\n<\/a>By Gabbi Van Looyen, The Charlatan<\/em>,\u00a0March 24 2015<\/p>\n
The Odawa centre<\/h4>\n
The centre is appealing, arguing they provide a culturally appropriate environment for its Aboriginal clients that will not be available at other drop-in centres.<\/p>\n
Offering three meals a day, laundry facilities, and transition counselling, the centre provides a daytime haven during the week for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people who are homeless.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the only Aboriginal drop-in centre in Ottawa, so how can we be duplicating services?\u201d co-ordinator Carrie Diabo said.<\/p>\n
The centre has gone up against City Hall before. When the drop-in centre was slated to apply for a re-zoning permit in 2005, many community residents petitioned against having an Aboriginal outreach centre nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir justification was there\u2019s going to be a lot more crime and a lot more drugs,\u201d Diabo said.<\/p>\n
After attending a recent City Hall meeting concerning the centre\u2019s appeal on March 11, she said she believes the city prevented media from hearing the decisions being reached.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they started talking about the centre and homelessness, they switched to French,\u201d she said. \u201cAlmost all the media there were from Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said much of the reporting lacks enough background knowledge to be conducted fairly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can write an article, but do you really know what you\u2019re talking about?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Addressing ignorance<\/h4>\n
The event this year, Life Lived like a Story, showcased Aboriginal artists from all over North America who have found success through the arts.<\/p>\n
Much of the underlying theme of the conference addressed stereotypes and media framing of Aboriginal peoples.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a huge amount of ignorance out there,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cPeople are not learning about Aboriginal culture in Canada . . . apart from \u2018yes, there were Aboriginal people here, and they helped the settlers get settled.\u2019 Then somehow, they disappear from the narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past decade, the New Sun Conference has been trying to address this on-going problem by providing these counter-narratives to bridge the gap between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people in Canada.<\/p>\n
Healing narratives<\/h4>\n
\u201cIt is very important that we tell our stories,\u201d he said, adding non-Aboriginal people have been telling their stories for them for so long.<\/p>\n
His role as a teacher and advocate resonates in his work. While explaining the meaning behind his series on residential schools, he talked a lot about his collection of family photos, many featuring his biological parents during their time at these schools. He could pick them out in the photographs but all the other children where nameless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to give them their dignity back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Littlechild said rediscovering Indigenous identities in Canada, along with his own, continues to inspire his art today.<\/p>\n
As an actress, Horn is best known for her roles in the Netflix series Hemlock Grove and Defiance, and commented on a recent audition season in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of telling other people\u2019s stories that I don\u2019t even care about,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to tell my own stories now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miguel talked about her own experiences as an Indigenous woman trying to bury her identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to get away from all the hurt and the pain . . . I was trying to be human,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It was her daughter who taught her to embrace her culture again and tell stories through her plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t heard those drums in 25 years and that\u2019s why I started crying,\u201d Miguel said. \u201cA year after that powwow, I made a trip back to my roots.\u201d<\/p>\n
With renewed strength, Miguel has been teaching audiences the importance of Indigenous peoples telling their own stories all over New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States, and Europe for the last 39 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that they\u00a0didn\u2019t know how to tell stories before or that they didn\u2019t know how to write . . . Those stories were repressed and they were told they had no value,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
Sharing their voice<\/h4>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this heavy thing called oppression in my community . . . you can see it on the faces of the kids,\u201d Kanatakta said. \u201cYou have to have your teachings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Digging Roots tells their stories through music, incorporating traditional Indigenous song lines that create a reflection of the landscape through music.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusic becomes the language that we use to understand the world,\u201d Kish said.<\/p>\n
This connection to the land is universal not only in Indigenous cultures, but for all people.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter where you travel, people are connected to the land and feel that heartbeat,\u201d Kanatakta said.<\/p>\n
Ryan remarked on the inherent power this conference has to change public perceptions about Indigenous\u00a0peoples. He said he remembers when the late Joy Harvie Maclaren first came to the New Sun Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe walked in the room\u2014and she\u2019d been about 90 per cent blind since she\u2019d turned 70\u2014and said, \u2018Something\u2019s happening here,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Much of this speaks to the atmosphere of the conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople get inspired by that conference and go home and dig things out from the basement because it\u2019s all about creative energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Media framing<\/h4>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a creative energy that non-native people had no idea was there, largely because the stories in the media are about Aboriginal victimization,\u201d Ryan explains.<\/p>\n
He cites a recent example concerning the People\u2019s Gathering on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls hosted at 杏吧原创.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dean of Arts was invited to speak at that Friday morning and then came to the New Sun Conference on Saturday, and his blog this week contrasted the two in terms of overwhelming despair with a powerful sense of hope, as he put it,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n
Kanatakta also addressed Canadians\u2019 negative perception of Aboriginal peoples.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an undertone of racism in this country and people have a tough time realizing it,\u201d Kanatakta said.<\/p>\n
Despite this obstacle, he said non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people can come to a common ground. He believes by trying to find commonalities instead of our differences, the gaps can start to be bridged.<\/p>\n
Ryan remembered a student who had attended the conference in past years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I thought they were going to be talking about their life over there . . . and within five minutes they were talking about my life,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As awareness grows about media framing, Ryan said\u00a0the next step involves sharing knowledge to prevent victimization.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes back to Indigenous scholar Thomas King. . . \u2018You can do what you want with these stories, but don\u2019t say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if you\u2019d heard them,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve heard them now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/trickstershift\/wp-content\/uploads\/nsc-logo-small.jpg\"){kind=logo}
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A presentation of the New Sun Chair in Aboriginal Art and\u00a0Culture
\nwith the support of the Dean of Arts and Social Sciences and the New Sun Fund
\nadministered by the Community Foundation of Ottawa, plus the generosity of private\u00a0donors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
M e d i a Emulating resistance through art: Changing narratives around Aboriginal stories By Gabbi Van Looyen, The Charlatan,\u00a0March 24 2015 The Odawa Native Friendship Centre\u2019s drop-in program has fought more than a few\u00a0legal battles with the City of Ottawa. The Shawenjeagamik Aboriginal Drop-In Centre, located at 510 Rideau St., is facing closure due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":22,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"\n