Tag Archives: culture

Entry 8: Language and Culture

The world loses a language every two weeks” – Wade Davis

The IRCA (Indigenious Remote Communications Association) “is the peak body that represents and advocates for the media and communications interests of remote and very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia.”  This site discusses the importance of maintaining and strengthening the languages of aboriginal groups. Languages hold a key to the tranmission of culture, ideas, values, etc and often some information can not be translated into nother language, say English, wihout losing the importance of the information.  Therefore, it is imperative that the languages of aboriginal peoples be maintained.

IRCA “believes that strong language and culture are fundamental to strengthening Indigenous identity and culture.”

Languages contain complex understandings of a person’s culture, their identity and their connection with their land. Language enables the transference of culture and cultural knowledge across generations. Languages are a source of pride and strength.

The site goes on to list several key reasons for languages. These include 1) Culture    2) Health, Education, Employment  3) Heritage  4) Economics  5) Science and Sustainability  6) Reconciliation.  IRCA also offers many documents and reports that  support indigenious languages.

http://www.irca.net.au/about-irca/friends/sector/language-and-culture

Module 2 – Post #2 – “Return of Treasures”

While contemplating the ideas of culture and commodification in this Module, I discovered a website that has been compiled by the U’Mista Cultural Society. The website associates the meaning of U’Mista with the return home of captives who may have been abducted in raids. It then identifies the return of artifacts or treasures of the Kwakwaka’wakw people from foreign institutions and collections as a form of U’Mista.

A wonderful link from this site is the Story of the Masks. This site uses text, images, video and simple games/quizzes to introduce and share the stories of the Kwak’wala speaking people of the Northwest Coast of B.C.  The site includes many personal accounts of how masks and/or regalia, along with their stories, have been passed along through generations.

This site is also part of a much larger, quite interesting institution known as the Virtual Museum of Canada. This initiative seems to me to be a wonderful way to allow a diverse range of communities and groups to share their stories and educate others about their culture while at the same time protecting the things most sacred to those cultures and ensuring that they are physically located in the places where they belong.

The Story of the Masks has given me much food for thought as I pursue my research regarding digital stories and indigenous knowledge and culture.

Module 2 – Post #1 – Right in Front of Me

It is true that when searching for ideas and resources, it is sometimes easy to overlook the things that are right in front of you. The Ryerson Image Centre is directly beside my office, and every day I walk past a large, glass enclosed area of the building that houses a rotating display of images from current exhibits. I realized recently that, as I rushed to grab coffee each day, some of the images that were catching my eye brought to mind many of the themes of ETEC521. Sure enough, I soon discovered that one of the exhibits that is currently running at the Centre is Ghost Dance, a show which includes 99 journalistic photographs, capturing elements of aboriginal life and activism in North America.

While the images themselves are beautiful and intriguing, something that I found equally interesting about this exhibit is the blog associated with it. The blog is designed to serve as a forum for visitors to share any memories or associations they might have with the people, events or locations captured in the photos. Unfortunately, so far, no comments have been posted to the blog to provide deeper insights into these images.

I hope to return to the exhibit and to the blog again over the next few weeks. While the curator of the exhibit has chosen an engaging selection of images, how much more engaging and informative might the show be if the true stories behind the images, or even parts of these stories, were to be shared by those involved?

Mod2 – Post 5. “Challenging Economies”

The past few weeks we have been reading many materials regarding the recognition and revitalization of the traditional ways of First Nations people. As I research materials for my course project, I came across this website from National Geographic regarding the Tar Sands of Alberta.

How are the Tar Sands related to the challenges faced by First Nations people? I think that the biggest challenge put in front of First Nations people is how cultures in Canada view land.

The predominant culture sees the land as a “resource” first. Land is meant to be extracted, refined, exported. Land drives economy, creates jobs, and puts Canada on the global map as a provider of raw materials.

Tar Sands Pipe

First Nation groups see land as something radically different from this. It is part of their “self”. Land cannot be removed from the self. It is tied to each of us. It is tied to the air we breathe and the animals that roam over, squirm under, and fly over, its surface. It is part of their economy too. For the land provides that which they need to survive. It is revered and honoured in daily life. There are spoken codes of conduct of how one interacts with the land, and this conduct presents itself in the traditional stories passed down from one generation to the next. As Dr. Nancy Turner spoke of in last week’s podcast… “Most of the people that I have worked with have lived in their community their entire life and so have their family, and their family’s family, going back to the beginning of time. They are situated in a specific place. Their wisdom, stories, language, all sits in that place. A lot of this knowledge of plants, environments, and how to live their lives is situated in these places.”

