Category — Module 1

The Central Austrailain Aboriginal Media Association is one of the largest production film and television production companies in Australia, promoting aboriginal themes and awareness through “indigenous eyes”.

Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) –

The site has a number of important links that showcase the use of technology within aboriginal organizations. There is some interesting content and subject matter that can be explored at length.

http://www.mediaglobal.org/article/2009-05-29/indigenous-tribe-uses-technology-to-re-create-traditional-community-support-system

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1795357&show=abstract

http://www.pathwaystotechnology.ca/

http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~vlibrary/edres/pathfinders/ajohnson/

My office building is located right beside the Aboriginal People Television Network downtown Winnipeg,  which I pass by everyday. It was established in 1999 to “share their [aboriginal] stories with the rest of the world on a national television network dedicated to Aboriginal programming” (APTN). It allows aboriginal people to have a voice by being able to submit proposals and ideas to the station. It is mostly consist of Canadian content, which has features of local and national news and investigative stories directed at Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences. A huge proponent of the stoires come from aboriginal people from across Canada and the world. It allows aboriginal young people to hear the stories that are relevant to them and their culture, and share them with the rest of the nation.

http://www.aptn.ca/>APTN</

I started my interroagation of global and local networks at the Manitoba Government Education website:   http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/abedu/. It is a component of the Education and Literacy Department.

This site looks at the Manitoba strategies and frameworks for aboriginal education and language preservation.

It has a number of important links, including Kindergarten to Grade 12 Aboriginal Languages and Cultures: Manitoba Curriculum Framework of Outcomes.

In this document, one of the elders states: ““Language is power to understand culture.”  I never quite thought of language that way – as a gateway to culture – but it really is the fundamental cornerstone in understanding any culture. Therefore, preserving language of indigenous people becomes the cornor stone of understanding culture.

The site has a number of informational links including:

Bridging Two Worlds: Aboriginal Education and Employment Action Plan 2008-2011 – Education Action Plan

Integrating Aboriginal Perspectives into Curricula – for curriculum developers

Manitoba Kindergarten to Grade 4 Aboriginal Languages and Cultures: Bibliography of Recommended Picture Books/Novels with Suggested Uses: A Reference for Selecting Learning Resources ( 194 KB)

The Way We Speak: An Annotated Bibliography of Aboriginal Language Resources in Manitoba ( 218 KB) – an extensive bilbliography of available resources

Aboriginal Language Instruction in Manitoba – May 2001 ( 64 KB) – a study looking at the availability of aboriginal languages in the Manitoba school systems.

The University of Alberta has put together the “First Nations Information Connection” .  You will be able to find articles, journals, books, and other publications through this site.  Most of the resources are freely accessible and easy to find.

Myth Perceptions is a site that I came across that might help people understand First Nations culture better.  Many people (not necessarily those taking this course) but cultural misconceptions and stereotypes exist (regardless of the culture).  This site provides information to demystify those ideas.  It also presents issues that First Nations people face.

I came across the “Using First Nations Traditional Literature in the Classroom” site.   It is created by the Saskatoon Public Schools Online Resources Centre.  It provides educational resources to teachers.  There are outlined activities for oral tradition, examining folklore, and story-telling.  These are all important aspects to First Nations culture.  This site helps to keep those alive for students and teaches them about those traditions.  This can be useful to help educators incorporate tradition and culture into the classroom.

I am quite interested in search engines and search results and as such wanted to pump in a couple of terms related to our readings to see what came up. The first one was Raven Stole the Sun. The return I got was this most excellent site for the Red Sky dance company http://www.redskyperformance.com/. Really interested to find this inside a dance site http://www.redskyperformance.com/treeline . i feared i might get a weight loss or insurance site with such a search, but it is good to see that these terms are attributed to a site like Red Sky as they can have a really powerful influence.  Also interesting to note that just behind Red Sky in the organic search results for “Raven Stole the Sun’ is a 2010 Olympic Winter Games realted site……(que Darth Vader’s “Imperial March”)

http://www.cstc.bc.ca/cstc/43/saikuz%20first%20nation

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Counsil website holds a wealth of information. Resources available included info on history, such as the tribe names which came from the places where they traditionally settled. Also, animal stories with the lesson explained. Even Legal information such as treaty info, residential schools info and info about the counsil structure and why leaders were chosen.

Links to other sites were limited and not updated. Those that I did find supported the info found on that webpage but went to broken or removed sites.

This site is very useful if one was researching legal issues the First Nations of that area found important. The pages could be used to enhance the community reality of those who lived within the Carrier Sekani boundaries and support indigenous knowledge sharing, such as the local history of tribal names.

http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca

http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/acp/community/site.nsf/eng/fn615.html

The Aboriginal Canada Portal is a government of Canada website which describes all the First Nations Communities. The specific link I looked at was for the Saik’uz First Nation. The only resaources available are links to other sites related to government either, federal or local First Nations governance. If someone was researching the location of a First Nations community or perhaps trying to find a link to the local community, the info on the website would be useful.