Tag Archives: Aboriginal

Learning Language Online Miromaa

http://www.miromaa.org.au/

While surfing around I found a site created by the Miromaa Aboriginal and Technology Centre to aid in educating people about a number of native aboriginal dialects in Australia.

This website is a great example of how the web can help aboriginal groups save and share their languages. It includes many blended resources such as a Youtube channel, saved voice clips and educational based resources to help learners and teachers alike. The site is very well designed and pulls your into it. I found myself spending more than a few minutes there and really felt engaged. The site does a great job in connecting people to the material and encouraging them to learn more.

Indigenous Youth Screen and Digital Media

I found this link while researching for my digital storytelling paper. imagineNATIVE “presents new and innovative film, video, audio, and digital media works.” (from the imagineNATIVE mandate) They promote Indigenous artwork by exhibiting works, offering workshops or networking opportunities, having community screenings and many other events to support and promote Indigenous art.

The youth screen media section caught my eye because of what each artist is expressing through the use of digital media.

http://www.imaginenative.org/home/node/2768

To view the actual artwork scroll down and click the hyperlinks at the bottom of the page.

Module 4 Post 5 – Indigenous Foundations

My last post (Module 4 Post 4) drew attention to the project “What I learned in class today“, because of my particular interest with the topic, but upon further exploration I found this project’s mother-site, “Indigenous Foundations“. The site describes itself as: a website project developed by the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program. It provides an accessible starting point for instructors, researchers, and students in any discipline who want to learn more about Aboriginal cultures, politics, and histories. The information presented is concise and easily digestible, while still conveying the depth and complexities of the topics.”

On the left taskbar for the site is a run-down of past research initiatives, including “What I learned in class today”, and their current project called “Knowing the Land Beneath our Feet“. A short video made by the two coordinators provides the introduction to the project, which is about making the ‘unfamiliar’ land on which UBC resides (un-ceded Musqueam territory) once again ‘familiar’ to those who travel on it. At the moment they provide walking informational tours, but the website also says that the program plans on making a digital tour as well, which I am particularly happy to hear as I’m across the country!

When I went on a search to see if there are similar tours in Southern Ontario, the closest result I found was at the Woodland Cultural Centre, which is in Brantford and serves three support communities: Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, Six Nations of the Grand River and Wahta Mohawks. They offer a wide range of activities for elementary grades, but I would easily take a grade 9 or 10 class on some of the workshops labeled 6+. I’m glad to have found a potential resource for future school trips, but at least I know now that searching and finding these kinds of centres nearby is more possible than I would have previously thought.

Module 4 Post 3 – Online Zines

This may be common online-knowledge for many of my classmates, but for me finding Muskrat Magazine has been an exciting development! It is chock full of current articles and topics related to Indigenous issues, and an active Twitter account that links to their articles.

I also happened upon Urban Native Magazine, which has a slick layout and many interesting features with a pop culture focus. That said, I’m not sure when it was last updated, but their twitter account was used only a month ago and so hopefully they are still active. Through them I was able to find the account of Lisa Charleyboy (@UrbanNativeGirl), who hosts a radio show with the CBC called ‘New Fire‘, with short episodes that range in topics (recently she has been focusing on cultural appropriation). As a fan of pop culture in general, I’m thrilled to have found these two online Zines, and can’t wait to see where my explorations lead me!

Module 4 Post 2 – Blogs by Aboriginal authors

I came across this blog post (“I am a Native American woman with White privilege“) from an Aboriginal colleague’s facebook feed, and it lead me to the personal blog of Misty Ellingburg, an Indigenous graduate student and writer. Her post describes some of her experience as identifying as Native American and being raised in her mother’s culture on a reservation, yet easily passing as ‘White’, which she believes absolves her from much of the racial prejudice visible people of colour face in society (she references the police violence against black Americans that have sprayed recent news headings, as an example). Her blog doesn’t have the most extensive archive, but she has made some interesting posts related to her experiences in life, many of which are related to her Native identity.

After reading her blog, I was curious about other Aboriginal-owned blogs, and went searching for others. I was ideally looking for a compilation or RSS feed that might have grouped together multiple titles, but other than finding a sub-heading of Aboriginal law blogs, I came up dry. I tried to find more blogs run by Aboriginal authors, but found my search somewhat limited to more ‘official’ (organizations or magazines) rather than individual projects. So from what I could find, below are a couple that I plan on exploring more:

Apihtawikosisan.com – a blog run by a Plains Cree-speaking Metis woman from Alberta, with lots of interesting articles and resources (and a great page dedicated to calling out appropriators of headdress).

