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History
Anita Louise Martinez is a photographer and long-standing community activist and volunteer, in particular with reference to the peace movement, women’s equality and empowerment groups, and LGBTQI rights. She has documented numerous local and national organizations and her work has been published in periodicals, magazines and books in Japan, New Mexico, New York and Canada.
Born in Ontario in 1939, at the age of eight she won a Brownie camera, which began her love of photography. At 15 she left her home town and began traveling, eventually settling in New Mexico, where she raised six children. In 1983 she moved to Nova Scotia.
She has studied a breadth of subjects—from woodworking to photography to cake decorating—and holds a nursing degree from the University of New Mexico and a diploma in photography, graphic design and digital imaging from Nova Scotia Community College. In addition, she’s completed workshops in drug and alcohol counseling, suicide prevention, and co-operative housing.
In Halifax, Anita served on various boards and committees: PLURA (Presbyterian, Lutheran, United, Roman Catholic, and Anglican churches); Halifax Transition House Association; the National Transition House Association; Urban Core Support Network; Second Stage Housing Association; Take Back the Night Committee; the International Women’s Day Planning Committee; Pandora Women’s Newspaper; and WAYVES. She was membership coordinator on Lamplight Housing Cooperative Board and president of PSAC Union. Anita also served the board of Women’s Employment Outreach and was on the organizing team for Dawn Canada. She was a longtime support person with the Nova Scotia’s Persons with AIDS (PWA) Coalition.