Tag Archives: First Nations

Module #4 – Post #4: Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace

With a focus on storytelling and indigenous culture and values, AbTeC is a unique hub that provides academics, artists and technologists with a network in which to share ideas, developments in technology and digital art, as well as applications of technology for educational purposes. The projects supported by AbTeC are largely geared towards empowering indigenous youth to celebrate and enrich their cultural traditions through new media technologies that allow students to create their own video games and interactive web pages.

The website also provides a lengthy biography of artists, scholars and technicians who have worked with communities, schools and universities to assist in the development of new media projects and curricula, in addition to links to AbTeC related research and case studies that examine the impact of technology on education and Aboriginal youth.

Module #4 – Post #3: Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival

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The Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival (VIMAF) recently wrapped up its third annual event last week. This year’s festival ran from the 6 – 11 of November and hosted a number of events across downtown Vancouver, with venues ranging from the Central Library to SFU Woodwards to the NFB. The festival is an opportunity for indigenous artists working in the field to showcase their works, and perhaps even more importantly, for the public to engage with these artists in the issues surrounding indigeneity in a contemporary context.

While the works featured and the topics discussed at VIMAF may diverge from traditional indigenous artistic expression, the organizers of the festival stress the underlying element that ties together the variety of works showcased over the course of the week: storytelling. In this sense, new media technologies have provided indigenous artists with a new venue, a new voice in which to relate their histories, traditions, and contemporary issues with not just their own communities, but with the wider public.

The festival’s programming includes screenings, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities that help indigenous artists in the field to build personal and industry connections. Full details from this year’s festival can be found here.

Module #4 – Post #1: First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation

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The ‘About’ page on the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation website provides a succinct description of their organization and mandate:

The First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable public organization that generates support and funding for Aboriginal and First Nations artists, First Nations communities, First Nations cultural organizations, and First Nations educational organizations. We support grassroots efforts to revitalize the Indigenous arts, languages and cultures unique to British Columbia, Canada.

In turn, the foundation has funded millions of dollars into BC First Nations arts and culture, providing the much needed resources to help revitalize and sustain indigenous culture in the province. This includes funding for projects in language revitalization and multi-generational cultural initiatives, in addition to funding grants for individual artists and organizations.

One of the site’s features that I found useful was the First Peoples Art Map, an interactive map that pinpoints the locations of contemporary First Nations artists, organizations and events across the province. Each pin provides a hyperlink to a biography and website for each artist or organization, as well as images and other related information. I feel that this particular tool allows indigenous artists in particular an opportunity to effectively network and showcase their work in a way that connects the artist to the wider arts community.

Module 3 – Post 4 – First Nations Music in Canada

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First Nations Music in Canada is a publication put out in 1998 by the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. It is designed for children aged 8-11 and includes basic information about Aboriginal music in Canada. It discusses instruments used, singing styles, and how music is used traditionally by First Nations people. Contemporary artists such as Buffy Sainte-Marie are also mentioned in relation to the impact of First Nations music on Canadian Culture. It also includes a quiz and a game as activities for children to do.

Module 3, post #4: Four Directions Interactive Teachings

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Four Directions Teachings is a visually engaging, audio-narration about indigenous knowledge and philosophy. Elders representing five of Canada’s First Nation groups (M’ikmaq, Mohawk, Ojibe, Cree and Blackfoot) explain their culture’s creation stories, traditional ceremonies, prayers, elders and dance.

I learned a number of interesting facts about indigenous culture from this site. For example, indigenous language is made up mostly of verbs because the culture believes that everything is alive and has a spirit. Therefore, there are fewer words to describe inanimate objects. I also learned that as Mohawks count the numbers 1-10, they are recounting the Mohawk creation story. That is because their word for the number one is the the name of the sky woman who first created the sky, the number two is the same word for twins because the sky woman’s daughter gave birth to twins, and so on… What a great way to help indigenous people remember their creation story. These are the kinds of interesting facts that I would have loved to learn in my intermediate or high school years. In my opinion, this web-site is a very engaging teaching tool.

