Nisga’a: Defining Sense of Place Online as a Mechanism of Reaffirming their Cultural Identity

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Overview: My project will combine a short movie presentation with a 2000 word essay.

Movie Title: The Nisga’a Struggle: Was it Apartheid or Assimilation?

Movie Theme: The movie will provide a historical context of the Nisga’a’s history from 1867 to the 1999 land claims. The movie will provide an insight into the continuous struggle of the Nisga’a to define their sense of place in the context of a Eurocentric environment.

 Essay Title: Nisga’a: Defining Sense of Place Online as a Mechanism of Reaffirming their Cultural Identity

 Research Topic: This essay will examine how the Nisga’a use the internet, specifically their official government website, to define sense of place in their cultural context. Furthermore, by defining sense of place, this essay will examine how the Nisga’a has blended the experiences of the past and the internet to preserve and move their cultural forward in the 21st century.

 Themes: All the themes are interconnected and will be examined to gain an understanding of how the Nisga’a use their government website as an anchor in preserving their cultural identity and moving it forward in the 21st century, as part of a global community. The website also provides evidence that the Nisga’a’s cultural identity has been shaped by interaction with a Eurocentric world view. The essay will examine sense of place through the following themes:

  1. Places have location,
  2. Place have physical and cultural characteristics,
  3. Places change,
  4. Places interact with other places, and
  5. Places are in regions.

 Essay will answer the following question:

  1. What is sense of place?
  2. How does the Nisga’a government website represent sense of place?
  3. Why is it important for the Nisga’a to use the internet to define sense of place in their unique cultural context?
  4. Evaluate whether defining a sense of place on the world-wide-web is beneficial or harmful as the Nisga’a move forward in the 21st century.

Sources

Nisga’a Lisims Government (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.nisgaanation.ca/

 

 

June 11 – National Day of Reconciliation Mod 2 – post 1

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Mod 2 – post 1

This “day” came up in my twitter feed – June 11, Healing and Reconciliation Day. It is based on the fact that PM Steven Harper’s apology to the Indigenous people of Canada happened June 11, 2008. The message “jumped out at me” based on our readings about media and indigenous stereotyping and the residential schools.  Here’s a video of the apology and first anniversary coverage:

Here’s my retweet from twitter:

 

Final Project: Using technology and online learning to increase education levels and employment opportunities for remote first nation communities.

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Module 2 Post 2, Final Project Focus Area

I came across a paper titled Connecting Aboriginal Learners in Remote Communities: An Online Social Work Course when searching for a topic for my final project. The article mentioned that the aboriginal “students enjoyed the experience [of the online course] and found the method of learning and the computer skills gained to be useful.”

I decided to look further into this topic of online learning and found an excellent article titled: Ready, Willing, And Able: Prospects For Distance Learning In Canada’s First Nations Community. The below passage inspired me to focus on this topic for my final project.

“The educational attainment levels of First Nations people in Canada lags behind that of mainstream society. Because many reserves are in rural or remote areas, attending postsecondary institutions has meant leaving the community. However, advances in information technologies and distance education program delivery mean that First Nations people can obtain postsecondary educational credentials without having to leave their home communities.”

With increased education comes increased employment opportunities, therefore the focus for my final project will be:

Using technology and online learning to Increase education levels and employment opportunities for remote first nation communities.

References

Hick, S. (2008). Connecting Aboriginal Learners in Remote Communities: An Online Social Work Course. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 20:3-4,267-281. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/pdf/10.1300/J017v20n03_04

Voyageur, C. (2001). Ready, Willing, And Able: Prospects For Distance Learning In Canada’s First Nations Community. The Journal of Distance Education, VOL. 16, No. 1, 102-112. Retrieved from: http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/174/131

Regards,

Greg Campbell

Maintaining Connections to the Natural Environment with Computer Technology: An Indigenous Perspective

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I found the following quote concerning the Innu striking: “land, the country is the root of the culture” (as cited in Loring & Ashini, 2000, p. 175). I would like to concentrate on environmentalism and Indigeneity for my final paper because of the significance of the land to Indigenous peoples. Specifically, I want to focus on how technology affects Aboriginal relations with the land and its educational implications. I chose this topic because I have a deep respect for Indigenous spiritual connections with the landscape and am interested in learning more about the impact of technology on this aspect of Indigenous culture. I intend to begin my paper by providing a cultural background of Indigenous connections to the land. I then plan to analyze the positive impacts of technology on Aboriginal environmental relations, followed by its negative impacts. I will then discuss the implications of this analysis for education and provide recommendations for teachers in terms of how to support Indigenous students’ relationship with the environment. I hope that this paper will help teachers with Aboriginal students develop a better understanding of their needs for connections to the landscape. I also hope it will provide means for teachers to support this aspect of the Indigenous culture.

