Media Awareness Network

 This is the site of a non profit organization dedicated to promoting digital and media literacy through education and awareness programs. Their goal is to have both adults and young people understand how media works. The site has information and resources for teachers as well as parents. There are over 200 lessons available for free for educators.

Specific issues covered at this site include:

Media Violence

Media Stereotyping 

Online Hate

Media and Canadian Cultural Policies

Of particular interest is the ongoing, longitudinal study started in 2000 which is tracking and investigating the behaviors, attitudes and opinions of Canadian youth with respect to their use of the

I just noticed that Al has also used this site. It obviously has much to offer and warrants some viewing by others in the class.

Off-reserve aboriginal people in Canada face “second” digital divide

The survey is done by stats Canada in the winter of 2004 :
www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2004003/article/7732-eng.pdf

The study points to the fact that most off-reserve aboriginals live in rural areas and these areas tended to offer poorer Internet access

34 percent of urban aboriginal Internet users described their computer skills as “excellent”, but only 21 percent of rural users rated their skills at that level.

The survey suggests that aboriginal people have historically had less Internet access than other Canadians and aboriginal Internet users were “much more likely to be recent learners”, the study stated.

Conclusion: “a gap existed among Aboriginal users themselves, separating more experienced urban users from their rural counterparts”; hense creating a 2nd digital divide

Samson and Delilah an Australian film by Aboriginal director Warwick Thornton. I wanted to link this site as I have heard Thornton interviewed before. This film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Film category. Although it first appears as a basic trailer site as for any other movie I believe the links included make it worthy of a look. There is an interview where Thornton describes how the movie is based on real life experience and where he urges Australian to practice random acts of kindness.  

`Cinema is performance, that`s how us blackfellas have connected with it. It`s where we come from, with our storytelling. A lot of dreaming stories are about moral stories and news and teaching….that`s the way indigenous filmmakers are thinking.`Warwick Thornton.

As an alum of UWO, I often visit the Western NEws to see what is up. I cam e across this article that I know some of my classmates would use Online course preserves Mohawk language

David Kanatawakhon-Maracle, part of in the Department of Anthropology, teaches an online distance studies course called Introduction to the Mohawk Language. He uses MP3 recordings, combined with html to workbooks enabling students to click on the word and hear the pronunciation.

David believes “If you change a language, you change a culture and if you lose a language, you lose a culture,”

Blue Corn Comics

I stumbled upon this site when looking for some material for a class which was actually created by Native Americans. This is a jumping off point for several different publications such as Peace Party (A Multicultural graphic novel featuring Native Americans) and  Newspaper Rock ( A blog which describes itself as a place where Native American meets pop culture.

other important links:

Language preservation : Blue Comics offers a service which create comics in any tribal language. I found this particularly interesting as most students (especially boys) seem to be hooked on graphic novels.

Harmful Effects of Stereotyping

Seeking Native Writers

There is also stereotype of the month contest which includes commercials, prime time tv episodes etc. It includes links for educators. Overall I think an excellent site for using with students.

ImagineNative

I came across this site after listening to a program on CBC Radio One Saskatchewan. They were interviewing Aboriginal film makers and discussing stereotyping of Indigenous People. It was a very interesting interview to say the least and I have tried in vain to find an archive of the interview itself.

In a nutshell the film maker interviewed felt that by having films created by Aboriginals the stereotyping could be alleviated and more accurate portrayals of Aboriginal would find their way into the mainstream film industry. This site celebrates the diversity of Indigenous Peoples around the globe and serves as a place for industry insiders to network and celebrate the vitality and excellence of Indigenous art and culture in comtemporary media