When I began this research, I was not expecting the project to go in this direction. I wanted to look at how cinema (a traditional conception of film) had been used in the Idle No More movement, which began in November of 2012. Four women, Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam,Sheelah McLean and Nina Wilson, began using the term in an email exchange as a response to the omnibus bill C-45 that, among many things, changed land and water rights held by Native peoples in Canada. They knew something needed to be done to fight the passing of this bill which further stripped rights from Native peoples and additionally, the protection of the Land. After a grassroots teach-in held in Saskatchewan, first implementing the hashtag #idlenomore and using their Facebook page to galvanize supporters, Idle No More spread across the country as a campaign to hold the Canadian Government accountable to the various treaties that were signed between aboriginal communities and colonial settlers that established land rights that could not be broken by either of the two nations independently
Bill C-45 was introduced by Stephen Harper’s government and was passed in December of 2012 and is known as the “Jobs and Growth Act”, which sounds very positive on the surface. However, it is an omnibus bill, meaning that it effects a number of bills and regulations all at once (64 to be exact) . It is a popular government tactic to pass a bunch of things at once under the guise of a more popular bill (who is going to argue against something called the Jobs and Growth Act)? However, in this case, it affected three acts in particular, namely the Indian Act, Navigation Protection Act (former Navigable Waters Protection Act), and the Environmental Assessment Act, which Idle No More protesters took issue with. The proposed changes to these Acts stripped long held land and water environmental protections. (The laws protecting fish and water were once considered Canada’s strongest environmental protection laws).
But Idle No More is bigger than protesting Bill C-45 (and as mentioned above, C-45 did in fact pass in December 2012). From the manifesto:
“The spirit and intent of the Treaty agreements meant that First Nations peoples would share the land, but retain their inherent rights to lands and resources. Instead, First Nations have experienced a history of colonization which has resulted in outstanding land claims, lack of resources and unequal funding for services such as education and housing.”
On December 11th, 2012, Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario began a 44 day hunger strike demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Harper to address a housing crisis in the Northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat. But it was linked to the wider cause of Idle No More and the government’s systemic disrespect of Native people’s rights.
The challenge to colonialism and state abuses of its people and environment as well as the widespread momentum of support across the country led me to draw certain parallels with some of the early movements linked to Third Cinema (Argentina stands out as an obvious example). I want to make clear that I am no means an authority on any of this – this post is just my humble attempt to connect some dots between what came before and what is happening around us now. As a Canadian citizen, I felt it was important to have a consciousness about what is happening in my country. I want to acknowledge, respect and show solidarity with the people who have nurtured and lived on/with this land longer than the colonial occupiers. This is by no means an exhaustive account, only a result of some of my findings that I wanted to share. I spent days looking over various pieces of media and what folks were saying about the movement online and the ways they were using media to do so. I began to wonder what cinema was being produced at this time to reflect this significant historical moment. What tools were activists using in order to communicate and spread their message? Like Solanas and Getino’s work, Hour of the Furnaces, did post-screening discussions help build the movement? Hour of the Furnaces was circulated through surreptitiously distributing and screening the film first in Argentina and later throughout Latin America – how was Idle No More’s media spreading? As I continued my research, I saw that the answer was not so simple. With the existence of the internet, “cinema” is not the only tool we have available to us now. This project seeks to look at other forms of media (I am using the broad term “new media”) – online video (original content, protest documentation – flash mobs, sit ins and long distance walks were common forms of protest used – aggregation of interviews etc.), use of hashtags on platforms such as twitter, and podcasts/music media as ways of disseminating information, building solidarity and documenting the movement of Idle No More. It is important when voices are consistently left out of mainstream media or traditional funding models, that artists and activists circumvent this system and take representation into their own hands. I believe the idle no more movement is an excellent example of this.
BUILDING A NETWORK THROUGH A HASHTAG?
Much has been made about the use of the hashtag in the realm of twitter and otherwise for movement building and revolutions. We have seen it used for mobilization during the so-called Arab Spring, and more recently, for the various Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have happened across North America over the past few years. It was also a crucial organizing principle for laying the foundation of the Idle No More movement.
