UNews - Blackfoot Digital Library

Blackfoot Digital Library receives Blackfoot name

caroline.zentner — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 21:38:08 +0000

The Blackfoot Digital Library (BDL) has received a Blackfoot name — Apani. The name, chosen by Elder Jerry Potts, translates to moth or butterfly and means ‘those that transfer knowledge.’

From left to right are Pam and Martin Heavy Head, Jerry Potts, Danielle Heavy Head, Bryce Many Fingers, Lilly Wells and Blair Many Fingers.

“It is noted in Blackfoot mythology as a carrier of information,” said Potts. “On a lot of Blackfoot teepees that come from dreams, you’ll see that symbol on the back of them.”

The BDL, launched about 15 years ago through a joint effort of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and Red Crow College, provides a central space for field notes, photographs, images of Blackfoot objects, and recordings that have spread around the world. With a wealth of information, the library is a venue for sharing stories about Blackfoot families and communities. BDL also presents a way to respond to publications that have misinterpreted or misrepresented Blackfoot experiences and way of life and is designed to be an educational resource.

“I really cherish our old ceremonial items, like the beaver bundle,” says Potts. “It goes back thousands of years, back to, on the Blackfoot timeline, when dogs could talk. Those bundles are still active today. The old people, everything they did meant something, and the library allows younger people to learn about these things.”

“It’s really important to have a Blackfoot name attached to the project,” says Danielle Heavy Head, Blackfoot Digital Library liaison. “It sets more of a precedent within the community that this library is an important place, and it holds a lot of knowledge that can be carried forward.”

Along with receiving a Blackfoot name, a core group of people, comprised of Heavy Head, Christine Clark (BFA – New Media ’10, MFA – New Media ’14), a new media professor, library systems staff and students, has been evaluating how the content is structured in the digital library.

“I’m already a big Blackfoot nerd,” said Bryce Many Fingers, an undergraduate student studying psychology and art who is part of the core group. “As an artist, I like to get into dating the archives and collections and seeing the objects on the Mootookakio’ssin site and incorporating that into my art.”

He says learning more about Blackfoot history has given him insight into how to go about creating his artwork. For example, knowing that many of the photos of Blackfoot people taken by white people were an attempt to document a disappearing culture makes him more intentional when taking photos himself.

“There are a bunch of ways that working on the BDL benefits me personally, and then I’m just hoping others can utilize the resource,” he said.

For Blair Many Fingers, a master’s student in the Cultural, Social and Political Thought program, the most valuable lesson was applying Indigenous research methods based on collective relationality with the community of people who contributed to the project.

“I learned from the Elders, knowledge keepers and all the research participants, such as the librarians and FNMI liaison workers we conducted focus groups with, and so much from my supervisors, Danielle Heavy Head, Christine Clark and Dr. Josephine Mills,” Blair said. “The dream world, to the Blackfoot, is where the transfer of knowledge occurs. In that sense, the digital collection of Blackfoot knowledge is a place where people can learn about the Blackfoot way of life. However, I must advise that the digital library is meant to be a spark and gateway to lifelong learning and embodying the values of our ancestors. Part of learning is fostering real-life relations with our Elders, who teach us about the beauty of creation through stories, song, ceremony and language.”

Some of the major changes to the BDL include an extensive land acknowledgement developed by Blair and protocols for using the information in the library.

“That was part of our process of thinking about how we want to bring people into this space and set the terms of engagement with people,” said Clark. “Blair is working on a few more pieces for the site that will talk about protocol and how to access the information respectfully and in ways that are appropriate.”

Another focus for the revitalization work was to add more context to the records, such as sorting records into beginner, intermediate or advanced information, so users can more easily identify the appropriate records. Work was also done to connect each record to a list of names and places where, previously, a record would only link to an origin location and a current location.

“It’s very important to have connections to the land,” says Heavy Head. “Within Blackfoot ways of thinking, everything needs to be connected back to the land where we belong.”

In addition, Bryce has been adding Niitsitapi values to each record while incorporating the Blackfoot language. Work to update the records will continue as the BDL site grows. Having a Blackfoot name provides an umbrella for that future growth.

“When you give something a name, that means it’s alive,” says Bryce.

