Researchers working with the First Nations Innovation and First Mile project have published an article about Indigenous approaches to digital literacies in the Engaged Scholar Journal.
The article is titled: Indigenizing Digital Literacies: Community Informatics Research with the Algonquin First Nations of Timiskaming and Long Point. It focuses on two community-based research projects in Quebec that involved local students and community members in exploring digital literacies through household surveys.
The article was co-authored by Dr. Rob McMahon (University of Alberta), Tim Whiteduck (First Nations Education Council), Arline Chasle (Education Director at Timiskaming First Nation), Shelley Chief (Education Councillor at Timiskaming First Nation), Leonard Polson (Education Director, Long Point First Nation), and Henry Rodgers (Principal, Amo Ososwan School, Long Point First Nation).
Here is the abstract of the article:
Community-engaged digital literacies initiatives can greatly benefit from knowledge and practices developed by Indigenous peoples. In this paper, we describe a research project to develop digital literacies with two Algonquin First Nations in Quebec: Timiskaming and Long Point. This project reflects a First Mile approach to Community Informatics, informed by the theoretical framework of Indigenous resurgence and by engaged research methodologies. In telecommunications and broadband terminology, communities are typically framed as the ‘last mile’ of development. The First Mile approach challenges this situation by encouraging projects that emerge from the locally determined needs of collaborating communities, who gain ownership and control of processes and outcomes. Drawing on community-engaged research methodologies, university-based researchers facilitate this work while community-based researchers integrate data collection, analysis, and public outreach activities into the lived realities of community members. We discuss how digital literacies projects can benefit from the theoretical framework of Indigenous resurgence, which stresses the daily practices that support the continual renewal of Indigenous communities.
Suggested citation: McMahon, R., Whiteduck, T., Chasle, A., Chief, S., Polson, L. & Rodgers, H. (2017). “Indigenizing Digital Literacies: Community Informatics Research with the Algonquin First Nations of Timiskaming and Long Point”, Engaged Scholar Journal, 2(1): 267-284.