Category Archives: General

Module 3. Post 5 – “Fort McKay – A Plan”

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The peoples of Fort McKay have a plan and continue to work towards a partnership with the dozens of corporations and mines which extract oil from the Alberta Tar Sands area. The tar sands completely surround the small town of Fort McKay, lying within 6 km of the town in any direction. They are essentially cut off by industrial development from their traditional lands. Rather than host violent protests, they are seeking to work with industry and have helped organize a panel discussion:

“The Fort McKay First Nation (FMFN) and the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) are bringing together industry experts in Oil Sands and Energy, Aboriginal Economics and Issues, and the Environment…”

Aside from awareness and a sharing of aboriginal perspectives, I am unsure what goals this panel discussion hopes to achieve. I believe that awareness and sympathies from outside of Fort McKay will be needed to help persuade industry to hear the collective voices of the aboriginal peoples of Fort McKay. A path forward which includes honouring treaties with First Nations of the McKay peoples seems like a simple choice to me (an outsider and non-aboriginal person), however, the push to make money, whatever the political or environmental cost, is a powerful force that cannot be taken lightly.

Mel Burgess.

Module 3. Post 4 – “Path of the Elders: An Interactive Game”

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As part of my research into methods of revitalizing culture, I am very interested in a game I was referred to by a friend called “Path of the Elders“.

This interactive game attempts to build interest in indigenous cultures through learning about treaties, history, and sharing of other media such as photos and video.

I registered with their site today and will take the time to further explore how the game is played and what there is to gain through interacting within this virtual environment. I can’t help think that this may be a great method to re-engage youth, specifically First Nations youth, who may be disenfranchised or simply uninterested in their past or traditional culture. I have many questions related to this learning platform and hope to shed some light on this game in my posts to come.

Mel Burgess.

Module 3. Post 3 – A Change in Focus: Fort McKay

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I have been researching the peoples of Fort McKay recently as I believe that their struggle epitomizes the struggle of First Nations people. It is a story of loss of language, culture, and many traditional ways of living to the economies of our nation. Their story shows how treaty rights are being ignored and I am keen to learn how the indigenous residents of Fort McKay are using technology to combat the quiet oppression they face every day by mass corporate practices.

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This video summarizes much of what the peoples of Fort McKay are up against. I will refocus my final project to highlight the issues surrounding the peoples of Fort McKay and how they are fighting back.

Mel Burgess.

Module 3 Post #4

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In looking at the impact of the residential schools on the culture of aboriginals in Canada some of the most in-depth and revealing information (no surprise) comes from personal, family and whole community accounts of their experiences.

There is obviously a great deal written on this topic and I am finding some of the best resources are coming out of papers written by others as the information is being ‘honed’ in on. The paper linked below is from a University of Calgary doctoral candidate and he is exploring the post traumatic syndrome (more information linked in my previous posts). In looking at this, he looks closely at the impact on aboriginal culture as children were forbidden to wear their own clothing, speak their own language, forced to pray and into religion, etc.

LINK

Module 3.5 Online media by and for indigenous people

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I came across an interesting article ” A powerful year of online media by and for Indigenous People”. The article focuses on the importance of online media in voicing out indigenous issues and rights. Moreover, the article encompasses a list of recommended Indigenous films produced in 2011, made by indigenous people from the USA, Australia, Brazil, Panama, Columbia, Northern Kenya, The Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Source: http://intercontinentalcry.org/a-year-of-online-media-by-and-for-indigenous-peoples/

Module 3.4. Legacy of Hope Foundation

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The Legacy of Hope Foundation is an Aboriginal Canadian Foundation that addresses the long-term psychological implications of residential schools Aboriginal generations, both old and new.  The foundation’s main focus is to promote a process of reconciliation and healing in Canada, through a deep understanding of residential schooling issues, and their intergenerational impacts on both indigenous and non-indigenous Canadian people.

The Foundation established a virtual exhibition: http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/. The exhibition offers a Blackboard interactive forum, a map and timeline of the Residential School Era, a “bookshelf” that contains textbooks, a dictionary and a teacher’s guide, a 3D tour of Mohawk Institute Residential School, a “projector” of residential schools’ survivor stories and a museum-like exhibition.

 

Module 3.3 Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society: An online journal

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Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society is a peer- reviewed, open-access online journal, a publishing space for scholars, organizers and teachers engaged in decolonizing activity.

The journal allows online participation, discussions and debates, connecting academics, communities and students around the world. The blog site of the journal aims at building an online community where both guest writers and academics can share and exchange thoughts on indigeneity and decolonization.

The journal is funded by the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIARS) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE); It encompasses articles, art, poetry and videos. It can be found on http://decolonization.org

Module 3, Posting 3

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The colonization of a nation that ruled a lot of lands in this world is a period that belonged to the past with all its inconsistencies. It happened; it built and destroyed a lot of things. Nobody can deny that. Now things are different. There a counter reaction to what happened to the aboriginal people in many countries and especially in North America. The reforming factors that encourage the new change in the aboriginal issue are highlighted by an aware educational body of educators and educational designers. This will pave the way to an integral educational system that can serve the learners whoever they are. Here is another source that doesn’t only focus on the decolonizing process in Canada but also in many countries as well. I thought it would be of use to all of us here in this course as it will give us a chance to make a comparison between North America and all the countries that have  the same issue:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_decolonization

Module 3.2. Video as Cultural Mediation

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Faye Ginsburg, in her essay ‘Indigenous media: Faustian contract or global village?’ discusses the importance of videos produced by indigenous people in pursuit of self-determination as an act of resistance with the intention of making their voices heard in the face of cultural domination be Western media.
One should note that American and Australian indigenous people began to make their own videos in the early 1970’s, which became more prevalent by late 1980’s. The films produced typically tackle indigenous cultural and historical themes, promote indigenous art (music, dances, stories), rituals, sports, health, elders’ biographies, and mostly, the contemporary life of those indigenous groups.
Faye Ginsburg proposes “that when other forms are no longer effective, indigenous media offers a possible means – social, cultural, and political – for reproducing and transforming cultural identity among people who have experienced massive political, geographic, and economic disruption.” (p. 94).

The article can be retrieved on: https://files.nyu.edu/fg4/public/pdfs/Ginsburg%20-%20Indigenous%20Media%20Faustian%20Contract.pdf

Below are movie trailers of two Indigenous documentaries, Croker Island Exodus, and Coniston, telling stories of struggle, survival, self-determination, love, and compassion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE1eKOMUkxg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnp3yZV4ZfI

Module 3.1. Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights

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“What Protection Of Traditional Knowledge Means To Indigenous Peoples”, is an Intellectual Property Watch article, which combines two interviews with two indigenous groups attending the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC).
According to the article, both indigenous groups reported that their knowledge (a part of which they consider sacred), had been published, used, and sometimes misappropriated, without their consent. These indigenous groups are demanding that their knowledge be protected through an agreement on international legal tools that prevent “colonizers” from placing their knowledge in public domain.
“When you receive it, you don’t receive it freely to do whatever you want with it, you have obligations to the land, to whatever it is referring, to the spirits or the ancestors. This is a real problem with the public domain. Tribes have often shared their knowledge in the past but they shared it with people who had similar views and concepts and understood these obligations. But now we are in this world with 7 billion people on the Internet”, says Preston Hardison, policy analyst representing the Tulalip Tribes.
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