Having grown up in White Rock and living so close to the Semiahmoo First Nation (even attending Semiahmoo Secondary School), I have never known much about the Semiahmoo First Nation community. Looking into it, I found Semiahmoo First Nation listed in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiahmoo_First_Nation

I can’t help but wonder who authored this wiki page. When I click on the “discussion tab” it states that the site has been entered by the Canadian Government and the Indigenous Peoples of North America Wiki Project. I wonder if the Semiahmoo First Nation community was included in the content that was published to this site – or if they even approve of the listing page on wikipedia?

In preparing Week 5 reading (i.e. Nanook of the North), I found the full version of Nanook of the North on Youtube. The full length film provides a context for better understanding the excerpt of the film, posted on the Module.  In particular, the full version seems to show more clearly the gendered nature of Nonook and his family. That is, Nanook as a bread-winner leads hunting while other family members are depicted in the domain of more domestic labor.

– The director Robert J. Flaherty earned reputation by this film due to its commercial success and its contribution to the field of visual anthropology.

– There is a feature film about making Nanook of the North; the film is entitled Kabloonak.

Ky (#4: Module 2).

In his lecture, Representation & the Media, distinguished media theorist Stuart Hall introduces how to analyse the process of representation in media, with interesting examples. Originally released in 1997 by Media Education Foundation, a proactive organization for critical media pedagogy, Hall’s lecture explores how and why representation is more than the reflection of meanings and reality. In the lecture, our common sense of representation as reflection is challenged by a new view to understand representation as constitutive of reality, as Hall notes that representation is not simply distortion or accurate reflection of reality and meanings that exits out there.  

This talk offers a critical approach to representation of marginalized people and therefore can be effectively applied to the case of indigenous people in the media. The linked video clip is only the first bit of the lecture. Other parts of the lectures may be found here and there. The full script of the lecture is available, as well.

Ky (#3: Module 2)

The Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) is an online catalog which was developed by the Museum of Anthropology at UBC (MOA), in collaboration with Musqueam Indian Band, the Stó:lō Nation/Tribal Council, and the U’mista Cultural Society. It provides fascinating images of 245,255 objects (including MOA’s 38,000 items). 

This online museum catalog seems to embody indigenous ways of knowing and archiving to some extent, given the introductory demo video. According to the video statement, the catalog is reciprocal, creative, collaborative, respectful, and accessible. The users, once log in, can browse and archive the web-displayed items and make comments on them.

RRN is a good example of how indigenous communities and the mainstream research institution can collaboratively develop the technological design which can benefit both indigenous and non-indigenous communities.  

Ky (#2: Module 2).

Media Awareness Network provides resources about media literarcy, for educators and parents. In particular, it offers well-organized examplary media education programs for teachers. As discused in Module 2, the stereotyping of indigenous people in media needs to be critically examined and, for that purpose, media literacy education is required. Since the Internet allows its users an extensive and almost unlimited access to a wide range of information, it is especially important for young people to be discreet and critical about a plethora of images, narratives, and commodities on indigenous people which they don’t know much. In this regard, the Media Awareness Netowork seems a very useful site for educators to guide young people. 
  
Ky (#1: Module 2).