Category Archives: MODULE 4

While some sources I’ve looked at have focused on recent immigrants reaching out to Indigenous Peoples, this video is a great example of the opposite.  This video, posted onto the website of the Immigrant Services Society, is a video created by Indigenous Peoples from youth to elders as a welcome to Canada. Starting with a friendly welcomes and brief descriptions of their role as stewards of the land, the viewer is drawn in and offered chances at comparisons of beliefs. The video ends however with a crash course of the history of colonization and of residential schools, with the clear intention of shock value after the previous 7 minutes of smiles and friendly welcomes. The approach is purposeful to make immigrant groups empathetic and aware of the treatment of indigenous peoples in the area to which they’ve just moved. The website is meant as a resource and information centre for new immigrants, so this video would be among the first videos that many new immigrants would watch. The video is also accompanied with a brief study guide that has terminology and summaries with links to further information about key events in Indigenous history post-colonization. Overall, this seems like in could be a successful method of direct messaging to new immigrants for immediate historical awareness of their new homes.

https://issbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Welcome-To-Canada-Study-Guide.pdf

https://empoweringthespirit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Weaving-Ways-Introductory-Document-10-09.pdf

The empoweringthespirit.ca resources developed by Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC)  organized information in such an accessible way. I found the categories were meaningful, sorted by Foundational Knowledge, Leading and Learning, and Classroom Supports.

On page 4 of the document shares inquiry questions and guiding information organized by 4 quadrants: Cultures of Belonging, Instructional Design, Pedagogy, and Sharing through Story.

The introduction shares that the resource could not have been made without the Collaborative Community of teachers from the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), and Elder Bruce Starlight of the Tsuut’ina Nation in Alberta but I would like to find more information on who was part of the design process. What was the process of creating these resources with consultation and support from First Nations, Metis and Inuit people?

” I want there to be an Indigenization of Cyberspace” (Skawennati, 2018). 

I was looking for online space which offered Indigenous peoples an arena to connect over art, history, stories, etc. and I came across Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace. Mohawk artist, Skawennati created a virtual island where users can navigate different online space like art galleries, moments from the past like the Oka Crisis, and even imagined futures. With the software, Second Space, Avatars are able to move through these spaces and communicate with other users. Once a week, graduate students like Maize Longboat will great these guest which can log in and wander at their leisure (CBC Radio). AbTeC Island “is an online community space, where Second Life users can hang out and talk. But it’s also a place where the ancient and the futuristic coexist” (McNamara, 2020).

Art in America. (2020, July 1). Photos: Skawennati’s Online Indigenous Communities. Retrieved from https://www.artnews.com/gallery/art-in-america/aia-photos/photos-skawennatis-online-indigenous-communities-1202693118/

AbTeC describe the island as an “autonomous zone, a space of Indigenous self-determination” (McNamara, 2020). It is designed and moderated by Indigenous creators who are sharing their own stories.

In addition to the AbTeC island, there are workshops designed to teach Indigenous youth to become creators in a virtual space. By teaching gaming skills, and design, the workshops aim to have stories be told in a new way, and in a space that can be shared. Skawennati wants AbTeC to be a place where stories are shared. She claims “It doesn’t just have to be our traditional or ancient stories. It can also be stories about who we are today. It can also be stories about who we want to be in the future. But what’s important is that it’s our stories. And we realized that we need to teach people how to use the tools in cyberspace” (CBC Radio).

Having a virtual place connects to what Howe (1998) discusses in his spatial pillar for tribalism. Here he notes that the cyber world is nameless and not geographical. In many ways he is correct, but artists such as Skawennati are taking back the online spaces that have been typically designed and sold by a Western lens. This lens is telling a story about peoples who have historically been left out of the ‘picture’. So in a sense, she is claiming a new geography in a new futuristic world. Images from AbTeC Island would prove to be a great visual digital literacy lesson for SS9.

References and links

McNamara, R., (2020, July 1). Skawennati Makes Space for Indigenous Representation and Sovereignty in the Virtual World of Second Life. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/skawennati-abtec-island-indigenous-community-second-life-1202693110/

CBC Radio. (2018, May 10). Indigenous virtual reality: An experiment in ‘Indigenization of cyberspace’ | CBC Radio. CbC. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-soapstone-carving-to-second-life-indigenous-peoples-in-quebec-embrace-tradition-and-technology-1.4645198/indigenous-virtual-reality-an-experiment-in-indigenization-of-cyberspace-1.4654306

This year was the inaugural International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards. Due to COVID, the awards show was hosted online. The MC’s for the show were Lil Mike and Funny Bone of the Oklahoma based Hip Hop group Mike Bone. The show featured 14 music awards, and several culture based awards like most innovative clothing brand of the year. While the show was International, most of the artists featured were from North America.

What I liked most about watching this was learning about how many people there are making Indigenous music right now. In my research for the final project, I have been zoning in on several key artists, and various research papers on the topic. But watching this celebration of the Indigenous Hip Hop Culture made me realize how big this thing really is. A lot of the artists could be seen accepting awards from their homes, which were decorated in Indigenous artwork that seems to have  a Hip Hop remix vibe to it. This was a really cool part of the ceremony, to get a sense of how this is not just about DJing and MCing, but about culture at large.

There were a couple of key points of the ceremony I would like to point out and direct you towards. At 29:13, City Natives of the Maritime’s dropped an absolutely vicious freestyle, completely criticizing our government, especially Justin Trudeau. They accuse him of flip flopping and not addressing issues of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Issues.

Another was when Young D of Snotty Nose Rez Kids accepted the award for the best Hip Hop Album of the year with Born Deadly. In his speech he said:

It is so important to tell our stories the way we want it to be told, because we are natural storytellers, what better way to tell it than through music. 

I think that this award show is an amazing way to amplify the voices of indigenous Hip Hop artists who might not receive the recognition they deserve. I look forward to tuning in next year, hopefully when artists will be able to meet in person to celebrate their achievements.

http://www.davidloewen.org/blog/2017/6/11/decolonizing-distance-education

David Loewen introduces himself as a as a non-Indigenous Settler. His inquiry is shaped around the following questions.

• Why is it that ‘distance education’ is considered to start with academic institutions like Queens University in Canada, and University of Chicago in the U.S.? And, starting in the 1800s?

• How is it that we might only be in the “5th generation” of ‘distance learning’?

• If ‘distance learning’ is considered, by definition, to be comprised of teaching and learning with the ‘teacher’ and the ‘learner’ at different places and/or separated by time – and utilizes some form of ‘communications technology’ – then:

  • What is a totem pole? (is it not teacher and learning?)

  • What is an oral history? (Are these not teachers and learning spread across time and space and place?)

and concluding with “that the field of ‘distance education’ could do with some significant decolonizing, or at least opening to much expanded viewpoints about what may, or may not, comprise ‘distance education’ – let alone what might be described as ‘education’ and whom, or what, might deliver it – and probably more importantly… develop it (e.g. learning, curriculum, etc.)” (Loewen, 2017).

I found this inquiry to be thought provoking in how it challenged colonial relationships of teacher and learner and separation by distance and time.