awareness that Aboriginal people have a strong, rich, diverse culture.

Kookum is the Cree word for 'Grandmother, and the Society name was chosen in order to express the need for grassroots education of native culture and traditions.

Gloria gave a speech at the "Art Against Brutality" event at the Oppenheimer Park in 2005 which was entitled: Lest We Forget The Aboriginal Angel Doll Project and the KETA Society - By Gloria Larocque.

I wanted to thank Gloria for posting her comment and wanted to let her know that I have modified my The History of Faceless Dolls - REVISED 5/19/09 post to include the picture above and the following revised paragraphs about "The Aboriginal Angel Doll Project:"

Another article about "faceless" dolls concerned the dolls of Gloria Larocque. She has created 100 or more "faceless" dolls based upon the Iroquois legend that warns young girls about the dangers of vanity. According to the article her purpose, however, is different. Her dolls represent Canada's murdered aboriginal women, a group made faceless not by vanity but by neglect. Her project has helped draw attention to the plight of the murdered aboriginal women.

According to Gloria:"The dolls will act as a centre-piece for educating children about traditional Aboriginal culture, maintaining cultural integrity through a contemporary setting. As a teaching tool kit, the idea will be to plant seeds of survival skills concepts such as choice, strength, education, cultural connection and knowledge of self.

The kit will contain a doll in the same fashion as an Aboriginal Angel Doll, and will be presented as an “elder”. The doll will be known as Kookum RETA (grandmother rejuvenate, educate, traditional, acceptance) of the Aboriginal people from Turtle Island. The power of the elder teaching the young is a traditional aboriginal teaching method."