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  • The Metamorphosis of an Oral Tradition: Dissonance in the Digital Stories of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada
  • Lorenzo Cherubini (bio)

Introduction

Storytelling, as an oral tradition for Aboriginal1 peoples in Canada, is considered an ancient art form (Cruikshank 1990). Aboriginal peoples’ communities are often founded on stories that are characteristically sustaining: communicating the epistemologies and norms that constitute their worldviews (see Valdés 2004; Dei 2000). Digital storytelling is understood as a form of short narrative told in the first person and enhanced by visual text and symbolic imagery (Ohler 2005; Salpeter 2005; Weis et al. 2002). It is considered an extension of oral storytelling, is welcomed by Aboriginal peoples, and represents a “continuation of what Aboriginal people have been doing from time immemorial” (Hopkins 2006:342), and complements the preferred values and styles of interaction innate to Aboriginal pre-colonial education paradigms (Battiste 2000a and b; Barman et al. 1986).

The metamorphosis of the oral tradition of storytelling into the digital medium creates a sense of audience for the elders who self-profess to be intermediaries from one generation to the next. As John Miles Foley (2008) insightfully suggests, oral tradition and digital technology are the frameworks to the fading era characteristic of the printed page. Digital storytelling situates the elders in the line of public gaze, where once their audience was more immediate and culturally relative. The presumed influence of their stories involves the variation of exposition, the representational language, and the latent relationships between the human and spiritual realms according to Aboriginal peoples’ worldviews. The elders’ role is to sustain the continuity of belief and so accept the digital as a means to reach a broader audience and illuminate a complex system of interrelated values.

By employing a reflexive ethnographic framework to examine selected digital stories from the Omushkegowuk area in Ontario, Canada, a core interpretation of these worldviews emerged; namely, the presence and exploitation of western colonial influence has caused the profound dissonance experienced by Aboriginal peoples’ cultural, civil, symbolic, and spiritual paradigms, resulting from the presence and exploitation of western colonial influence. In turn, this paper further discusses how the stories of the elders require a rather imaginative interpretation from non-aboriginal peoples on the cultural periphery of these oral traditions.

Context of the Nishnawbe-Aski Peoples

The Aboriginal peoples of this area have firm beliefs that are rooted to their land and natural resources. Foundational to this understanding are the typical vocations of hunting, trapping, and fishing that are passed from one generation to the next. The Nishnawbe-Aski Nation represents 49 First Nations near James Bay, Ontario, two-thirds of Ontario’s land, with a population of 45,000 people. The traditional spoken languages include Ojibway, Cree, and Ojicree. They are ranked 69th in the United Nations’ Human Development Index and hold the dubious distinctions of having the lowest life expectancy in Canada and the highest youth suicide rates in the world (A. Fiddler n.d.).

Conceptual Framework

The literature suggests that ethnographic research focused upon culture, language, and the identity of Aboriginal peoples “would do well to cultivate the notion of Indians in unexpected places . . . the internet and other communication technologies” (Strong 2005:259; see also Collins 1998; Cruikshank 1998; Dombrowski 2004; Harmon 2002). This project fills a void in the research literature and is a segment of a larger study that examines Aboriginal peoples’ oral traditions and various paradigms of teaching and learning (Cardinal & Hildebrandt 2000). It inquires about the communication of Aboriginal peoples’ culture, history, and values as told by the elders’ stories via digital technology (Basso 1996; Horne & McBeth 1998; Mitchell 2001; Sarris 1993). As a mainstream researcher engaged in a reflexive ethnographic approach, I believe that respect for the solidarity of Aboriginal peoples’ beliefs and their uniqueness in the human social world are of paramount importance. The interpretations of the elders, as they were shared in the digital stories, were thus not subject to appraisal and were instead accepted as traditional teachings from which new understandings could be gleaned, particularly from non-aboriginal peoples who are situated on the cultural periphery of these oral traditions.

Elders as Storytellers

In Aboriginal peoples’ communities, the elders are considered the...

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