Author Archives: glynnm

Module 4 Weblog – Posting #5 – Community Storytelling

My final weblog post provides an example of an Indigenous community representing themselves through the use of digital storytelling.

The Georgina Island Storytelling Project is a project of the Chippewas of Georgina Island in Ontario. The site hosts a collection of existing stories and invites the contribution of new stories. The stories cover the history of the community beginning in the 1800s up to the present day. Viewers may search for stories based on a variety of topics such as commerce, island life, health, and governance and administration. The site itself also includes links to information regarding services in the community.

The combination of all of these stories provides a very vivid idea of each contributor’s personal story, and also of their sense of themselves in the larger community. As a living project, the site also provides guidance and options for those who wish to share their own stories and add to the expressions of the heritage and identity of their people.

Module 4 Weblog – Post #4 – Healing Through Storytelling

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Through my research, I have come to understand that a key strength of digital storytelling is not simply the media file that presents the story; more specifically it is the process that led to the creation of that media.

Kookum (Grandmothers) and Youth Circles is a workbook developed to support an Equay-wuk (Women’s Group) workshop held in the winter of 2012. This group supports the needs and interests of women in the 31 First Nation communities in remote Northwestern Ontario. The workshop and the workbook both provided opportunities for both elders and youth to consider the stories that they had to tell, including their experiences of the Residential Schools – either first hand or through inter-generational impacts.

Reviewing the workbook provides tremendous insights into the types of reflection and strategies that can help contribute to people sharing their own stories as a means of healing themselves and, in some cases, those around them.

Module 4 Weblog – Post #3 – Digital Harvest

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One of the most interesting aspects of researching digital storytelling and its use in Indigenous communities, has been the variety of initiatives supported by the strategy of digital storytelling. Digital Harvest is one such initiative. Organized in 2012 by the Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities Indigenous Food Network, the project provided an initial event/opportunity for collaboration and learning between First Nations youth and elders, which later resulted in the compilation of multimedia presentations. Once posted, these presentations, in turn, provided materials for learning in other communities.

Some of the results of the Digital Harvest project can be found on YouTube. As part of the workshop associated with the project, the group observed the difference in the effects of traditional vs. colonial food (e.g. bacon, Kool aid, hot dogs, etc.) on their bodies, energy, etc. Not surprisingly, the traditional foods left the group energized and enthusiastic, while the colonial foods left them exhausted.

In describing the project, the project coordinator explains the strengths of the initiative in terms of …”the correlation between the traditional aspects of the oral First Nations cultural practice of storytelling and the contemporary technologies associated with digital storytelling and video production.”(http://www.indigenousfoodsvi.ca/updates/digital-harvest-2012/)

Module 4 Weblog – Post #2 – Indigenous Waves

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In searching for podcasts associated with Indigenous culture and education in Canada, I discovered a resource that originates from right here in my own city of Toronto. Indigenous Waves is a radio show, broadcast on CIUT 89.5 FM. The show’s website offers articles and podcasts organized by a range of categories relevant to Indigenous issues. One of the most recently posted podcasts is a discussion with Anishinabek Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee and author/educator Niigaanwewidan Sinclair regarding the First Nations Education Act, for which draft legislation was released in October.

The discussions in this podcast, like much of the media coverage at the time that the draft legislation was released, help to remind us of how the strategies of the federal government in Canada, even in 2013, are ultimately still openly controlling in their approaches. My participation in ETEC521 has instilled a type of hopefulness in me for the future of education in Canada in general, as well as Indigenous education. However, the reality of this draft legislation is sobering and discouraging. Resources like Indigenous Waves certainly help to keep this reality in focus.

Module 4 Weblog – Post #1 – Traditional Languages – New Media

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The Our World website shares the results of a series of film making workshops that have been carried out in numerous First Nations communities in BC and Yukon. The project was originally a National Film Board initiative, but more recently has been supported by an organization known as Bite Size Media.

The stories found on this site are all examples of First Nations collaborating with elders to learn more about their language and culture. Most of the videos are narrated in a traditional language, and in some cases, share traditional stories, songs and dances. However, many of the pieces also share very poignant perspectives on the loss of culture and the film makers’ struggles to define their own identities. The site is organized according to the places in which the film making workshops have taken place. As such it provides a sense of the unique nature of each people and its youth as well as how these media pieces were received by the communities in which they were created.

One of the most notable things that I found about this site was the range of approaches and techniques chosen by the young people who created these digital stories. The videos are visually very diverse and have clear and distinct voices. Nonetheless, I found, they all result in a very similar and significant impact on the viewer.

