OUR HISTORY

"All Indigenous Peoples come with different forms of strength and we are highly theoretical. We do not need any outside people to imprint their research models on us but through these forms of strength -- that is one reason why we are still here and having these conversations."

– Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser

This initiative emerged from a community-led research project that investigates how digital technologies can amplify the voices of Indigenous women and non-binary people in three sister sites: northern Turtle Island/Canada, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

The impetus for this work came from the need identified within these communities for Indigenized and gendered digital strategies to further centre Indigenous women and non-binary people's voices in public spheres.

In the northern region, our advisory council identified three critical areas that digital technologies can provide support: health and wellness, community safety, and financial independence. There is a long legacy of Indigenous-led work to support these areas in the Yukon and beyond that this project builds on.

In our community and one-on-one conversations we asked how digital technologies can amplify the voices and work of Indigenous women and non-binary people to further support these three areas. Further, how can digital technologies support Indigenous women and non-binary people's personal and professional goals and voices in digital design? We asked, What is already being done to support these goals in our communities? What else is needed?

An idea took shape to address these questions: a mentorship initiative by and for Indigenous women and non-binary people in the north. We created a small cohort of mentors and mentees focused on filmmaking, podcasting and digital entrepreneurship in a unique skill-sharing opportunity. This came to be called Digital Matriarchs: Northern Pathways, a name dreamed up by our close collaborator on this project, Heather von Steinhagen.

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This project is unique because of its grassroots, DIY, and open-source approach to sharing digital skills.

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Digital Matriarchs has grown and changed with each new voice and conversation. Because of this, we’ve come to think of it as a living entity. At the heart of it? This site, cycling vital knowledge, woven from Indigenous ways of knowing and being in digital spaces, and between people invested in deepening this well of knowledge here in the north. We are so excited to share it with you, thank you for being here.

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CREDITS

Grounding this work in Indigenous sovereignty:

We were fortunate to launch our mentorship initiative with an introductory workshop led by Gwichyá Gwich’in scholar Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser, originally from Inuvik. She guided us through conversations and creative visioning to explore how we could anchor this work in Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, and the spirit of sovereignty over one's voice and craft.

One of the goals with this project has been to create a space that honours the diverse ways of relating to Indigeneity through digital design. Our mentees shared important insights with each other in this introductory workshop that grounded this project in a community of care and support for each other. Together we explored how creating digital spaces can be a way of enacting Indigenous sovereignty.

Heather von Steinhagen

Project Participant

"...It really reminds me of the work I've been doing lately about just taking ownership in what it is that I know. Like there's a lot of times where I feel a bit paralyzed because, you know, I don't feel like I have the same or the right authority to be this or that type of Indigenous.

So, I think this mentorship is super important because we're bringing back, well, at least for me, like a bit more soul and spirit, like a lot less stereotyping and a lot more self-discovery and autonomy. And like everyone's journey is different, and everyone's journey to Indigeneity is different.

I think, you know, having the skills to be confident in whatever digital skill we're trying to learn right now I think is just adding to the pool of voices who can get their opinions and their perspectives out there."

Ghûxdujíxh (Logan) Law

Project Participant

"I'm a recent reconnector with my community. My Great Grandma was taken away when she was a kid for residential school so my family was kind of disconnected until I came back, I think when I was 18, so a few years ago. So, I look for any opportunity to be involved in the community and, of course, as soon as I heard about this I was like 'I could do so many things!'

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So my idea is that a lot of the Elders we...obviously, we use our Elders a lot, right, and we kind of, we sometimes exhaust them with the amount of information that we need and the help and stuff, and the guidance so I really want to be able to get them...interview them in what they want to talk about.

‍Like, if they want to tell me a story from my childhood I want it to be them running the interview versus like, us being like, 'Tell me about a time in your childhood.'

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I really want to have a different way of collecting their information because most of the time we go there, we ask them questions, we record it and then we have everything in an archive but I feel like a different kind of...it's almost like a more traditional way, like, kind of letting them teach us instead of us asking the questions -- is what I feel it's going to be. ‍And if they can tell me a story, or try to teach me something, I think it's going to be really fun, so that's the idea."

Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser

Project Consultant

"What I have really found is that through this work, we are inherently connected to our ancestors.

Sometimes I've had to think long and hard, like, “How is it that a TikTok channel will allow me to resonate with my culture and my identity? How are those connections there?”

And there's a few different things: we have this shared history of strength; we're still here after colonization. We have this shared practice of land use. And it's these little everyday practices - if I greet you in my language, if I go to that Zoom language lesson - just the very speaking of those words connects me to my culture and my ancestors.

And as we make these choices every single day about what technology to use, about what to say or what to do or how to act, we share that with other people, but also with those who came before us. And for me, those are acts of sovereignty in this ongoing colonial context as Indigenous Peoples."

CREDITS

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