As published on the Civic Media Project, authors Candis Callison and Alfred Hermida, write in their article “IDLE NO MORE IN CANADA: DISSENT, RESONANCE, AND A MIDDLE GROUND” about the importance of Twitter as a mode for self representation in the Idle No More (INM) movement.
“Twitter became an important space not only for collaboratively generated news streams that reported events and protests, but for a process we term resonance. Resonance describes the process where a crowdsourced elite articulates in open and evolving terms the meaning, history and substance of what it means to be a part of INM as ally and participant. “
Graph Credit: Alfred Hermida
This graphic shows the “resonance” of indigenous voices through twitter over the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013, often consider the “peak” of the movement. They judged resonance of this elite (which were made up of primarily indigenous voices” by the amount they were re-tweeted. These voices are often left out of representation of mainstream media and this new “crowdsourcing” of elitism seemed significant. Hermida and Callison write, “Their elite status grew not from the usual markers of “influence” such as institutional authority and power but rather by the degree to which they were retweeted. Multi-vocality through diverse spokespeople, is thus a substantive and defining quality. It allows for broad enrollment, consensus, alliance, as well as criticism and opposition. INM serves as an example of connective action where the lack of ideological coherence is no longer a barrier to collective action.”
In a study called #idlenomore and social media: A first study which was presented in an academic context in Ottawa in May of 2015, research presented their findings of the use of social media in building the IDM movement a little bit later in 2013. “The study analyzed the content of 17,482 tweets with the hashtag #idlenomore between July 3 and August 2, 2013. The authors grouped the tweets into four categories: those offering information, those giving an opinion, those aimed at generating political action and those that criticize something. [Vincent] Raynauld says that in every category, a significant number of tweets with the hashtag #idlenomore included a cultural reference tied to the First Nations.”
Although the peak of the IDM movement has subsided (for now), the hashtag is still employed and has been tied most recently to protests against the Alberta Tar Sands, calling attention to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, and the declared State of Emergency in Attawapiskat in mid-April after 11 young people attempted suicide over one weekend (this is discussed in detail below). The hashtag is a way of aggregating these issues to further build the movement, and provide an organizing principle to demand the rights of Indigenous people in Canada.
GATHERING OF VIDEOS ONLINE – SELF-REPRESENTATION
YouTube is an obvious example of places where videos are gathered for consumption by a large audience. A search on Youtube for #idlenomore yields 687 results as of May 15th, 2016. The morass of videos can be a challenging thing to sift through, but it can also provide an incredible resource as a collection of interviews, protest footage, and original video creation that are searchable and also often link to a matrix of other related video content. No, it is not an edited, linear film, per se, but it certainly can provide information and an array of variable content. For example, a user named MsBeautifulRed posted the full interview with CBC of Chief Spence during her hunger strike. In addition to the interview, MsBeautifulRed posts a number of other sources in her comment section:
This ability of the internet as a tool to create a network of media, not just video, but writing, audio and other visual media is being used extensively in this movement.
As a tangent, I recognize that aggregated content can be somewhat problematic. Sources can’t necessarily be trusted and this content is then available to all people to be co-opted for their own purposes. A recent example of this comes with Dominic Gagnon’s film Of The North which premiered at RIDM this past fall. Gagnon took 500 hours of YouTube video from Inuit communities and cut it together into an “experimental documentary”. Preceding the premiere, there were outcries that the film was racist, and followed the legacy of Flaherty’s Nanook of the North. One of the most outspoken critics was Tanya Tagaq, an Inuit throat singer who’s music was taken from YouTube and used by Gagnon without permission. However, fully honouring this discussion is beyond the scope of this analysis but I did want to mention it as well as recognize the complications of “crowd sourced” video.
NiiMiDAA | Idle No More | ZaGaaJibiiSing Solidarity, available on Youtube, brings together a few of the key elements of this movement that I want to talk about here. It was made in ZagaaJibiiSing aka (Detroit-Windsor). ZagaaJibiiSing is Anishinaabemowin for ‘place that sticks out the river’, and crosses the borders between Canada and the US.
Throughout the video, music is used to create a pulse and tie the three sections together. Initially, the video sets up what the #IdleNoMore movement is with a mix of titles on screen and interviews.
