Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada (review)

The study of indigenous media is a relatively recent development, bridging visual anthropolog y, cultural studies, cinema, communication and media studies, among other area studies. In Canada, the field has emerged mainly from communication and media scholars. The recent publication of anthologies such as Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada attests to the richness and relevance of this field. The main goal of this collection of essays was to generate a volume that would express the development of policies and practices that have led to diverse forms of cultural expression and representation of Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian territory, with a particular emphasis on the development of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (aptn). In this sense, it’s the first publication to bring together interdisciplinary scholarship that situates the current production and circulation of Aboriginal media throughout Canada, and that specifically addresses “contemporar y programming practices and content emerging from Aboriginal media organizations.” (Introduction, 7)

The starting point of Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada was a conference panel on aptn at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies convened by Hafsteinsson in 2006. Following the notions of Indigenous media scholar Faye Ginsburg on how aboriginally controlled media production enables cultural activism and transformative action, the book aims to deliver concrete examples of how these media “permit increasing cultural and social agency among indigenous groups, and how aboriginal media producers conceive of traditional knowledge.” (Introduction, 7) The volume is structured in three parts and features recent case studies in Aboriginal film and communication projects. Several articles focus on aptn and its audience reception, and three essays are by scholars of Aboriginal descent.

The first part, “The Cultural History of Aboriginal Media in Canada,” draws from established scholarship and independent research to provide a necessary framework to the development of aptn and other Aboriginal media projects. Chapter 1 reprises and updates Lorna Roth’s exhaustive research on the creation of aptn, previously published in 2005. Roth traces a succinct historical overview of Aboriginal television in six phases, placing emphasis on media policy, infrastructure and territorial considerations. She explains the challenges of moving from a grounded localized community television project to a national network and values the thrust towards internationalization of aptn’s programming. She also comments on the relative marginality of aptn despite having secured an important renewal on Canada’s major cable carriers. Chapter 2 by Jennifer David (Chapleau Cree) veers toward the more specific questions of the actual possibilities of Aboriginal language preservation and revitalization offered by broadcast media, and points out the limited data available on actual reception of such outlets.

Part II, aptn and Indigenous Screen Cultures, opens with a chapter by the volume’s co-editor Sigurjón Hafsteinsson, who argues that aptn journalism practices exercise “deep democracy,” delving into the policies and best practices innovated by aptn journalists, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal. From program content and reporting styles to the ethics of giving voice and showing images of sacred moments, the essay lucidly establishes the differences between the aptn news teams and mainstream news agencies. Aspects of cultural and linguistic sensitivity, first person and community storytelling, staffing, training, and mentorship are taken into account, as they contribute to “foster practices that are deeply local but simultaneously transnational.” (53) More broadly, they also forge new possibilities in the historically contested relationship between Aboriginal communities and the media.

Marian Bredin’s chapter in this section on aptn and its audiences evidences the challenges in attempting to satisfy an extremely diverse viewership – northern/southern, urban/rural, Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal – offering a model of analysis that triangulates an ideal, an active and an actual viewer from the perspective of both producers and stakeholders of the network. Kerstin Knopf’s essay on aptn’s programming and acquisitions policy becomes one of the most interesting interventions when laying out the discursive strategies of aptn. Knopf also points out the potential contradictions and ambivalences that such a network must confront in balancing real economic needs (such as attracting commercial sponsors) and...