Author Archives: AshleyDeMartini

Using Digital Platforms To Build Political Consciousness And Positivity

This Weblog, I decided to look at Instagram accounts, a podcast, and website by Indigenous artists, media producers, activists, and all of the above at the same time 🙂 I think it’s a great example of the themes touched upon in this week’s films, and a look at how people engage with digital platforms from culturally, socially, and politically specific locations.

A Tribe Called Red: https://www.instagram.com/atribecalledred/

This group has been gaining national and international attention over the past several years because of their unique blend of musical genres (often pow wow music blended with electronica) as well as their amazing musical collaborations.

Steven Paul Judd: https://www.instagram.com/stevenpauljudd/?hl=en

An amazing artist, activist, and speaker whose artistic humour cuts right to the bones of many of the political issues facing Indigenous communities in North America.

Moontime Warrior: https://moontimewarrior.com/

Erica Violet Lee is an Indigenous Feminist and community organizer who uses social media and websites to share her political work and view. She was involved in Idle No More and offers cutting critiques of the current political landscape.

Kent Monkman: https://www.instagram.com/kentmonkman/

Monkman is one of my favourite contemporary visual artists. His work disrupts the normative and taken for granted understandings of history and the present through his alter ego, Miss Chief Testicles, who appears as a character in many of his paintings and installations.

Métis In Space: http://www.metisinspace.com/

Two witty women (re)consider the genre of science fiction using a decolonial analysis.

Research Weblog: Entry 2

Experience Akwesasne Interactive Map

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=80733ab1faaa49b8b7b1e941fc12400f

An interactive map hosted online that permits users to learn about the historical, artistic, and cultural aspects of Akewsasne Mohawk Territory.

The website for the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation

http://www.ojibweculture.ca/

A comprehensive website providing access to various resources related to Ojibwe culture. As an educator, I see this as a very rich and useful resource for teaching and learning.

Website of Professor Kim Tallbear from the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta.

http://www.kimtallbear.com/

I recently attended a talk given by Tallbear. Her work looks at the intersections between Indigeneity and Technoscience. I think she offers interesting insights into the way scientific discourses around family and relationships have been left critically unquestioned, and thus normalized.

Treaty Relations and Two Row Companion

https://youtu.be/OwTIjDzodi4

This YouTube video is a part of a series of called “conversations in cultural fluency” produced by the Six Nations Polytechnic. I think this video is a great example of how Mohawk scholar used the medium of YouTube to teach about Wampum diplomacy.

Television show “Mohawk Girls”

http://aptn.ca/mohawkgirls/

Hosted on APTN’s website, Directed by Tracey Deer, from Kahnawake, this show attempts to engage with some serious questions around being Mohawk today– albeit in an over-dramatic, soap-opera style way. Deer also directed “Club Native” a NFB documentary that picks up on similar issues.

How might the concepts of resurgence/resilience frame digital resources, websites, and other content curated by Indigenous peoples?

***This post was initially entered in the discussion thread on Oct. 2nd, 2016. I’ve reposted it here to ensure that I have properly archived it. It is my “statement connecting my weblog to my research interest”.

How might the concepts of resurgence/resilience frame digital resources, websites, and other content curated by Indigenous peoples?

I’ve been thinking about this topic over the last several weeks as we have worked our way through the first Module. The tensions outlined by Marker, Hare, and others have made for a rich considertation as to the implications of digital technologies for Indigenous peoples–young and old. With this in mind, I would like my research paper to do the following:

To begin, I would define how the concepts of resilience and resurgence are currently be used by some Indigenous scholars. From there, I would apply these understandings to the exisitng class weblog to consider how these concepts may inform the various resources either directly or indirectly. So, my methods for this research paper would be to a) work with a part of the digital archive created by the class’ weblog, and b) to apply a discourse analysis to how these notions of resilience and resrugence are being taken up.

In writing my intention with this research paper, I recognize that this topic/ question may need to be further revised in order to make it more manegeable. Some possible avenues to do so could include focusing on either resilience or resurgence as well as outlinining a specific time frame for which I would go through the archives. For example, I could look at this weblog between 2013-2015.

I’m looking forward to this project, and very open to any suggestions 🙂

Indigenous Digital Media

1. Indian and Cowboy Podcast Network: http://www.indianandcowboy.com/

This is one of my favourite podcasting hosts: the podcasts are of high quality production, good storytelling laced with humour and deep reflection, and often talking about very relevant issues to First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and Canadian peoples.

A few of the current ones I follow include: Métis in Space, Red Man Laughing, and Stories from the Land.

2. Eastern Door Kahnawake Newspaper: http://www.easterndoor.com/

Living in Montreal, on Mohawk Territory, close to the community of Kahnawake, I have been reading the Eastern Door as another source of perspectives on current events in the surrounding area and abroad. Reading a community’s newspapers is a great way to get a sense of what is being talked about, what is seen as significant by community members in public positions (e.g. journalists).

3. God’s Lake Narrows: http://godslake.nfb.ca/#/godslake

This NFB Interactive documentary is a personal favourite, especially because of the way the writer, Kevin Lee Burton draws the viewer into the story while at the same time challenging and implicating the non-Indigenous viewer’s sense of place, space, and ideas of value. This story connects to some of the major themes we encountered in the first three weeks; mainly, the ways that knowledge emerges from stories connected to space and place. I appreciate how Burton uses his intimate knowledge of his community to play with the ideas of the gaze, commodity, and worth.

4. CBC Radio Personalities

Rosanna Deerchild hosts the CBC show, “Unreserved,” which I find to be a good source for some of the contemporary cultural trends emerging from young artists belonging to various Indigenous Nations. Deerchild has a great interview style, which I think elicits great conversation with her guests, resulting in good insights on pressing issues and concerns. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved

Candy Palmater hosts, “The Candy show,” which is another source for great music and conversation. Her unique on-air personality really provides great perspectives when in conversation with guests. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/candy

5. First Story Toronto https://firststoryblog.wordpress.com/aboutfirststory/

Formerly known as “The Toronto Native Community History Project,” this initiative has expanded its bus tours to now include a mobile app, “First Story”. People interested in learning about the Indigenous histories in and around Toronto may take app guided walks where points of interests will appear on their mobile device and users may choose to listen to the story that corresponds to that place.