In the description of the video, it reads:
“Idle No More seeks to provide ongoing information on the historical and contemporary context of colonialism, and provide an analysis of the interconnections of race, gender, sexuality, class and other identity constructions in ongoing oppression. #IdleNoMore also seeks to make visible what has often been untold – some of the powerful personal stories of those who have been moved by the spirit of Idle No More. Idle No More has provided hope and love at a time when global corporate profits rule. We invite everyone to join in this movement.”
It then moves to a hip hop video called Dear Vaughn by Sacramento Knoxx, with lyrics that directly address the movement. One line, “less destruction, more creation, less hopelessness in these times that we’re facing, more healing in the land of occupation…The video intercuts between the performers and a flash mob that happened in Detroit in solidarity with the movement. At the end of the song, it blends into footage of the flash mob/sit in (another pillar of the movement early on were these kinds of physical demonstrations), with a voice of a woman saying: “Yes. I will stay here as long as it takes if it takes that long”. The protest took place in the Fairlane mall, December 27th, 2012 in Detroit/Windsor area and the video ends with a documentation of this protest. The video ends with pop-up links (in the YouTube box style) linking to further resources to the viewer, again employing the tools of the internet to expand the network of solidarity and web of understanding and knowledge.
Another video I found extremely powerful, and interesting in its form is called 250 Years: Honour Your Words. 250 years is a reference to the Royal proclamation of 1763 in which King George III claimed dominion over North America, following the Seven Years War (against France). However, the proclamation also explicitly states that Aboriginal title exists and continues to exist and that all land would be considered Aboriginal land unless ceded by treaty. The concept of this proclamation is in itself somewhat absurd, especially being that the concept of “owning” land is very much an import of the colonial power. However, many Indigenous scholars and legal experts today point to it as a foundation of Aboriginal rights to land and laying the basis for treaties.
The video mixes news footage contrasting voices of Indigenous people with those of the Canadian government (at this time Stephen Harper was prime minister and made extensive moves to destabilize and destroy laws that protected the environment as well as Native people’s rights in favour of profits, specifically from the oil industry). It messes with colours and rhythm, playing music throughout and mixing the sounds of the news footage, some of it from IDM. I think this video is a really interesting remix of mainstream media to highlight the injustices faced by the indigenous population of Canada.
I also looked into indigenous production companies to see what was being made in this kind of context. I came across Paper Rocket Productions and Vision Maker Media, both American but espousing the grassroots production of media by Native people to tell their own stories.
In terms of Canadian based aggregators, Igloolik-based IsumaTV is a pillar of not only Canadian but global Indigenous cinema and an incredible viewing resource. IsumaTV grew out of Isuma Productions which produced Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (part of the Fast Runner Trilogy) and went into “receivership” in 2011 (essentially bankruptcy). It is fostered by a robust Inuit filmmaking community but has expanded its mission to be a place for Indigenous cinema worldwide. From their website:
IsumaTV is a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. Each user can design their own space, or channel, to reflect their own identity, mandate and audience.
Indigenous media organizations can operate their own state-of-the-art media site, under their own design and URL, and at the same time share IsumaTV’s sophisticated back end infrastructure, without needing to re-invent the digital wheel.
The collective platform currently carries over 6000 videos, and thousands of other images and audio files, in more than 80 different languages, on 800+ user-controlled channels, representing cultures and media organizations from Canada, U.S.A., Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and all over Latin America.
IsumaTV now hosts indigenous cinema from around the world and is interested in building a network that crosses nation-state borders. As an aside, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, (which received much attention in the world of Second Cinema in 2001, winning the Camera d’Or at Cannes that year) is available on IsumaTV to stream in a “pay-what-you-can” model. Other content on the site is completely free.
IsumaTV hosts videos with idle no more content made and uploaded from a number of sources. This bank of gathering videos (from protest documentation to more original content) is diverse in its form. They even have their own Idle No More Channel. Here are some examples:
The video, I is for Idle No More, is documentation of an installation that students made in a Native Education College.
A more recent example of a video is, Idle No More – Short Documentary . It was made as part of Grounded.TV network and was filmed in Oakland CA and expresses solidarity across generations and borders with Chief Spence’s hunger strike. This video highlighting solidarity across space and time is an important reminder that the movement persists and that it isn’t limited to one sphere of indigenous people.