Enter the indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay, a small community located at the very heart of the Tar Sands. The indigenous peoples of Ft. McKay are literally surrounded by the Tar Sands and have watched their land literally disappear from underneath them for the past 20 years. How will the First Nations people of Ft. McKay save what is left of their culture when huge corporations have invested billions into the extraction, purification, and exportation of those lands?

I believe it is a difference in perspective that is the biggest challenge facing indigenous peoples of North America.

Mel Burgess.

Module #2-5: Stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples

Since the discussion topic was about stereotypes, I researched Indigenous peoples and stereotypes a little further. I found some amusing stereotypes, but many negative one too that were not funny at all. I assume (or hope) that non-Indigenous people would not entirely believe them, but the negative stereotypes are deep-rooted and may affect how Indigenous people are viewed in some respects.

Native Appropriations is a forum that discusses representations of Native peoples, including stereotypes and cultural appropriation. In a recent post they discussed racist Halloween costumes. I totally understand that wearing Indian costumes can be perceived as racist but racism may not be always the reason for choosing Indian costumes; sometimes people dress for something they love and respect, so one cannot over generalize. If children want to choose a costume simply because s/he likes it, how should adults react?

Creative Spirits, the website that introduces contemporary Aboriginal culture in Australia, discusses many stereotypes and prejudices about ‘Aboriginal Australia’. At the same time, they introduce ‘good’ stereotypes as well as typical ones; for example, the Tourism Australia website uses the common stereotype of ‘Australia = friendly Aboriginal people’ to promote the tourism in Australia. It is important for students to learn about the negative aspects of Aboriginal history, but at the same time, teachers should focus on Indigenous peoples’ strength and beliefs to reveal their positive aspects. It may not be the best solution for rooting out negative stereotypes, but perhaps positive stereotypes can help overcome negative ones.

Module #2-3: Films and Documentaries

Recently I have seen a few documentaries about Indigenous peoples both on TV and in the theater. One is called Kind Hearted Woman, about a native woman in North Dakota who struggles with poverty, career, drug and alcohol abuse, and her own identity. It was very powerful and I had so many questions such as “what prevents her from leaving the community?” or “why is it so hard for her to overcome her problems?” because of my ignorance about Indigenous peoples and, probably, my stereotypes about them. Then I watched Nanook of the North last week and now I curiously started searching for more Indigenous films.

First Nations Films was created in 1998 and distributes award-winning educational documentary films for, by and about Indigenous peoples in Canada. Many movies are listed in their catalogue with trailers. Movies feature various topics, such as native women, suicide in the community, Indigenous peoples’ historical relationship with the Provincial and Canadian governments in settling the land question in Canada, etc. National Film Board of Canada features many Indigenous documentaries and animations on its website as well. The best feature of this website is that we can watch many full-length feature films about Aboriginal Peoples.

Coincidentally, imagineNATIVE, Toronto’s 14th annual showcase of the latest work by indigenous filmmakers and artists, will be held October 16th through 20th. Every fall imagineNATIVE presents a selection of distinctive Indigenous works from around the world in conjunction with a variety of cultural & social events. Because we are apt to have incorrect impressions or stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, it is helpful for us to see films and documentaries on them to dispel stereotypical notions about them. Through diverse media presentations we can arrive at a greater understanding of Indigenous peoples and cultures.

