(Re)(Hi)storying

This module introduces a variety of artists who surface and center Indigenous histories of land and people. Regarding history, education scholars Eve Tuck (Unungax) and Marcia McKenzie (2015) wrote that

“[w]hen land is recast as property, place becomes exchangeable, saleable, and steal-able. The most important aim of recasting land as property is to make it ahistorical in order to hack away the narratives that invoke prior claims and thus reaffirm the myth of terra nullius.” (p. 64)

By erasing Indigenous histories of land and place, settlers could perpetuate (and still do perpetuate) the idea that the land they live on was terra nullius, or blank land awaiting settler arrival. One way that Indigenous artists address this is by creating work which reasserts Indigenous narratives and histories.

Reading, Listening, and Learning

Choose one of the three readings/listenings below to explore. Each conveys a different attempt at telling/sharing/preserving a history of Indigenous land or people using digital technologies.

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Reflect After Reading

• Each of the above readings is an example or account of a history being preserved in some way via digital materials: The digital recording and dissemination of a Myaamia historic narrative by Myaamia scholars, the digital scanning and archiving of Tlingit heritage items in a collaboration between the Smithsonian and the Dakl’aweidi Tlingit clan, and a digital game developed by settler creatives that attempts to convey a history of colonization, modded by an Indigenous scholar to reflect an Indigenous understanding of that history.
  • Based on the piece you read/listened to, what are some specific potential benefits of using digital media to record/tell/preserve/share histories of Indigenous places and peoples?
  • Based on the piece you read/listened to, what are some specific potential hazards of using digital media to record/tell/preserve/share histories of Indigenous places and peoples?
  • How are those hazards addressed (or not addressed) in the piece you focused on?
    
• Take a look at this brief description of CARE Principles for digital archives of cultural data developed by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. This write-up also contrasts them with Silicon Valley-developed FAIR principles of data governance.
  • Based on the description, how would a ‘FAIR’ approach to archiving a museum’s 3D scan of an Indigenous cultural artifact, or a 2D scan of a historical tribal document, differ from a ‘CARE’ approach?

Exemplar Artists + Works

Explore these works by contemporary Indigenous artists/thinkers/makers who are engaging with concepts around Indigenous (re)(hi)storying with digital materials.

As you explore, choose two works to research in greater depth which you may include as exemplars in your own lesson on historying. Consider: How do these digital artworks un-settle settler histories and narratives? How do they assert Indigenous histories and narratives?

Lesson Development

Having explored the above concepts and materials, now it’s your turn to plan an arts learning experience.

• The targeted age range, materials, and art activities are yours to choose.
• You are required to meaningfully include at least two of the above artists (feel free to explore the site for more!)
• You are encouraged to develop a lesson that involves some sort of digital making, but a meaningful physical making experience rooted in ideas from these digital artists is also a viable approach!
• Please use this lesson plan template to structure your planning

Consider: How might students design digital mappings or places that resist, subvert, or operate outside of settler-colonial understandings of land and place?

1. How does the positionality (settler or Indigenous) of the student artist impact their approach to this problem?
2. How does the positionality of you as teacher (settler or Indigenous) impact your approach to teaching this concept?

_{This page last edited on April 24, 2024.}