Other video content that I would like to draw attention to briefly is the gathering of livestreams (of talks, lectures, etc.) and webinars. Idle No More’s own website has a whole section aggregating some of this content. Again, this is not necessarily “cinema” but I think it is part of the spirit of Third Cinema as it is using the technology of the internet to expand and provoke discussions and disseminate information that is pertinent to the movement.
PODCASTS AND MUSIC
Another area of new media use in this movement that I came across in my research is the production of podcasts around relevant issues and the use of music in movement building (as is visible in the video NiiMiDaa above). Here are some of my findings: Indian and Cowboy is an Indigenous listener supported podcast network. From their mission: “Indian & Cowboy is an independent, listener supported, Indigenous podcast network that creates, produces & publishes Indigenous audio projects across multiple platforms on the internet & broadcast media. We are rooted firmly at the intersection between digital media art, podcasting & Indigenous Storytelling. We aim to disrupt, engage & empower.”
I listened to the show called “Red Men Laughing” in an episode talking about the Indian Act (an amendment which was the target of C-45, one of the instigators of the movement). It was interesting to hear a personal voice reflecting on the impacts and legacy of the Indian Act. The “Show Notes” also links to other resources for listeners, once again creating a network of resources to disseminate information and delve deeper into relevant topics discussed in the podcast.
Media Indigena‘s tagline is: “interactive , indigenous, insight”. They originally began as a multimedia magazine but stopped adding content eventually because of financial limitations and now produce a podcast exclusively. The podcast is supported through patreon, which is a sustained crowdfunding model that is gaining popularity as a funding model for podcasts.
A few “one-off” podcasts (essentially articles in mp3 format) around the movement can be found on the blog Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. There is one by Glen Goulthard called #IdleNoMore in Historical Context that places the movement within historical context, and shows that it is not a “new” movement, but rather the continuation of 400 years of resistance. This audio focuses on 1990, and they 78 day stand off between RCMP and the Mohawk nation in Kahnesatake, QC.
Indigenous Music online station, Revolutions Per Minute, also has a podcast which ” give voice to the music, stories, and experiences of Indigenous artists from around the world by exploring a place, idea, or tradition that inspires our songs and our people”. It is primarily a music-based show, but lives at the intersection of the importance of telling your own story (whatever form that may take). They also released a two part Idle No More mixtape in 2013 collecting music from the movement.
Although these podcasts aren’t necessarily all directly related to the idle no more movement, it is interesting to see how media making indigenous media makers are using the form to further expand their reach and audience.
SOLIDARITY MOVEMENTS
One of the aspects of this movement that I think is important is the effort to connect with other movements in solidarity both locally and internationally. I have been thinking in terms of the early third cinema movements in Latin America and wanting to connect with other struggles fighting against neo-colonialism. As I have argued, I think parallels can be drawn though the circulation of media happens in a different way now. Instead of screenings and circulations of 8mm and 16mm films, videos are shared online, hashtags are employed on twitter and youtube to link pieces of media to one another.
At the beginning of the movement, #IdleNoMore received a lot of support from international solidarity movements in 2012 . Independent journalist, Tim Groves, created a map of solidarity across the globe in 2012 posted alongside an article he wrote for The Media Co-op website. The map attempts to link idle no more to other people’s movements across the world.
This kind of connectivity is often established and fostered in the online context providing foundations for “real life” realizations. For example, last month in April, Black Lives Matter protesters in Toronto, in solidarity with Idle No More protesters occupied the office of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) for four days to bring attention to what is being called a “suicide crisis” in Attawapiskat. Attawapiskat declared a State of Emergency in mid-April when 11 youth attempted suicide over one weekend. According to the CBC, “Among the 2,000 citizens of Attawapiskat on remote James Bay, 101 people have tried to kill themselves, with one person dying, since September, according to the First Nation’s chief”. (CBC)
(photo credit: Facebook/Idle No More Toronto)
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Reflecting back on the spirit of Third Cinema as I understand them – challenging traditional forms of representation, importance of self-representation and hearing from often silenced voices, movement building to challenge colonialism/neo-colonialism/capitalism, establishing networks for discussion and dissemination of information – I believe that idle no more’s use of these new forms of media – online video, audio/podcasts and dissemination using hashtags, is an excellent example of how the third cinema lives today.
