Author Archives: Katie Cox

Module 4 weblog – Katie

For this weblog, I wanted to look more closely at Inuit place-based knowledge to coincide with this module’s emphasis on ecological knowledge. Because part of my paper will examine the use of digital storytelling, I want to make sure I have a better understanding of how placing information on the internet can expose information to commodification by outsiders. Even though I may not cover this in my paper (taking Dr. M’s advice on ensuring I have a clear focus and that my paper works within a part of the whole!), I wanted to explore this concept a little further.

Inuit Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Subsistence Hunting and Adaptation to Climate Change in the Canadian Arctic

The above article focuses on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in adaptation to climate change in the Canadian Arctic. It focuses on Inuit relationships with the Arctic environment, including hunting knowledge and land skills, and examines their roles in adaptation to biophysical changes that affect subsistence hunting.

‘Changing climate, changing health, changing stories’ profile: using an EcoHealth approach to explore impacts of climate change on inuit health.

This project researched and investigated potential climate change impacts on Inuit health. It found that comprehensive and meaningful research outcomes depend on taking a systemic and trans-disciplinary approach that engages local citizens in project design, data collection, and analysis.

Digital storytelling: Implications for health research and policy

This policy document is based off the research done in the Changing climate, changing health, changing stories project mentioned above. It led me to the YouTube channel I discuss below.

uKautsiga YouTube channel

This channel features videos created from the IlikKuset-Illingannet/Culture-Connect program running in Rigolet, Makkovik, and Postville, Nunatsiavut, Labrador. The program united youth and mentors in each community to learn culturally-based skills. The channel contains many digital storytelling videos made in the Rigolet Storytelling & Digital Media Lab.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

The ITK is the national Inuit organization of Canada and stands for “Inuit will be united”. They work to improve the health and well-being of Inuit, which includes research, advocacy, public outreach, and education on issues affecting the Inuit population.

Module 3: Digital storytelling among Inuit youth

One of the things that struck me from our readings in this module was the fight to include the “s” in Indigenous peoples. It seems so simple, but reading this made me realize that I have probably viewed Indigenous peoples as if they all had the same cultures and values. Since being made aware of this, it’s also made me realize that perhaps focusing on a specific group of Indigenous peoples would be better suited for the final project (as opposed to being general and missing the mark by lumping different cultural groups together as if they had the same values and culture). With that in mind, and after watching the Alluriarniq documentary, Stepping Forward, I’ve decided to focus on how Inuit youth are using digital storytelling to post about their lives, connect with others, and question/confront stereotypes.

1. Uploading selves: Inuit digital storytelling on YouTube

This article focuses on how Inuit youth use video-sharing sites and online spaces to post excerpts from their lives and connect with others. It looks into how Internet technology allows narrators to post expressions of Inuit self-hood that are self-produced. It puts forward the idea that by narrating their lives, Inuit youth are giving meaning to their experiences and through this, gaining a sense of control and agency over their world.

2. My Inuit Culture

This video was created by Dina Wolfrey and is about her ties to Inuit culture. She discusses the death of her grandmother, and how in losing her, she lost her grandmother, teacher, and the last way to speak her Inuit language. She says today she is still “keeping her voice heard” by doing things that are a part of Inuit culture.

3. Inuit story telling with Michael Kasugak

Michael Kusugak tells a story from his youth about travelling with his family and the stories his grandmother would tell him.

4. Youth-led participatory video as a strategy to enhance Inuit youth adaptive capacities for dealing with climate change

While not directly relating to exposing stereotypes, I was very interested to come across this article which discusses the climate and environmental changes experienced in the north of Canada that are having huge impacts on the lives of Inuit, and could have devastating consequences for the Inuit youth population. It called to mind the video we watched this past week, March Point, which also used youth voices to ensure representation and sustainable adaptation strategies. It also discussed the negative stereotypes of small, remote, northern communities and how youth-led participatory videos can share experiences of living in the northern communities and share their experience of living in the community, and the pride they have in their community.

5. Storytelling in a digital age: digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting Indigenous oral wisdom

This article describes a case study that demonstrates how an indigenous community used digital storytelling to engage community members, celebrate stories and lived experiences, and address issues such as colonization and climate change in northern communities.

