Seven Indigenous youth engaged in a new media exploration towards the creation of an interactive online documentary. The Indigenous Routes Collective coordinated an eight-week training project partnering professional media artists with seven indigenous youth to collaboratively produce an interactive documentary for web-based dissemination.  Drawing on broad areas of media including photography, video, audio and new media this project provided participants with technical skills spanning the sector. Participants worked with mentors Archer Pechawis and Amanda Strong to develop personal narratives. This project’s installation premiere is at the imagineNATIVE/Gallery 44 group youth exhibition Resonate.

Lead Artists

Amanda Strong

With a keen interest in combining illustration, photography, filmmaking and the web, Amanda Strong is a media artist who’s work explores the relationship between intense personal conflicts and common individual experiences. Amanda is beginning to study her cultural roots in her art, exploring her mixed blood heritage in her unique media realm.  Amanda is actively involved with sharing her knowledge with the aboriginal youth community. She has coordinated, curated and lead many media projects, workshops, shows and initiatives providing youth the opportunity to learn new forms of media and conceptual processes.

Archer Pechawis

Performance artist, new media artist, filmmaker, writer, curator and educator, Archer Pechawis (Cree) was born in Alert Bay, BC in 1963. He has been a practicing artist since 1984, with particular interest in the intersection of Plains Cree culture and digital technology, often merging ‘traditional’ objects such as hand drums with ‘forward engineered’ devices such as Mac PowerBooks. His work has been exhibited across Canada and featured in publications such as Fuse Magazine and Canadian Theatre Review. Archer has been the recipient of many Canada Council and British Columbia Arts awards, and won the Best New Media Award at imagineNATIVE in 2007 and Best Experimental Short at imagineNATIVE in 2009.

Participants and Projects

Cheyenne Scott
Alana Mcleod
Jacob Maracle
Cameron Parkinson
Beth Kotierk
Nigel Irwin- Brochmann
Asivak Koostachin

Sponsors

Metis Nation of Ontario

Ontario Arts Council Association for Native Development in the Performing & Visual Arts Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto