Internet resources for Native American and Canadian Aboriginal studies

David A. Smith is the Indigenous Studies Librarian, University of SaskatchewanAn annotated bibliography of what the author considers to be some of the best quality, most useful, and in a few cases, most innovative Web sites of value to academics, independent researchers, and students who conduct research in the field of North American indigenous studies

Aboriginal Title and Alternative Cartographies

Indigenous claims have challenged a number of orthodoxies within state legal systems, one of them being the kinds of proof that can be admissible. In Canada, the focus has been on the admissibility and weight of oral traditions and histories. However, these novel forms are usually taken as alternative means of proving a set of facts that are not in themselves “cultural”, for example, the occupation by a group of people of an area of land that constitutes Aboriginal title. On this view, maps are a neutral technology for representing culturally different interests within those areas. Through Indigenous land use studies, claimants have been able to deploy the powerful symbolic capital of cartography to challenge dominant assumptions about “empty” land and the kinds of uses to which it can be put. There is a risk, though, that Indigenous understandings of land are captured or misrepresented by this technology, and that what appears neutral is in fact deeply implicated in the colonial project and occidental ideas of property. This paper will explore the possibilities for an alternative cartography suggested by digital technologies, by Indigenous artists, and by maps beyond the visual order

Mapping the Unmappable? Cartographic Explorations with Indigenous Peoples in Africa

How can we map differing perceptions of the living environment? 'Mapping the Unmappable?' explores the potential of cartography to communicate the relations of Africa's indigenous peoples with other human and non-human actors within their environments. These relations transcend Western dichotomies such as culture-nature, human-animal, natural-supernatural. The volume brings two strands of research - cartography and "relational" anthropology - into a closer dialogue. It provides case studies in Africa as well as lessons to be learned from other continents (e.g. North America, Asia and Australia). The contributors create a deepened understanding of indigenous ontologies for a further decolonization of maps, and thus advance current debates in the social sciences

Mapping the Unmappable?

How can we map differing perceptions of the living environment? Mapping the Unmappable? explores the potential of cartography to communicate the relations of Africa's indigenous peoples with other human and non-human actors within their environments. These relations transcend Western dichotomies such as culture-nature, human-animal, natural-supernatural. The volume brings two strands of research - cartography and »relational« anthropology - into a closer dialogue. It provides case studies in Africa as well as lessons to be learned from other continents (e.g. North America, Asia and Australia). The contributors create a deepened understanding of indigenous ontologies for a further decolonization of maps, and thus advance current debates in the social sciences

Afterlives of Indigenous Archives

Afterlives of Indigenous Archives offers a compelling critique of Western archives and their use in the development of “digital humanities.” The essays collected here present the work of an international and interdisciplinary group of indigenous scholars; researchers in the field of indigenous studies and early American studies; and librarians, curators, activists, and storytellers. The contributors examine various digital projects and outline their relevance to the lives and interests of tribal people and communities, along with the transformative power that access to online materials affords. The authors aim to empower native people to re-envision the Western archive as a site of community-based practices for cultural preservation, one that can offer indigenous perspectives and new technological applications for the imaginative reconstruction of the tribal past, the repatriation of the tribal memories, and a powerful vision for an indigenous future. This important and timely collection will appeal to archivists and indigenous studies scholars alike

Indigenous Online Mapping in Canada - Decolonizing or Recolonizing Forms of Spatial Expressions?

Digital cartography technologies have expanded the tool base for Indigenous communities in Canada as a means of representing their lands and the contestation of space. However, critiques of digital technologies question if these tools are a new system of technological colonialism. This study addresses the question of how this technology is being used today and what impact it is having on Indigenous mapping content. Additionally, I ask if the web as cyberspace can be conceptualized as “a third space,” a decolonialized space of communication, recognition, and reconciliation (Soja, 1996; Bhabha, 2004). I theorize that Indigenous ways of knowing and constructions of space align with Lefebvre’s idea of first space, while Western ways of knowing and mapping practices align more closely with his concept of second space. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to investigate this theory. The former involves content analysis of 26 Canadian Indigenous web mapping sites using a decolonialized methodologies perspective. The qualitative dimension consists of 10 semi-directed interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous cartographers, technicians, scholars, and the producers and consumers of online mapping websites. Triangulation of these data sets identified narrative as an emergent theme, including its strong links to Indigenous cultures and processes of decolonialization. I conclude that while online mapping is a potential medium of decolonization, it has not yet fulfilled this possibility. It currently offers a hybrid space for the examination and reclamation of knowledge production but falls short of being a primary location for discussion, communication, and nexus due to a lack of feedback mechanisms