The Rabble.ca blog of Dr. Pamela D. Palmater, a Mi’kmaw lawyer from New Brunswick, which includes a compilation of her articles on current issues.

If anyone reading this post knows of other Aboriginal-authored blogs, please feel free to include the addresses in a comment!

*Update:

Through CBC’s ‘New Fire’ program, I was able to find a blog run by weaver Meghann O’Brien, who is of Irish descent on her father’s side, and Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida descent on her mother’s side. Not only does she do stunning weaving work, her stylish blog has many fascinating posts related to her work and life experiences. Check out her wordpress site, Jaad Kuujus!

Module 4 Post 4

Generally I avoid the National Post because I feel it regularly publishes with a conservative bias that doesn’t align with my personal politics. However, I read the following article with interest, as it shares a letter from a physician in Moose Factory, ON, pleading for increased medical resources to his remote, reserve community. While the author of the letter does not identify himself as Native or First Nation, he has dedicated his career to serving as a physician in Canada’s far north (near Hudson’s Bay) and has 30+ years of experience dealing with the problems of distant and undeserved communities.

Again, he makes the plea for additional services (provision of medical officers of health, local health integration network teams, drug and alcohol rehab services) but also for education. The standards of life on his reserve community are below the national standard for building code, water quality, education, health and policing. Just imagine growing up in a place where it’s unsafe to drink the water, where people burn to death in jail because it accidentally catches on fire and there is no officer to unlock your cell. These are the realities all Canadians, including our younger learners, should be exposed to so they can better appreciate the injustices regularly and continually faced by Indigenous Canadians.

Module 4 Post 2

Aboriginal Women & Traditional Healing: An Issue Paper

My previous post shared the Canadian Cancer Society’s thoughts on Traditional Healing and I interpreted from their findings a need for further research on evidence supporting traditional medicine. This next paper calls for the same, asking that in hopes of encouraging use of traditional healing in Aboriginal communities, that researchers focus on evaluating different methods of healing, and share when these methods do work. Furthermore, they ask that researchers look at the use of traditional methods in tandem with Western methods, in the hopes that they will provide relief for conditions, help to improve the position of women (traditionally healers) in Aboriginal society, and help to motivate Canadian physicians to avoid dismissing useful methods.

Module 4 Post 1 – The Role of Philanthropy in Reconciliation

The Philanthropist is a free online journal that provides articles and information related to the non-profit sector in Canada. They recently published a series of three pieces that delve into Indigenous Communities and Philanthropy, with the most recent (July 9th) focusing on the role that philanthropy and non-corporate involvement will need to take in future reconciliation. The post includes an excellent video that includes interviews and discussions about how Canadians (which the video states 2/3rds of whom believe they have a responsibility towards reconciliation) can and must get involved. Below are the three articles in the series, listed from first to last in order of posting (the video is included in the last post).

June 1st: 100 Words for Philanthropy: Traditions of Caring & Sharing in Canada:
http://thephilanthropist.ca/2015/06/100-words-for-philanthropy-traditions-of-caring-sharing-in-canada/

June 15th: The Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action:
http://thephilanthropist.ca/2015/06/the-philanthropic-communitys-declaration-of-action/

July 9th: Interview with Chief Dr. Robert Joseph and Karen Joseph:
http://thephilanthropist.ca/2015/07/interview-with-chief-dr-robert-joseph-and-karen-joseph/

Module 4 | Post 3 Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival was founded by Harvard University anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis and his wife Pia to assist Indigenous Peoples in their struggles. This group started in the 1970s to address the threat to indigenous lands and culture with the ‘opening of the Amazon’. There are a number of reports and they publish a quarterly magazine and a number of reports and publications. The current issue has an interesting article about the first indigenous curator of the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York.

çhttp://issuu.com/culturalsurvival/docs/csq_392/15?e=2625258/13182702

Link to ISSUU articles: http://issuu.com/culturalsurvival/docs/csq_392/15?e=2625258/13182702

Module 3 – Post 3: Paradoxes of First Nations Inclusion in the Canadian Context

Wotherspoon, Terry, and John Hansen. 2013. The ‘Idle No More’ movement: Paradoxes of First Nations inclusion in the Canadian context. Social In- clusion 1(1):21–36.

This paper examines how Idle No More, a recent movement initiated to draw attention to concerns by Indigenous people about changes in Canada’s environment and economic policies, has been framed by discourses of inclusion and exclusion. The paper asserts that discourses of inclusion and exclusion, by way of stigmatizing and distancing Indigenous people, stall the possibility of finding solutions to the problems that they are trying to fix. The paper closes with a brief examination of how Idle No More served to broaden conceptions of indigenous participation and success.