Tag Archives: photographs

Module 3- Mi’kmaq Portraits Collection

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mikmaq/

This resources contains over 700 images and illustrations from the Mi’kmaq community.  I was first torn to include it in my weblog as a resource because the initiative was not created and controlled by the Aboriginal community.  I do however find a lot of the images to be powerful and interesting therefore I decided to include them within the module.  The archival information I believe, presents a visual element in a culture that is rooted greatly in oral tradition.  The visual component and resources, could be used within the classroom as an activity to have students (both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) create narrative to encompass each of the diagrams.  I it useful that the dates were included therefore students would be able to create the narrative based on the approximate historical background.  Furthermore, some of the illustrations could be used to initiate classroom discussion on colonization and the roots of Western stereotypical attitudes.

Project Naming

Project Naming was an endeavour undertaken by the Library and Archives Canada to name a label almost 75 million different photographs of Nunavut indigenous people.  Workers undertook the enormous task of meeting with indigenous people of Northern Canada and had them attempt to identify as many people in the photos as they could.  This was an avenue for exploring the past ways of life, listening to stories and making connections, including genealogical ones, to today.

I think this is a great example of technology being used in a positive way to preserve culture.  It includes indigenous people in the process of identification and encourages them to share their stories and culture from their own mouths.

I hope it is a link that can be of use to anyone who is including research of Northern indigenous peoples in their research project.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/inuit/020018-1100-e.html