References

Loring, S., & Ashini, D. (2000). Past and future pathways: Innu cultural heritage in the twenty-first century. In C. Smith & G. K. Ward (Eds.), Indigenous cultures in an interconnected world (pp. 167-189). Vancouver, BC: UBC Press.

Shannen’s Dream

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Module 2 post 1

When researching topics for my final project I came across this website www.shannensdream.ca. The story is a very powerful one about a young Attawapiskat First Nation student named Shannen Koostachin who advocated for “safe and comfy schools and culturally based education for First Nations children and youth”. Tragically, Shannen passed  away in a car accident in 2010 before she could see her dream of a proper school in Attawapiskat being build. However, her dream lives on. The website provides lots of resources on first nation education and the below YouTube Video is very moving and provides information on Shannen’s story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gy38grr35c&list=PL6690B25BABF0D0E5

Regards,

Greg Campbell

Weblog 5: Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk

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Hi everyone,

This is directly from the website I will discuss in this weblog post, from the ‘Community’ tab page:

‘Kugluktuk is situated at the at the mouth of the Coppermine River in Coronation Gulf in western Nunavut, about 650 km by air east of Inuvik. The community was formerly known as Coppermine and was located in the Northwest Territories before the creation of Nunavut in 1999.’

I am interested in this website “The Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk” as I continue research into what I intend to focus on for my final paper/project. I am drawn to any community that is open about wanting to be healthier as there are so many ways we can all strive to achieve greater forms of emotional, social, physical and mental health. I am also drawn to how the act of storytelling can function in different ways to support healing and psychological health particularly in First Nations peoples. While navigating through this site, I noticed that on the ‘Services’ pages, in the right hand column, there is a newsfeed. I read this feed for awhile and started to realize that this is a technology-based way to incorporate a traditional form of storytelling into a modern community field. This seems highly relevant not just to my interests in this aspect of First Nations culture, but also to how technology can be used to advance cultural understanding. This has inspired me to look elsewhere for how technology can be used to share experience and ways of knowing.

Thanks,

Ginelle

http://www.healthykugluktuk.ca/

Weblog 4: First Nation Literacy

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HI everyone,

I find I am drawn to sites that inspire action. I found this site while I was researching broadly about storytelling in First Nations populations. The First Nation Literacy site offers teacher support materials, guides, lesson plans and other resources all aimed at promoting reading and preserving cultural heritage. What I found particularly interesting was the role of storytelling in the subtopics ‘A digital warrior at home in two worlds’, for example, and in ‘Thank you Mom, Part 2’. I’m interested in how storytelling functions in modern daily life for First Nations people, so I was drawn to this connection.

Thanks,

Ginelle

Blood Nation Success – Mod 1, post 5

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Student engagement is about interaction and relationships. In this article today from the Calgary Herald, it is apparent that by promoting these two key characteristics – there is evidence of student achievement and success.

Antoinette Bruised Head, principal of Kainai School, is proud of the 20 student graduating from high school this year (up from 1 student graduate only 4 years ago). Based on the article, developing relationships with students, giving immediate feedback when students need help, morning thoughts scribbled down on post its,  listening to the students, giving them a voice, promoting exercise and academic expectations, promoting literacy,  (literacy tests), cultural content and language integration, changing the timing of the semester to meet student needs and ensuring that the students are accounted for make a HUGE difference in student learning opportunities.

This article is an inspiring, yet realistic view, on the possibilities of focusing on student engagement in FNMI youth.

Verena 🙂

Module 1 – Post 5: Indigenous Education and the Prospects for Cultural Survival

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http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/united-states/indigenous-education-and-prospects-cultural-s

What makes this article different for me is that it provides insights in to the education of indigenous people by chronicling the complex history of an indigenous people educational institution from a boarding school to a university. Because is focuses on an institution rather than a program it provides a working example both how the thinking on the education of native people has evolved over the years and the challenges that arose over time. As I read I became convinced that more institution that caters for the need indigenous people are needed in the world of education.

Module 1 – Post 4: Education in the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples: Bringing education back into the mainstream of Indigenous Peoples’ lives

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http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/echoes-16-02.html

I am convinced that English is not first language of the author of this article because it is titled as a poem. Nevertheless it is a useful for people interested in the education of indigenous people.  An interesting point made here is the fact that in indigenous education are not inspired by sheer nativism alone but also because Indigenous Peoples also want to learn “modern” sciences, but in the context of their own culture.