Preserving Kanien'kehà:ka Culture and Language Through Community-Based Education and Video

This paper explores the strategy of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as video to enhance community-based education as part of an effort to preserve indigenous language and culture by providing "a voice". The authors focus on the efforts undertaken within a rural indigenous community northwest of Montreal, Kanien'kehà:ka: People of the Flint (Mohawks).

As the authors explain, traditional practice and the Iroquois Confederacy Constitution give women custody of the land, responsibility for the culture, and the heft of child-rearing responsibility. Yet "Colonial and Canadian governments have challenged these principles"; members of the aboriginal community of Kanehsatà:ke have "faced, and continue to face, continual encroachment upon their land and government policy to displace them..." Mass media coverage of these issues has not adequately represented the perspectives of the Kanien'kehà:ka people, however, in the authors' assessment. For example, police and military action in the "Oka Crisis of 1990" brought "intense media attention without accompanying understanding." The authors claim that natives were cast as "the other" - with their lives and culture represented "in fragmentary and distorted ways" - through newscasts, television programmes, magazine and newspaper articles, books, videos, film and artwork that were produced almost exclusively by non-natives.

In response to the need for aboriginal writing and imagery spurred by what was understood to be mass media's stereotyped portrayal of aboriginal people, several local artists decided to explore video as a tool for making personal and traditional stories of Kanehsatà:ke people accessible to the community and to others outside the community. Kanehsatà:ke and non-aboriginal women formed a community-based video project, joining their efforts with fellow community members associated with Kanien'keha Immersion School and Tsi Ronterihwanonhnha Ne Kanien'keha, the Kanehsatà:ke Resource Center for the Preservation and Teaching of the Language and Culture of the Kanien'kehaka. (The Center supports the school, developing materials for teaching language and culture that reflect life in the community. They also sponsor language and cultural events and teach the language.) Project team members produce Kanien'keha language videos addressing traditional and contemporary culture for the School, while maintaining artistic and directorial control over their work. These videos supplement learning materials, books, posters and workbooks that are produced by the Center.

The authors describe the video recordings and finished video productions, and their role in preserving Kanien'kehà:ka culture and language. For instance, one video captures the experience of a linguist who developed a standardisation of writing Kanien'keha and presented it at Kanien'keha Language Conference at Kanehsatà:ke. Conference participants (teachers from the 3 Kanien'kehà:ka communities) learned how to teach Kanien'keha, as well as to identify Kanien'keha words and communicate their historical origins. Among the other examples cited here is that of Kentiohkwakwéknon Tsi Tekaienawákon Tsi Nonkwaiti Ne Karihonnienníhtshera: Working Together For Education, a video which incorporates narratives from community members in an effort to present the importance of maintaining the language and culture - in part by reviewing recent initiatives undertaken by the School and the Center. This video has been viewed and curriculated in the community, becoming "a point of departure for some community group discussions."