First Nations developing, owning, controlling their digital networks to share with others
Indigenous people organize, innovate for digital self-determination
Opinion: First Nations Technology Council promotes development and use of community networks
BY ROB MCMAHON AND NORM LEECH, SPECIAL TO THE VANCOUVER SUN NOVEMBER 6, 2013
Vivian Kelly (grey sweater), Christine George (brown sweater) and other participants take apart a computer to learn about the various components in an Introduction to Technology course. The First Nations Technology Council held the course in January 2013.
Last winter, aboriginal groups used social media such as Twitter and Facebook to mobilize the Idle No More movement and organize demonstrations that captured media and public attention.
But long before Twitter and Facebook, indigenous peoples were building their own systems of communication, including oral, print, broadcast, and digital networks.
Community radio stations in Yukon and the national Aboriginal Peoples Television Network are just two examples of how First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people contribute to Canada's vibrant media scene.
This work extends beyond content to include underlying communication infrastructures. Villages only accessible by plane, boat, or winter roads developed community radio and television stations in the 1970s, over time helping create a national network.
With the advent of the Internet and broadband connectivity, Aboriginal peoples are again driving innovation in the emerging field of digital media.
Partly, this is due to necessity. There is little profit for private sector Internet providers that venture into rural and remote Aboriginal communities, resulting in low access to the information highwa'. For First Nations, this means students will have less experience and proficiency with these tools than other Canadians. They will be at a severe disadvantage when they pursue training, education, employment, or other opportunities off-reserve.
Last summer, we made this point in public hearings before the Canadian Radio-Television and Communications Commission. Our group of First Nations technology organizations and researchers argued for supports for Aboriginal community networks, to improve their access to the Internet.
We also argued that any plans to modernize infrastructure and services in their territories should include opportunities for indigenous peoples to build and operate their own broadband systems. They have the greatest vested interest in the success of these networks. Their futures depend on them. And we showed how they have the proven capacity to create and operate their own, community based infrastructure, through examples from K-Net Services in Ontario, K'atl'odeeche First Nation in the N.W.T. and others.
In fact, Aboriginal peoples are re-framing the digital challenges they face as opportunities. In remote and rural regions located far from metropolitan centres, they are quietly building community networks, in partnership with government and corporations. Projects like First Nations Innovation (http://fn-innovation-pn.com) and the First Mile (http://firstmile.ca) showcase these initiatives, which are already recognized as success stories.
For example, in recent testimony to Parliament, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce referred to the Northern Indigenous Community Satellite Network, describing that cooperatively managed not-for-profit satellite network as "a clear example of what has worked well" in efforts to address rural digital divides.
In British Columbia, the First Nations Technology Council promotes the development and use of community networks by First Nations. Created of, by and for the 203 First Nations in the province, the council states that First Nations desire more than to simply be customers and consumers of technology; they intend to become service providers, managers and owners too. Of course, this requires strategic investment. The nature of this investment is limited only by creativity, and the benefits are many. First Nations are the most permanent residents of their territories. There is very little chance that they will move resources or capital or head offices offshore - or to urban centres. They also spend almost all of their revenues inside their neighbouring communities and regions. Who better to manage long-term investments in these areas?
How can we move toward this model? Examples of First Nations digital projects will be featured at the Media Democracy Days conference on November 9 in Vancouver. We will discuss how remote communities are creating Internet access where it is not profitable for big telecom companies. And while the public sector funding for these initiatives seems to be disappearing, opportunities remain.
Moreover, it is not just Aboriginal peoples who would benefit from community-driven digital access projects. All people in remote and rural regions will gain from cost-effective access to broadband-enabled public services like e-health and online education. Connectivity provides economic opportunities in areas like cultural tourism, marketing of local goods and services, and the digital knowledge economy. It is a foundation for healthy, vibrant, sustainable and diversified economies in the north.
Indigenous peoples in Canada have always created their own communication systems as well as used 'mainstream' media. Now they are organizing for investments in digital access that they can control, that reflects their self determination and improves access for all Canadians. We can learn a lot from their innovation.
Rob McMahon is a post-doctoral fellow with the First Nations Innovation Project, based at the University of New Brunswick. Norm Leech is the Executive Director of the First Nation Technology Council in B.C.