Tansi,
I have been attending this conference as a presenter as well as a participant. My research partner, Yvonne Poitras Pratt and I have been working in the Alberta Metis community discussing Digital Storytelling as a means of healing through embracing being Metis in today’s society.We are both Metis women and have strong ties to Metis communities in Alberta. My family originates from Lac Ste Anne, Alberta and Yvonne’s family is from Fishing Lake Metis Settlement.
I work for the Metis Nation of Alberta revitalizing the language of the Metis which is called Michif. Through digital storytelling I hope to engage the Metis people in a discussion of which Michif dialect/language is most used or was used in Alberta. I believe through language we learn about our beautiful culture which brings a pride that was lost after the Riel Resistance. With digital storytelling we hope to give the Metis people in Alberta a voice that has been silenced since 1885.
The use of new media forms such as digital storytelling allows us to combine ancestral ways of knowing with a powerful way to communicate across cultural boundaries.
Athena McKenzie Lothian
