Video “Fraser River Journey and March Point Trailer”

March Point – via YouTube

Legacy of colonialism

 The video clearly shows young people using digital film communication to take their education into their own hands. They try to understand how their way of life and customs (fishing, for instance) is affected by industrial development (the refinery nearby for example).

Despite their challenges at school, they manage to get organized and to secure interviews with VIP’s like senators.

This production clearly demonstrates that young native people are ready to face the challenges of the communication age by using the tools it offers to become active in their community.

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 How are these communities using a combination of technology and traditional knowledge to help youth heal and gain vision for their lives? What is the role of elders in these situations?

Elders

In native cultures elders, who may be men or women, personify wisdom. They often preside over ceremonies and usually possess a variety of spiritual gifts. Some interpret dreams; others are knowledgeable herbalists or healers, for instance.

In this video, elders are shown as knowledgeable people. They are either political activist, political representatives or members of the community, who respect the traditional way of life.

Elders are the formal transmitters of traditions, tribal knowledge, values (such as introspection), self-directed learning, and connectedness. Whereas, in non-native cultures, elderly citizens’ knowledge may be informally appreciated, in aboriginal societies elders play an official role.

Elders are: “embodied learning and performed knowledge” (Córdoba, n. d., para. 6) seeking to nurture relationships between the individual, the family, the community, the nation and all sentient beings. This genuine transmission of knowledge is crucial for young and mature native students. It offers a counterpart to the mass media’s sensationalist depiction of aboriginal peoples and promotes healthy, respectful representations of indigenous realities, past and present.

Ref:

Córdoba, T. (n.d.). Aboriginal literacy and education: a wholistic perspective that embraces

intergenerational knowledge. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Retrieved October 21, 2009 from http://www.cst.ed.ac.uk/2005conference/papers/Cordoba_paper.pdf