Tag Archives: media

Hollywood Stereotypes of Native Americans

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Evonne’s post and video were so great I had to follow up.  After watching the video she posted, I went to the youtube site to watch some similar videos.  (Thanks for the inspiration, Evonne!)

This video is part 2 of the previous film we watched.  Part 1 finished with the great quote: “A Nation that does not know its history has no future.”

Part 2 begins with a look at the film “Smoke Signals” – a film by director Chris Eyre who is of Cheyenne-Arapaho Native American descent.  This ties in well with my discussion #4 posting this week where I said that it is imperative that aboriginal people have a hand in manufacturing their own media representations of themselves.  “Smoke Signals” is a great example.

“The only way we’ll change it is to do our own movies!”

Native American Filmmaking

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBxxavk9cOU&feature=related[/youtube]

Aboriginal Media

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One of the main focuses of this module, and indeed of 521 in general, is on media and its impact in the formation and preservation of culture and tradition.  Below I’ve unearthed a collection of Aboriginal media sources which may be of value to many of you in search not only for continued weblog posts, but also for links connected to your major projects.  The links have varying degrees of professionalism.  If you click on the first handful of them, you’ll notice it appears as if they are linking the same page each time.  My understanding is that occasionally they will show different content, based on the selected region – but I’m not completely convinced of that.  Some of the other websites appear very basic.  I’m not sure its fair to draw generalizations about the quality of these types of aboriginal media sites based on the few that are here, but suffice it to say that I don’t think they are supported by a strong financial base.  And if they are being funded well, then I think much of the money is going to waste!

Aboriginal Media
Aboriginal Newspapers:
National: www.ammsa.com/windspeaker/index.htm
Alberta: www.ammsa.com/sweetgrass/index.htm
Saskatchewan: www.ammsa.com/sage/index.htm
British Columbia: www.ammsa.com/raven/index.htm
Ontario: www.ammsa.com/birchbark/index.htm
Northern News Services Online: www.nnsl.com
Nunavut: www.nunatsiaq.com
Aboriginal Magazines Aboriginal Times: www.aboriginaltimes.com
SAY Magazine: www.saymag.com

Aboriginal Radio:
www.ammsa.com/cfwe/index.htm
www.angelfire.com/indie/candidate/enter.html

Aboriginal Online News Sites:
www.turtleisland.org/news/news-box.htm
www.redwiremag.com

Media Indigena

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Media Indigena: http://www.mediaindigena.com is an interactive online magazine where indigenous issues and ideas are raised and discussed. It describes itself as both “curator and creator” in that it collects stories but also leads conversations on a variety of cultural topics such as art, politics and education.  Media Indigena uses new media (Twitter, Facebook, etc) extensively itself, but also showcases examples of indigenous groups who use technology to support cultural revitalization.

There are also a number of academic papers and reviews posted on this website, including a debate on the controversial book written in 2008 by Frances Widdowson called “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry”, which first led me to the website.

Here’s the link to the debate: http://www.mediaindigena.com/agenda/debate-disrobing-the-aboriginal-industry#hide

This website will be useful for those researching cultural revitalization projects, technology, aboriginal identity issues and historical materialism as it relates to indigeneity.  From what I can tell, the content fits nicely into both module one and two.

Media Awareness Network

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Here’s a link to an interesting website.

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/aboriginal_people/aboriginal_broadcasting.cfm

The Media Awareness Network is a non-profit Canadian entity that provides digital resources to support media literacy.  The link I have included is to an article “The Development of Aboriginal Broadcasting in Canada”, which provides an overview of the history of Canadian Aboriginal programming.

While the article covers some of the same ground as the Faye Ginsburg article in the ETEC 521 readings, it focuses only on Canadian content and delivery, beginning in the early days of CBC’s shortwave radio programming in the 1950s through to the launch of the (very successful) Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in 1999.

The website has an abundance of other material related to the portrayal of aboriginals in the media, under a broad section on Aboriginal People.