Indigenous community networking projects are also taking place across Canada. First Nations are negotiating similar challenges and opportunities as Indigenous peoples based in other countries. However, their projects are situated in very different political, economic, cultural, and social contexts. The First Mile website is documenting these diverse stories, with the aim of sharing challenges and best practices, and supporting the work being done in communities every day.
For a few examples, visit the following pages to learn about some of these First Nations networks:
- Ktunaxa Nation Network (B.C.)
- Eeyou Communications Network/Réseau de Comunications Eeyou (Quebec)
- Saugeen Driftwood: The Saugeen First Nation Fibre-optic Network (Ontario)
The videos below tell the connectivity story of Tyendinaga, a Mohawk community in southern Ontario. These videos were produced by Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans, who is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.
The first video introduces some of the projects undertaken by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. Tyendinaga has a long history of involvement in ICTs. This story begins long before digital technologies became available, through sign language and other forms of communication. Beginning in the early 1980s, people in Tyendinaga built IBM-compatible PCs, developed local networks and programmed software to meet community needs (such as the Post-Secondary Information System).
The community continues to serve as a frontier for information and communication technology development, including through technical training at FNTI and in locally developed broadband networks, such as the MBQ network. However, the community also faces long-term and ongoing challenges with regards to its ability to access and use these technologies, including lack of a robust infrastructure and high connectivity costs.
(uploaded July 4, 2012)
The second video tells the story of the MBQ Network. Tyendinaga developed the community-owned and operated MBQ Network to address the lack of local broadband infrastructure. Despite its location only 2.5 hours from Toronto, Tyendinaga is currently served (via KO-KNET) with a single T1 line (1.5mbs serving approximately 250 computers).
Connectivity services offered by incumbent telcos that serve nearby communities are relatively expensive, slow and unreliable. Given these challenges, Tyendinaga is taking control of local broadband development and rolling out its own local fibre-to-the-home which they claim is the first-ever such First Nations project in Canada.
While the MBQ network is almost completed construction, it has run into challenges, including vandalism, challenges with project vendors, and uneven community support for the project. Local champions of the network argue that once it goes ‘live’, the MBQ fibre project will provide low-cost, locally-managed high-speed connectivity services, enabling the community to retain money, jobs and control.
The third video in this series tells the story of the local post-secondary institution, the First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI). Celebrating its 35th. year in 2020, FNTI delivers a range of programs, from Aviation to Mohawk Language Immersion, to students from Tyendinaga and other First Nations communities. Some focus specifically on IT, such as IT Training for Teachers and Early Childhood Educators.
All of FNTI’s programs are grounded in Indigenous values and approaches to learning. The institution is working to deliver its programs remotely, using broadband and other technologies, but it faces challenges, including a lack of bandwidth required to offer long-distance seminars or videoconferencing services.
In 2020, FNTI took measures to adapt to the pandemic by delivering more of its curriculum online with a combination of synchronous (video-conferencing) and asynchronous (emails, online forums, up and downloading of digital files) learning.
(uploaded July 4, 2012)
The final video in this series explores how community service providers in Tyendinaga are using broadband technologies. The community school and local businesses are starting to use new information and communication technologies to deliver public services and generate local economic development. However, despite local demand to deliver these services over broadband, the current lack of network infrastructure makes it difficult for service providers to do so.
(uploaded Sept. 6, 2012)