Nearly two dozen first nations youth took part in a workshop designed to help them sharpen their digital storytelling skills.
Coordinated by Nuu-chah-nulth youth, the Digital Story Workshop offered three days of culture and practical skills to aboriginal youth from Vancouver Island.
The purpose of the project is to involve young aboriginal people in the preservation of traditional knowledge and to pass the teachings onto future generations.
Sponsored by the Canadian Diabetes Association, Vancouver Island Health Authority, The Vancouver Foundation and Vancouver Island University (VIU), a large part of the workshop focused on traditional diet.
Besides food gathering and preparation, the group looked at the health benefits of going back to a more traditional diet along with the cultural values and history associated with food.
According to nutritionist Fiona Devereaux, the digital storytelling initiative is an ongoing one.
“This is the second time we have done this project,” said Devereaux. The last workshop was held in spring 2010 and funded by First Nations and Inuit Health Branch Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative.
“This past year VIU approached the Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities Indigenous Food Network and Aboriginal Health to partner to put in a proposal into the Vancouver foundation to do a larger and broader research project,” Devereaux said.
A key part of the 2012 project is to enhance the facilitation skills of the youth in order to allow them lead future projects. This year there are five youth researchers, 20 youth participants and six elders from Tsawout, Tsartlip, Comox, Hesquiaht, Ehattesaht and Kyuquot.
Besides showing digital stories from the past, the group talked about issues like indigenous food sustainability and colonization. Elders were asked to share some of their thoughts and cultural teachings with the younger generation.
The goal was to promote interaction between the generations and to provide an opportunity to transfer cultural teachings throughout the age groups.
Young people in attendance illustrated the educational value of the project by showing narrated photo productions based on themes like language preservation, traditional cooking methods and local history.
Each production was very short, usually under five minutes. They featured photographs usually taken by the youth along with their voice narrating their stories.
The Nashuk Youth council has been involved with the project for several years and has some of their work on display on YouTube. Their work covers a wide variety of topics including preservation of culture, traditional food gathering and more.
Keenan Jules of Kyuquot, for example, showed a video he made about introduced foods and their impact on the health of Nuu-chah-nulth people.
The purpose of showing the videos is to showcase what the youth have learned along the way; not only in terms of culture, but also in terms of the technical skills involved in story production.
Those with previous experience said it is important to take a lot of photos when working on a project. Having a large selection of photographs to choose from makes for a better finished project and helps prevent violation of any copyright laws.
The workshop was organized by Robert Dennis Jr. and Letitia Rampanen and was held in Tofino from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18. After the workshop the participants were given a digital camera to take back to their communities where they will use them to make their own stories.
The group will come back at a later date to learn how to complete their digital stories.