Funding for the Blackfoot name and revitalization project included the Indigenous Research Engagement grant from the Office of Research & Innovation Services, the Niitsitapi Circle of Excellence in Work-Integrated Learning (NCEWIL) from the Centre for Work Integrated Learning and Career Development, and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Library.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge unveils Mootookakio’ssin website, creates bridge to historical belongings

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Nov 2021 16:41:56 +0000

Utilizing the latest in web technology, the new Mootookakio’ssin website launched today creates a bridge that connects Blackfoot peoples to historical Blackfoot items housed in British museums, thereby reinvigorating a rich, cultural past through in-depth storytelling and laying a foundation to keep the knowledge of Elders alive for future generations.

Each item was photographed digitally to create 3D images for the website.

The culmination of an ambitious and challenging three-year research project, Mootookakio’ssin (moo-DOO-ka-keyo-sin) has brought together ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and United Kingdom (UK) researchers, three British museums, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, all led by Blackfoot advisors and Elders. The result is a stunning, engaging and interactive website that is now a part of the Blackfoot Digital Library and allows users to see and manipulate historical Blackfoot belongings while telling a story that truly brings them to life.

“We use stories to connect with one another and utilizing the story technique allows us to control the narrative about the item and how it is being delivered,” says Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), a member of Kainai Nation and a graduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences. “Storytelling also allows us to

An example of a Blackfoot Awl Case.

showcase who we are as a People, and how we think collectively when it comes to our knowledge systems.”

Shouting is an accomplished beadmaker who, like many Blackfoot artists, can now utilize the incredible detail of the website to see the intricacies of the historical items to guide their own artistic practices. She was part of the delegation that travelled to Britain to document and photograph the historical items housed in British museums.

“One of the reasons I said yes to going there was because we weren’t just going to look at the items and keep that knowledge to ourselves, we were going there to eventually create this website that really illustrates who we are, and then deliver it back to our community,” she says.

A Blackfoot weapon, this Big Whip is part of the collection.

Blackfoot Elder Jerry Potts, a key resource throughout the project, says the significance of showing these belongings, some which date back to the 1700s, is immeasurable.

“Some of these items were from the first contact the Blackfeet had with settlers. The material we are looking at was developed before there was any trade, so they were made with quill work and natural dyes,” says Potts. “The Blackfoot People are so tied to nature and the landscape, so you look at these items and try to imagine what they saw. Our culture and our belief system are captured in this art — there’s a lot of value in that.”

Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), professor of new media in the Faculty of Fine Arts, says the group accomplished even more than it set out to with its initial proposal, thanks in large part to the cooperative nature of the project.

3D imagery is able to capture the incredibly fine detail of this Blackfoot Moccasin.

“We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to meet all our goals because there were so many unknowns,” she says. “The team dynamics were so important for this project because if any one piece had fallen off, the whole project would have fallen apart.”

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with these non-sacred, historical Blackfoot belongings housed in British museum collections. While COVID-19 restrictions limited the workshopping and outreach activities the group had planned initially, they did allow for more intensive work on the website.

“Our primary goal was to design and build a custom site for the 3D material and involve as much storytelling as possible with each piece, and we were able to do that,” adds Clark. “We were also able to incorporate a feature called RTI (reflectance transformation imaging) where you can change the light source to reveal the surface detail on the items. This has definitely been the most multifaceted website I’ve worked on, and I was really lucky to have one of our recent graduates, Calvin Lloyd (BSc ’20), lead the development of this very challenging project.”

Potts sees the website as another small step forward in educating Blackfoot youth and non-Indigenous people alike on the roots of a rich culture, its resilience and how it continues to resonate even today.

“It’s very new and innovative thinking to try and capture this idea and this traditional knowledge and use it to build bridges and understanding,” he says. “It’s a pretty good start and it works because there was a will at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and with their researchers to make a difference and they had the right people in the room to give direction to the project. We’ve opened up some doors now with other ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and museums in Britain and that’s really exciting.”

Elder led research and creation project Mootookakio’ssin reactivates Indigenous objects

trevor.kenney — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:56:24 +0000

Mootookakio’ssin, at its simplest description, is a project to create detailed images of historical Blackfoot objects housed in British museums. At its most complex, it is creating a virtual home for Indigenous objects, a place to reactivate the Blackfoot relations within them and transfer that knowledge all the way from Britain back to their peoples in southern Alberta.

