Module 1 | Post 1 Digital storytelling – An example from the Fraser River

I want to add another example of digital storytelling as a means of sharing ideas and building bridges between communities.  Several years ago I was lucky enough to be the researcher for the BCIT “Explore@ the Fraser River” project.  One of the key objectives of the project was to look at First Nation communities  who live along the river and to try and include their story and perspective in the website.   Willie Charlie from the Sts’ailes band in Harrison was given permission by the Elders of the community to share several of their stories.  I visited the community and was allowed to record Willie as he told me many stories of his people and their history on the River.  The stories are now online and can be accessed by anyone who is interested and wants to know more about the people who have lived on the Fraser for thousands of years.

One of the things that I think this project did very well was to present the information about the Fraser River as a story and it mixed many forms of media in the telling of the story.  The site is also not as structured as some others….it does not conform to a rigid info or education site as Flash was used to build the pages.  Sadly this means it is not accessible by iPads but at the time of its creation, it focused on the story and the visual and audio presentation of the content.  These options for novel web pages are fading as compliance with search engine optimization, security and coding has created a rigid structure for design and options for presenting and sharing stories.  I think the challenge in the future for websites and online media will be the allowance for creativity and alternate ways of relating to both content and the telling of tales.

The link to the site is at http://commons.bcit.ca/explorethefraser/  and the link to the pages for http://commons.bcit.ca/explorethefraser/people_river.html.  For information on Willie Charlie and his reason for sharing the stories is under Contributors in the About section of the site.

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