Category: North America

By Katie Watson Policy Advisor The Piikani Nation in Southern Alberta, concerned they were in danger of losing their Blackfoot culture and traditions, sought out an innovative way to share it with younger generations. Elders and school officials in Piikani focused on how they could use technology to engage youth and preserve their knowledge and history. As a result, the Piikani First Nation, University of Alberta, First Nations Technical Service Advisory Group, and Piikani Board of Education created a youth-based project, the Piikani Cultural and Digital Literacy Camp Program, that combines digital technology and cultural and language studies for grade 9 students. From the beginning, Piikani Elder Herman Many Guns and University of Alberta Assistant Professor Dr. Rob McMahon knew it was crucial to combine traditional Blackfoot and digital teaching styles in the program. To accomplish this, Herman reached out to community ceremonial Elders with transferred rights who could ensure the project followed traditional protocol. The partners decided to host a summer camp that would teach students about their culture, as well as gain digital skills, such as video production, editing, and data stewardship. Students apply these new digital skills to the preservation of the ancestral knowledge shared by the Elders at an outdoor camp, called ii na kaa sii na ku pi tsi nii kii in Blackfoot. In the camp’s inaugural year, students spent the first half of the program in a classroom working through a workbook and learning digital skills and the second half in a three-day outdoor camp. Next year, the program will increase the classroom activities to include sessions before and after the camp. This will allow students to spend more time learning about how to create a story board, write narratives for their video projects, refine their videography skills, and edit the footage they capture during the camp. During the outdoor camp, students set up tripods to record lessons from community Elders who hold transferred rights to the knowledge they share. They are taught how to assemble tipis, cook, drum, make fires, and play traditional games and sports. They learn the creation story, the community’s history, and traditional songs, all of which are preserved in their video footage. This footage is provided to Piikani Traditional Knowledge Services, a local organization focused on archiving community knowledge. Students also learned about supports and barriers to sharing their stories, such as limited and expensive Internet connectivity in their community. This experience serves as a learning opportunity, not just for the students attending camp, but for all those who will later watch their videos and learn about the Blackfoot people and its culture. It also trains young Piikani students how to use and be creative with digital tools – skills that will continue to serve both them and their community after camp. In addition to these technical skills, students have reported significant personal development. They have learned pride for their community and their culture, and a deeper appreciation for their history. They have gained confidence and a broader sense of community within the Piikani Nation. This, just as much as an understanding of their culture and tradition, will ensure that the Blackfoot […]