| dc.description.abstract | Indigenous people have been subject to willful misrepresentation via Western media technologies since the first
written accounts returned to Europe from the conquistadores and colonists in the 15th century. Paul Kane used oil
paint, Edward Curtis used still photography, and John Ford used the motion picture to promote their own particular
vision of what they thought Indigenous were and to shape the imaginations of generations of settlers. Contemporary
media such as movies, television, and videogames often advance a similar vision of what Tsimshian/Haida scholar
Marcia Crosby calls the “Imaginary Indian”, or the Indian as Westerners would like her to be rather than the Indian as
she is.
This paper will provide a brief history of research and practice in media arts that have investigated a different sort of
imaginary, that of Indigenous people themselves and how we see ourselves in the future seven, ten or twenty
generations from now. I will discuss the work we have undertaken in the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace
research network developing the concept of the Indigenous Future Imaginary and how we use digital media to
illustrate and enact these visions. I will also look at work that has been produced at researchcreation centres such as
the Banff New Media Institute, the Aboriginal History Media Arts Lab, the Centre for Indigenous Media Arts, and the
Making Culture Lab that has focused on digital media production by and for Indigenous communities. | |
