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A Digital Bundle: Exploring the Impact of Indigenous Knowledge Online Through Fourdirectionsteachings.Com A Digital Bundle: Exploring the Impact of Indigenous Knowledge Online Through FourDirectionsTeachings.com by Jennifer Wemigwans A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Philosophy Department for Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright by Jennifer Wemigwans, 2016 A Digital Bundle: Exploring the Impact of Indigenous Knowledge Online Through FourDirectionsTeachings.com Jennifer Wemigwans Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto 2016 Abstract Indigenous knowledge on the Internet is a new cultural form and therefore represents a new capacity for indigenous communities. This thesis examines how online indigenous knowledge sites mediate culture, knowledge, history and subjects into new forms and sets of social relationships (Poster, 1995). Specifically this thesis explores the potential of the Internet and digital technology to serve indigenous resurgence by contributing to the efforts and goals of indigenous nation building. Based on interviews and discussions with active users of FourDirectionsTeachings.com, a website that I created, I propose that online indigenous knowledge projects can be considered as “digital bundles.” Naming online indigenous knowledge projects in this way elevates the cultural protocol and cultural responsibilities that come with such a designation. In addition, the notion of digital bundle grounds online indigenous knowledge projects within an indigenous epistemological paradigm. Drawing on methodologies and concepts developed by indigenous, cultural studies and social movement scholars, and bridging the fields of indigenous resurgence and internet studies, ii this study contributes to new understandings on the role of indigenous knowledge and education in a networked world. Keywords: Knowledge Production, Internet, Resistance, Decolonization, Community Activism, Indigenous Pedagogy, Tools for Resistance, Indigenous Resurgence, Indigenous Solidarity and Sharing, Indigenous Cultural practices in Knowledge Production, Transformation iii Acknowledgments Chi Miigwetch to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Kari Delhi, Professor Emerita, and to Kristine Anne Pearson, our former department secretary, for always believing in me. You made this work possible. Much thanks and lots of love to my son Nigel and my partner Doug Anderson, who gave me the time to work and who along with my friend Myriam Rafla, shared the journey with me. This dissertation would not be possible without the generous support of all the research participants and the circle of brilliant academics that guided the way. Chi Miigwetch to the members of my thesis committee, Dr. Jean-Paul Restoule and Dr. Rinaldo Walcott, and Dr. Sandy Grande for her generous examination of the thesis. All writing is rewriting so a huge thank you to my editor and friend Tracy Pryce, whose meticulous attention went above and beyond anything I could have asked for. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Chapter One – Returning To Ourselves ......................................................................... 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Introducing Myself…………………………………………………………………..…….2 Research Question…………………………………………………………………..……..3 FourDirectionsTeachings.com ............................................................................................ 5 Unjust occupation ............................................................................................................. 11 Indigenous resurgence and the Internet ............................................................................ 13 Honouring the voice of indigenous people ....................................................................... 15 Working from an indigenous context ............................................................................... 18 The Internet: A new public sphere? .................................................................................. 21 FourDirectionsTeachings.com - A digital bundle? ........................................................... 24 Chapter Two – Literature Review ................................................................................. 27 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 27 To be or not to be online? ................................................................................................. 27 Protecting and promoting indigenous traditional knowledge (TK) .................................. 30 Identity, oral culture, youth and digital storytelling ......................................................... 35 Aboriginal youth and the Internet ..................................................................................... 38 Indigenous artists on the Internet ...................................................................................... 41 Internet activism and cross-cultural knowledge exchange ............................................... 44 Chapter Three – Research Design and Approach ....................................................... 51 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 51 Positive inversion .............................................................................................................. 51 v The Four Tenets: Biskaabiiyang, Naakgonige, Aanjigone, and Debwewin ..................... 53 Regenerating indigeneity .................................................................................................. 57 Twenty-Five projects/ indigenous methodologies ............................................................ 59 Recruitment process .......................................................................................................... 62 The Interview as a reciprocal exchange ............................................................................ 63 Chapter Four – Introducing the Research Participants ............................................. 66 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 66 Educators ........................................................................................................................... 67 Cultural arts workers ......................................................................................................... 73 System workers ................................................................................................................. 76 Being Native on the Net .................................................................................................... 81 Educators integrate indigenous knowledge into the curriculum ....................................... 82 Cultural arts workers inspired by Indigenous knowledge ................................................. 86 System workers promote indigenous knowledge as a way into community well being ....................................................................................................... 89 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 93 Chapter Five – Biskaabiiyang (to look back) ............................................................... 95 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 95 Storytelling and precedence for indigenous knowledge ................................................... 95 Celebrating survival and indigenous worldviews ............................................................. 99 Indigenizing privileges a politics of indigenous identity ................................................ 100 Revitalizing language to better comprehend indigenous knowledge ............................. 101 Representing indigenous knowledge via indigenous people .......................................... 104 Reframing culture and teachings for education purposes ............................................... 112 Restoring from brokenness through indigenous knowledge ........................................... 115 Democratizing reinstates indigenous principles of collectivity ...................................... 117 Naming is a strategy for cultural survival ....................................................................... 118 Creating fosters new discourses, approaches and dreams .............................................. 121 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 123 vi Chapter Six – Naakgonige (to plan) ............................................................................ 126 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 126 Remembering for the 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