Towards an Indigenous History: Indigenous Art Practices from Contemporary Australia and Canada

The debate of Indigenous art as contemporary art in Western art discourse has been ongoing since the acceptance of Indigenous art as contemporary art in the early 1990s. This has resulted in a collision of four diverse fields; Western art history, Western art criticism, anthropology and Indigenous cultural material. The debate stems from the problematised way the term contemporary is defined by globalised Euro-Western art and its institutions. This thesis considers the value of applying the concept of the contemporary to Indigenous art practices and art, in particular as a mode for cultural self-determination in order to avoid the historical domination of Western art history, history and its discursive power arrangements. The term, concept or theory of the contemporary remains elusive, indefinable and widespread in Western art discourse. Various definitions exist and are based on notions of openness, newness or plurality. Criticism of the contemporary’s openness has led to speculation of the contemporary as a valid concept or theory and or as a field of art practice, particularly its claim to social or political engagement and its inability to historicise current art. This thesis contends that the openness of the contemporary concept provides a gateway in which to situate it in a much broader cultural analysis that embraces different historiographies and worldviews. Thereby directly contributing to the ongoing critical discourse of Indigenous art as contemporary art debate. This thesis contributes to addressing this debate by proposing a definition of the contemporary that bridges history, art history and contemporary art and explores the potential for administering a contemporary art practice within this view. It highlights the historical analysis of the journey of Indigenous art from the ethnographic to the contemporary art museum by examining Indigenous rupture and transformation through Western history and art history. The thesis examines Terry Smith’s recent contextualisation of contemporary theory, as Smith is the only art historian to include Indigenous art in the discussion on contemporary theory.[1] Richard Meyer’s theory on the contemporary is also examined as Meyer is unique in approaching contemporary theory from an artistic practice that embraces co-temporalities, art production and modes of trans-historicity. In ‘rendering the past as newly present’, this thesis proposes methods of contemporary art analysis in the examination of contemporary Indigenous artworks in the context that the socio-political and cultural use of contemporary art as a form of history production. Description of Creative Work An exhibition of one large installation took place at Sydney College of the Arts Galleries, Sydney in September 2016. Media included two- and three-dimensional artworks that were hung on the walls and placed on the floor. The installation used Indigenous forms, designs, processes and social, political, and cultural content as a result of the thesis research and demonstrated Indigenous artists are creating their Indigenous histories within the context of contemporary art. Photographic documentation is available in Appendix 3. [1] Terry Smith, What is Contemporary Art? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 133

Mapping the Unmappable?

How can we map differing perceptions of the living environment? Mapping the Unmappable? explores the potential of cartography to communicate the relations of Africa's indigenous peoples with other human and non-human actors within their environments. These relations transcend Western dichotomies such as culture-nature, human-animal, natural-supernatural. The volume brings two strands of research - cartography and »relational« anthropology - into a closer dialogue. It provides case studies in Africa as well as lessons to be learned from other continents (e.g. North America, Asia and Australia). The contributors create a deepened understanding of indigenous ontologies for a further decolonization of maps, and thus advance current debates in the social sciences

Mapping Indigenous Knowledge in the Digital Age

This Special Issue, “Mapping Indigenous Knowledge in the Digital Age”, explores Indigenous engagement with geo-information in contemporary cartography. Indigenous mapping, incorporating performance, process, product, and positionality as well as tangible and intangible heritage, is speedily entering the domain of cartography, and digital technology is facilitating the engagement of communities in mapping their own locational stories, histories, cultural heritage, environmental, and political priorities. In this publication, multimodal and multisensory online maps combine the latest multimedia and telecommunications technology to examine data and support qualitative and quantitative research, as well as to present and store a wide range of temporal/spatial information and archival materials in innovative interactive storytelling formats. It will be of particular interest to researchers engaged in studies of global human and environmental connection in the age of evolving information technology

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 77, No. 2

Editor\u27s Note (Curtiss Hoffman) A Quantitative Assessment of Stone Relics in a Western Massachusetts Town (Rolf Cachat-Schilling) The Braintree Cache (Scott F. Kostiw) Two Previously Unreported Biface Caches from Southeastern Massachusetts (William E. Moody) Caches or Offerings? Ceremonial Objects from the First Terrace of the Middleborough Little League Site (19-PL-520) (Curtiss Hoffman