Module 2 – Post 3 – Virtual Museum

The Virtual Museum of Canada has a great website entitled “Back to Batoche”.  The website is a virtual museum of sorts, and includes both historical and contemporary information on Metis culture.  The website is organized into two sections with many subsections each:

1885 Batoche

Involvement from Other Places

  • Duck Lake
  • Fish Creek
  • Red River
  • Western Canada
  • Central Canada

Areas of Interest

  • Tipi
  • Farm Life
  • General Store
  • House Visit
  • School/Post Office
  • Church
  • Cemetary
  • Battlefield
  • Middleton’s Zareba
  • Red River Cart
  • Northcote

Key People

  • Gabriel Dumont
  • Louis Riel

Present day Batoche

Areas of Interest

  • Festival House
  • Race Course
  • Voyageur Games
  • Grandstand
  • Fire Pit
  • Souvenir Stand

Visit Town of Batoche

  • Visitor Reception
  • Church
  • Zareba
  • East Village
  • Rifle Pits and River Lots

The website includes video clips, sound recordings, photographs, and drawings that depict the various sections.  The website also includes interviews, recipes, games, language lessons, and more.  It would be a great resource for anyone wishing to explore aspects of Metis history related to the 1885 Resistance and/or contemporary Metis culture.

The website is here: Back to Batoche

Module 2 – Post 1 – Thinking Critically

Assessing and Validating Resources— Aboriginal Heritage

The Assessing and Validating Resources document was created by the Library and Archives of Canada as a tool to help researchers in vetting their sources.  As quoted from the document: ” The assessment tool for validating appropriate content introduces critical thinking and analysis when locating and using both primary and secondary sources.  The following checklist assists the researcher to consider how resources present Aboriginal documentary heritage, in text and imagery.”

This tool seems like it would be very helpful to use in the evaluation of cultural resources.  The questions are straight forward and easy to understand.  In addition, the questions explore a variety of important areas related to content production, language, imagery, Indigenous knowledge vs world views, and traditional vs contemporary portrayals of First Nations Inuit and Metis.  While the resource could be made easier with the addition of a scale or checklist, it nevertheless provides though provoking questions that encourage critical reflection.  I can’t help but think that if the US school system used this kind of tool then maybe a book like “The Education of Little Tree” would not have made it into their curriculum.

Assessing and Validating Resources— Aboriginal Heritage

Technology and loss of identity

The benefits of technology are easily noticed.  The Web and other technological devices do allow indigenious people an opportunity to explore and investigate their culture.  People can often find traditional skills that may have otherwise been lost. However there has been a much research done on the overuse of technology.

Therefore, I wish to explore the drawbacks or negative side-effects of this over technological use on indigenious people.  This topic may seem broad in scope. How do we judge what is overuse of technology?  Which negative aspects of techuse do I wish to explore:  the medical, the environmental, or the social?  I will focus my research on the personal impact of technological use as it affects or alters one’s life.  I wish to explore if technology is taking away the self-identity, or cultural identity of indigenious people, – an identity that, without technology, would remain.

I will explore articles and sites on technology versus self-identity and cultural identity.  I will also examine data on technological use for indigenious and non-indigenious groups.

Below is a list of some sites, articles, and research that may be used along with the information from my modules.

Preservation of Culture in an Economy of Extraction – my statement to connect weblogs.

Nilesh Patel, a friend of mine from High School, filmed and directed a movie in 2006 called “Brocket 99: Rocking the Country”. The film was created to spark authentic dialogue between First Nations and non-aboriginal peoples in the hopes of tackling stereotypes and promoting increased tolerance. I recently had a chance to talk with Nilesh, who described some of his experiences of the past 10 years, making documentary movies with First Nations groups across BC and Alberta. We discussed how attitudes towards First Nations groups varies greatly depending on the region and how some First Nation groups are making strides to regain sovereignty, while others fall behind and still face oppressive resistance and hostility. Reflecting on our discussion, I think of how government in Western Canada is eagerly pursuing an “economy first, use it or lose it” agenda. I question, “Where does culture of indigenous peoples fit within an ideology of resource extraction and economic growth?” I believe economic development has put indigenous peoples at a crossroads today. The race is on to preserve traditional ways, especially language, in the face of massive global economic pressure and corporate interests.

Tar sands extraction in northern Alberta

To start my inquiry, I will look at three distinctly different regions of Western Canada and the groups of indigenous peoples that live within these regions: Duncan, BC (Cowichan Tribes); Fort McKay, Alberta (Cree, Dene, and Metis); and Inuvik, Northwest Territory (Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and Metis). I will examine the industry that exists within these areas and how economics has affected and continues to affect these First Nations peoples. I will then study how these indigenous groups are using technology to help retain and pass on what is vital to their way of life. Lastly, I will look at how these First Nations groups are utilizing the internet as a space to promote culture and identity.

Mel Burgess.