Module 3 Weblog – Post #5 – Promoting Indigenous Media Arts

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After viewing the numerous short films and documentaries offered in Module 3, and in my continuing research to understand the role of digital media in Indigenous culture and education, I have been seeking out resources having to do film making and new media creation. One such source of these resources that I have recently discovered is the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition (NIMAC). NIMAC is the Indigenous branch of the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA).

NIMAC promotes and advocates for the work of Indigenous media artists and arts organizations. The coalition has a variety of initiatives including advocacy, the commissioning of works, artistic residencies and the maintenance of resources for Indigenous media artists on the NIMAC website. Two very helpful sections of the NIMAC website are the Training and Education page and the Tool Kits. These two areas of the site provide a very thorough idea of the organizations and programs across the country that support the development of new media materials by and for Indigenous people.

Module 3 Weblog – Post #4 – Aboriginal Multimedia

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The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) was founded in 1983 and states, as part of its mission that it is “…dedicated to providing objective, mature and balanced coverage of news, information and entertainment relevant to Aboriginal issues and peoples while maintaining profound respect for the values, principles and traditions of Aboriginal people. “(History and Mission page, retrieved 03/11/13).

By 1993 society’s work has resulted in the creation of Windspeaker magazine, Canada’s sole national aboriginal news publication. The site offers links to information regarding AMMSA’s regional publications for at least four provinces and one territory – BC/Yukon, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan. In addition to the news publications, the site also provides links to CFWE, an Alberta based fm radio broadcaster.

Finally, the site includes a Daily blog and Community Access Links along with numerous “in depth” resources on current issues of particular relevance such as IdleNoMore, Missing and Murdered Women, and Pipelines and Tankers. These areas of the site are rich sources of information and perspectives on the lives of Aboriginal people in Canada, their contributions to their communities and the challenges that they continue to face with respect to self-governance, their cultures, their lands and their resources. While these materials are not stories in the traditional sense of narrative, they nonetheless help to fill in important gaps in the story of our country that many Canadians have been told over the years.

Module 3 Weblog – Post #3 – Digital Expressions of Identity

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In one our earliest readings for the course, we learned from Faye Ginsburg of the events leading to the founding of Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). One of the web sites affiliated with APTN, is Digital Drum. This site calls itself “…..an online gathering place for the young Aboriginal person” (About page, retrieved 03/11/13).

On the site, contributors can post and share digital media as a means of inspiration and expressing identity. The categories on which contributors can post are numerous and include everything from #IdleNoMore to the arts, food and travel, culture, politics and science and technology. What is interesting about the posts on the site is the mix of links that relate directly to traditional aboriginal culture and those that address a wide range of contemporary issues. Some, but not all posts on the site include commentary. Selfishly, I wish that more of the posts did include commentary in order to provide some insight into what it was about each piece of media that resonated most with the contributor and how the media relates to their personal identity.

Module 3 Weblog – Post #2 – Native Daughters

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The role of women in preserving traditional Native American language and customs is outlined in the multimedia article Native Storytellers Connect the Past and Future. This article is found on the website Native Daughters, a project of the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

The site includes contributions by a group of Native American women and young girls described as:

Artists
Environmentalists
Healers
Lawgivers
Leaders
Storytellers, and
Warriors

Through video clips and text content, some very interesting perspectives are shared. While similar topics/themes are covered in these pieces to some of the film and video material from Module 3 of this course, there are certainly areas where the perspectives differ, e.g. the idea/definition of warrior. For me, this is an important reminder of how critical context/place/community is to Indigenous knowledge and culture.

Module 3 Weblog – Post #1 – Supporting Decolonization

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While researching for Module 3 and continuing my work on my final research project, I found a relatively new online journal which may support many of the themes and questions emerging from our studies in this course.

Launched in 2012, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society is an inter-disciplinary publication which describes itself as a “….. peer-reviewed, online Open Access journal committed to decolonization work within education, as part of a larger project of decolonization in society” (Home page, retrieved 03/11/13). While the Editorial Board of this journal all appear to be associated with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, the Editorial Review Board includes individuals from across the globe, each of whom are in some way connected with Indigenous Studies. Many of the names/voices on this board have already been introduced to us thanks to ETEC521.

The journal has also launched a blog as an active means of creating dialogue with the larger community.

Together the journal and the blog serve not only as a valuable source of perspectives on decolonization; their existence also serves as an active means of challenging and addressing the ongoing effects of colonialism across the world.

Note: Apologies for any duplication — just prior to preparing this post, I noticed that our classmate had just added a post describing the very same site — not surprising given what this journal has to offer!