Autumn Koe-Schnell is a Member of the Gwich’in Nation, a First Nations and Indigenous Studies Major, and a HASTAC2019 Research Assistant.
In May of 2018, researchers, scholars, podcasters, and creators from over 20 institutions and 3 continents came together on the territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ to create the first generation of any Indigenous programming for the Digital Humanities Summer Institute. It was called the Symposium for Indigenous New Media, or abbreviated to SINM.
The idea was put together by David Gaertner and Jordan Abel. Abel and Gaertner are scholars, creators, and history makers in both the Digital Humanities and Indigenous Studies fields. David Gaertner’s research primarily lies in the field of Indigenous new media, and Jordan Abel is a PhD candidate, and a sound and written artist who works to intertwine both fields. The premise for the Symposium for Indigenous New Media was surrounding Indigeneity in the digital world. There was lots of discussion surrounding what is digital, different forms of digital, who defines the intersection of Indigeneity and digital, and traditional Indigenous technologies.
Everyone took different perspectives of what Digital Humanities means, how Indigenous studies can better interact with the digital humanities, and how this work can be done. Some people such as Sarah Humphreys and Sarah Chambers, took more of a remediating approach to their Indigenous media. They took the well known book Cowgewea by Mourning Dove. Their whole project was about returning something to a community that was taken away from them, by editors. The editing process took a substantial amount of Mourning Dove’s words, as explains Treena in her panel at the SINM conference.
Another topic of discussion was best practices, or lack thereof. David Gaertner presented on a paper of his, called A Landless Territory?: CyberPowWow and the Politics of Indigenous New Media. One of his final points was about “best practices”, which was later challenged by several others. The idea of best practices is embraced by some, and rejected by others, like most topics in academia. The basis for the argument is that there is a minimum requirement for ethics, respect, and justice being credited towards traditional Indigenous knowledges. The argument against was because Indigenous communities across Turtle Island and beyond can’t all simply fit into the idea of “best practices”, and each practice should be meticulously picked based on each community/interaction. There was no ultimate decision on this, but I think it’s something that we, as academics, Indigenous diaspora, settlers, and aspiring allies need to consider when working with Indigenous communities and working on stolen lands.
Something that stood out to me, was the lack of decolonial feminist analysis at the symposium and in the Digital Humanities as a whole. There was undoubtedly some self-identifying feminists there, because, well, myself and several others were in attendance. However, I also think that Indigenous womanhood and/or gender non-conformity and queer analysis have a lot to do with justice, matriarchy, and respect. Indigenous women, queers, and Two-Spirits often take a different approach to their work than, say, a cisgender, heterosexual, white man would.
For example, Michelle Nahanee, a Squamish matriarch and PhD student at Simon Fraser University, took a very critical lens to all topics that she discussed in her project “Sínulhkay and Ladders”, a board game that she created as her Masters project at SFU, that is a play off of the common Snakes and Ladders game. You can read more about it here. She also created an activity book that includes an Indian agent and others. Michelle presented her game and activity book at the SINM conference. To hear the full talk, tune into episode 2 of Recoding Relations. As could be told from the meticulous details in her project, “Sínulhkay and Ladders”, Michelle always considers her research from a decolonial feminist lens. “Sínulhkay and Ladders” is inclusive of all people in critiques that are involved in the game. Michelle saw the unique experiences that different demographics of people face, and was willing to include, and therefore fight for them all. There was no holding back in the critiques that Michelle included, and I loved every second of it.
Another person who stands out as a feminist maneuvering the digital humanities is Ashley Morford. Her presentation focused on how traditional tattooing can be both digital and decolonial. Ashley’s work is grounded in queer analysis, and she constantly works to queer, feminize, and decolonize digital spaces by challenging preconceptions of “digital”. You can find more about her work in episode 3 of Recoding Relations.
Finally, at the conference, Melissa Haberl and I spoke a little bit on season 3 of Unceded Airwaves, and our intention in the production of the radio show, creation of digital content, print work, and more. I’m a queer Indigenous femme, so I take a different approach to my content creation than a white man would.
Though, despite this work being done, the Digital Humanities still rely heavily on cisgender, heterosexual, white men. BIPOC queers, Two-Spirits and women are tired of being the anomaly. Or, at least, I am; and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The symposium tackled Indigenous inclusivity in the digital humanities though, with the inclusion of BIPOC and women, but the Digital Humanities as a whole are notorious for excluding queer/trans and Two-Spirit work alongside Indigenous works. One can’t just simply include supposed “decolonization” and then exclude feminism, matriarchies, or trans and queer approaches. This still makes digital humanities as a whole harmful to QBIPOC folks.
Drawing from my nation and my teachings, Gwich’in ways of knowing have a heavy influence on two things – elders and women. Well, maybe not exclusively women, but equity, and that means a whole lot more inclusivity than our contemporary society currently has. In order to decolonize digital spaces and decolonize digital theory, there needs to be a lot more women and queers who are doing decolonial, intersectional feminist work frontlining these events, and a lot less trans-exclusion and cisgender, heterosexual men who perpetuate male privilege on to women and queers of colour. The Indian Act, and hegemonic cisgender heterosexuality already perpetuate these systems enough by explicitly excluding women from their policies, and not even mentioning Two-Spirits, queers, or trans people. Bill C-31 attempted to ease the sexism in the Indian act, but recently the United Nations called on Canada to remove sexist (and only sexist) language from the Indian Act. If these discriminations are still in place systemically and individually, then gender equity couldn’t have already been achieved and in the past. Ground level work is necessary, and important.
There was a lot of knowledge being shared at this conference, and more will be shared in the future. I have hope that the future can, and will include more of my fellow Indigequeers, and Indigenous ways of knowing. SINM 2018 was a meeting ground for innovators, educators, and students alike. If this event peaks an interest, stay tuned for HASTAC2019 (Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) with a similar decolonial praxis, but with a focus on lifting BIPOC women’s and queer knowledges up in the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology, and particularly decolonizing technologies and education.
