Assembly of First Nations Blog (M3-5)

http://assemblyoffirstnations.blogspot.com/

The Assembly of First Nations is a national aboriginal advocacy organization in Canada that works alongside government to work on behalf of first nations on major political issues.  Although the Assembly of First Nations’ website is very informative and would prove a valuable resource in research of First Nations political involvement, I feel it is also beneficial to discuss the Assembly’s blog.

The blog provides opinion and information on political issues as well as links to relevant journalism.  The reason I chose to highlight this blog is that I am curious to know why it has not been updated since the 2008 federal election.  In fact, upon browsing through the archives, it appears that only a small number of posts appear under each month, many of which are links to resources on the Assembly’s site and news stories.

I am left wondering about the effectiveness of blogging when trying to reach First Nations in Canada.  Is it that the general public does not know about the blog? Is it that blogging is not a popular tool for first nations? Or, did the blog administrators simply lose interest?  Blogging can be a powerful tool to convey information, especially since readers can subscribe and read fairly quickly and easily.  In addition, through my travels on the web, I have seen other similar blogs that are thriving.  Upon further thought, perhaps it is the audience—the other blogs may be more popular to a more techno-savvy generation?

This is just another example of an aboriginal advocacy group attempting to use technology to reach other aboriginals, in an attempt to work through the decolonization process—in this case by advocating involvement in politics.