Module #3 – Post #2: Art and Wellness

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“Art and Wellness: The Importance of Art for Aboriginal Peoples’ Health and Healing” is a document prepared for the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health by Alice Muirhead and Sarah de Leeuw. The document outlines the benefits of art therapy as a means of improving mental and physical health in Aboriginal communities, in addition to its role in reviving traditional Aboriginal arts.

Muirhead and de Leeuw argue that art therapy methods help patients to relax and to gain enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence as a result of the creative process, which ranges from conception to the development of a final product that can be shared with others. The authors also point out that many traditional Aboriginal arts are collaborative in nature, which assists in building and strengthening relationships between individuals and the community.

An important benefit of art therapy in promoting wellness in Aboriginal populations in particular, is the opportunity for patients to express themselves in ways that might not be perceived as threatening. Some Aboriginal cultures view the doctor/patient model as an inequitable balance of power, and patients are reluctant to speak truly about their experiences. Art, therefore, provides a more accessible middle ground, where feelings can be expressed in non-verbal and potentially more indirect means.

Module 2.4. Indigitization: A Toolkit for Digitizing Indigenous Media

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The Indigitization toolkit is a collaborative project between the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKBLC), the First Nations Technology Council (FNTC), and three First Nations communities: Heiltsuk, Ktunaxa, and ‘Namgis. The project was initiated by by MOA (Museum of Anthropology at UBC).

In a nutshell, “Indigitization” aims at creating a digitizing a collection of audio materials from oral history, in order to assist Indigenous communities in preserving and managing their information. The digitized materials constitute a published toolkit, available for First Nations communities that wish to engage in digitization, and, consequently, for future generations of First Nations.

In the video below, “Xelsilem Rivers, an intern at MOA, discusses with CBC how he is helping to digitize Northwest Coast First Nations languages. Most of these languages only have a handful of fluent speakers left and this archival process is enabling people like Rivers to study what would otherwise go extinct.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LG8dWCcIYk

Module 2 – Post #5 – Through the Eyes of Youth

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In her video interview for ETEC521 Module 2, Amy Parent mentions the deep insights that she felt were captured through the film projects undertaken by youth, at the Centre where she was working, in collaboration with an exceptional organization called Reel Youth.

After some searching, I tracked down three film projects (Residential Truth: Unified Future, Bandaid, and Decolonization) that had been produced with Reel Youth, expressing the thoughts and feelings of First Nations youth regarding residential schools and the concept of decolonization. The longest of these three films conveys how raw the feelings are and how much of the hurt from the residential school system endures in the current generation. This project includes footage of video interviews with young people and their parents, sharing their thoughts and emotions in a frank and very moving way. The two shorter films are both claymation projects, which employ simple and beautiful imagery that evokes just as powerful a reaction as the video interviews.

This site and these film projects served as good reminders to me of the range of ways, (music, image, voice) in which messages can be conveyed when there is an important and compelling story to be told.

Module 2 – Post #4 – Second Chances

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The digital storytelling project for First Nations women, which I described in my previous post, led me to the corresponding project posted by the Oral History Centre, which is known as ININIWAG DIBAAJIMOWAG: FIRST NATIONS MEN AND THE INTER-GENERATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS. The men’s digital stories associated with this project are equally poignant to those of the women mentioned in my previous post. However, the one that I found most impactful was the story called Second Chance, by Dan Highway. He is a residential school survivor, who shares in simple and clear terms how the theft of the opportunity to be with his own parents impacted his abilities as a father and how his process of healing has resulted in a second chance to be a parent to his children and grandchildren.

Numerous other stories emerging from this project can be found on the Oral History Centre’s YouTube Playlist.

Mod 2:5 Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre

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The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre is committed to helping maintain the languages and cultures of First Nations people. Their website has information on the various First Nations in Saskatchewan as well as a section on how to respect Elders. The website has information that could easily be used with students.

http://www.sicc.sk.ca/elders_faq.html