Module 2 posts

Toward an Indigenous Feminine Animation Aesthetic

While not discussing digital storytelling, this article does articulate many of the themes I’m interested in exploring in my final project: raising political consciousness of Indigenous rights, drawing attention to how mainstream media works to “naturalize” imperialism, and the digital realm as a dynamic communication network that bolsters tribal political, cultural, and spiritual sovereignty.

Indigenous Digital Storytelling in Video: Witnessing with Alma Desjarlais

This article discusses how Indigenous digital storytelling in video tells the story of what has happened and is happening in the lives and work of Indigenous peoples. Alma Desjarlais is an Indigenous Elder who shares her stories to help people understand the histories and strength of Indigenous peoples.

Grandmothers of the Metis Nation

The above link shows the trailer for the film, Grandmothers of the Metis Nation. The film shares stories of Metis grandmothers to demonstrate the roles and responsibilities of Metis women in the past and today. One of the grandmothers is Alma Desjarlais (from the article above), who explains the roles of grandmothers as educators and healers in their communities.

Narrating Aboriginality On-Line: Digital Storytelling, Identity and Healing

Healing the wounds of “colonial contagion” is a process that’s articulated through the spoken and written words of Aboriginal writers. Indigenous digital stories present counter-narratives to the Canadian settler state to give voices to otherwise silences experiences of the effects of colonization.It focuses on therapeutic possibilities of digital storytelling and warns of limiting the healing potential to simply matters of cultural assertion. It also discusses the limits of digital storytelling and how some individuals and communities may not have the resources to participate in digital storytelling.

Media Portrayals of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

This article summarizes the differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing or murdered Aboriginal women and white women. It discusses stereotypes that make Aboriginal victims less likely to be covered in news stories and the idea that victims are divided into stereotypes of “pure” women who are newsworthy victims and fallen women who are not (aka “missing White woman syndrome”).

Module 1 Weblog: Digital storytelling

After the first few readings of this course, my interest has been peaked by the use of digital storytelling that is created by or with indigenous peoples for indigenous communities. Ginsburg (2002) discusses the potential that media such as satellite television transmissions have to indigenous communities in terms of offering a means of “cultural preservation and production and a form of political mobilization” (p. 54) and I’d like to explore the impact of the medium of digital storytelling.

I’ve found the following resources to be a great starting point for this focus. I’m not sure at the moment how I will narrow my focus down, but I’m excited about the possibilities within the realm of digital storytelling!

Digital Stories – First Nations Women Explore the Legacy of Residential Schools

This project looks at how the residential school legacy is passed on between generations. There are several digital stories told by six women in their own words and their understanding of how residential schools have impacted them and the relationships they have with their mothers.

Community-based Indigenous Digital Storytelling with Elders and Youth

This article by Iseke and Moore (2011) covers a few projects of indigenous storytelling and discusses the many benefits of indigenous storytelling, including creating opportunities to understand political activism and reflecting cultural mandates of communities. It highlights the importance of indigenous self-representation and “reversing the colonial gaze by constructing their own visual media, telling their stories on their own terms” (p. 32).

The rise of Indigenous storytelling in games:

I was intrigued by this aspect of storytelling. While different from digital stories, it discusses using videogames as a medium to spread indigenous values and stories. They are also being used to reconnect youth with their heritage and help to maintain it. The video game released is called Never Alone with the hopes that youth would listen, learn and pass down their stories for future generations. Here’s a video clip of the game developers discussing the collaboration between game designers and members of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council on the videogame’s development.

Yijala Yala Project: a project by Big hART

The Yijala Yala Project is based in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and it “seeks to highlight cultural heritage as living, continually evolving and in the here and now, rather than of the past, and works with community members to create content and develop skills that assist in communicating their cultural heritage to a wide audience.” You can see the list of all the videos they’ve created so far here: https://vimeo.com/user5307782

VIU Digital Storytelling Project Empowers Aboriginal Youth

This article discusses a digital storytelling research project at Vancouver Island University where five Aboriginal youth are trained as mentors and research assistants to teach other Aboriginal Youth and Elders how to create their own digital stories about topics they find important. I want to share one quote that stood out to me from one of the research assistants, Gladys Joe: “I hope I can do this kind of work for the rest of my life. Sharing stories and culture through modern technology is beneficial for future generations.”