Melissa Shouting leads a beading workshop in the U of L Art Gallery.

After two years of research, construction and creation, this collaborative project between ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and UK researchers, led by Blackfoot advisors and elders, is coming to fruition, culminating in presentations, exhibitions, workshops, and the launch of the digital object microsite in summer 2021, to be housed in the Blackfoot Digital Library.

Named by Elder Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Mootookakio’ssin translates to “distant awareness.” The aim of the project is to connect people living in traditional Blackfoot territory with non-sacred, historical Blackfoot objects housed in museum collections in Britain, using digital imagery to record objects in great detail.

Mootookakio’ssin is truly guided by the peoples the project aims to serve. From the onset, Blackfoot elders have been involved, providing guidance, knowledge and appropriate cultural practices. Funded by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, principal investigator Christine Clark is leading the development of a microsite presenting the digital images and their associated knowledge. Alongside Clark and her U of L research team are a UK research team, a Blackfoot Elder advisory group, consultation with additional Blackfoot Elders, a design advisory group, and numerous student researchers, developers and artists, all contributing to and aiding in the key outcome of the project -knowledge transfer.

“The items documented within this project opened doors for conversations that are holistic in nature, and that welcome the collectiveness of knowledge translation and transmission within the Blackfoot confederacy and its people,” explains Melissa Shouting, master’s student, artist and research assistant. Shouting was one of the Blackfoot members that visited with the objects in British Museums, alongside representatives from all four Blackfoot tribes, sharing and connecting their experiences and interpretations of the knowledge shared through the items.

"Indigenous knowledge transfer is reliant on personal lived experiences and the interpretation of the knowledge shared through oral history practices, creation stories, ceremonies and kin-based knowledge systems," says Shouting. "This mode of knowledge translation has the ability to connect individuals to the knowledge that is attached to the objects revealing a connection with their ancestors. In sharing this knowledge, it allows us to understand not only the objects but the purpose, the history and the teachings associated with crafting together such objects.”

The ability to bring this knowledge back to southern Alberta was tackled by Clark and a team of student developers. They created web-based prototypes featuring digital models of the objects using spatial web technologies to reunite the objects with their associated knowledge and culture. Clark continued to meet with Blackfoot advisors throughout the development of the protypes and the microsite that will host them.

“My part in those discussions was to listen and learn about what was important to them, working to ensure that the microsite would support these goals,” says Clark. “Too often, Blackfoot items are displayed as relics of the past, of a culture that has died away. The collection should feel alive and feel connected to contemporary Blackfoot artistic practices. For the design of the site, we have animation incorporated into the 3D models, so it avoids them feeling static.”

In addition to public access to the microsite, the U of L Art Gallery continues to play a role in education and outreach through exhibitions and workshops, and by engaging students in the discussion. Partnering with Dr. Jackson Two Bears’ Indigenous Art Studio classes in Spring and Fall 2020, students, both Indigenous and not, created responses to Mootookakio’ssin – to the digital images, the techniques and knowledge that can be learnt from the historic Blackfoot objects, and to the research generated around the colonial history of these objects.

The first student exhibition, Stories That Objects Tell, was set for installation in March 2020 when the gallery closed due to COVID restrictions. Gallery staff completed the installation behind closed doors and presented a virtual format in Fall 2020. The second exhibition, Virtual Stories That Objects Tell, was approached from the beginning as a virtual exhibition, putting new meaning to Mootookakio’ssin.

“The students had to make their work from home and make work that either exists purely in a digital format or that would work well when documented and presented online,” says Dr. Josephine Mills, art gallery director and curator. “The students created ambitious, insightful, and emotional works that engage with identity, personal history, the legacies of colonialism, and museum practices.”

To learn more about Mootookakio’ssin, join Danielle Heavy Head, Christine Clark (BFA ’10, MFA ’14), Melissa Shouting (BHSc ’19), Louisa Minkin and Josephine Mills on Thursday, March 4, from 2 to 3 pm as part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Indigenous Awareness Week.

Stay up to date on upcoming events and opportunities to participate at blackfoot.cctbd.ca/.

Virtual Stories that Objects Tell is available online at ulag.ca/virtualstories.

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Blackfoot Digital Library receives Blackfoot name

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