Wahkotowin: Indigenous Girls Use Cellphilms to Speak Back Gender-Based Violence

• In Event: Engaging Young People Through the Arts and Visual Practices to Address Sexual Violence

Abstract

Objective: In this paper we explore the ways in which Indigenous girls in an urban setting in Western Canada speak back to the violence in their school and community milieu by producing cellphilms where they consider their utopic visions for the future.
Perspectives and Theoretical Framework: The study draws on the Cree concept of "Wahkotowin" which means the act of relating to one another beyond immediate family. This is an idea that is clearly framed with the role of the arts in indigenizing research. (Author; Wilson, 2008). The study also builds on the significance of ‘speaking back’ (Author) ), and ultimately to the notion of “theorizing back” (Tuck and Wang, 2012) so that it is Indigenous girls themselves who construct theories for social change.
Methods and data source: This qualitative study drew on cellphilming (creating videos with a cellphone) as an arts-based method. It was based on a series of 4 weekend workshops facilitate by both Indigenous scholars and non-Indigenous allies and involving a group of 15-18 Indigenous groups girls between the ages of 12 and 15 in an urban school/community setting in Saskatoon. Canada. The data consists of a close analysis of cellphilms produced by the girls as well as an analysis of follow up interviews.
Results: The girls shared the many places and spaces in their lives where the felt violence occurring. These ranged from getting harassed walking down the street, surveillance in malls, and encounters with the police. In seeking to speak back to these situations, the girls produced a group cellphilm showed them returning to and reclaiming these spaces by rewriting the scripts In their utopic alternatives they were able to access public spaces alone and together free from hate and harassment associated with gender, race and age based violence that typifies the milieu for Indigenous girls.
Scholarly significance of study: The results of the study show that it is important to not just focus on the negative, but rather to highlight the ways in which Indigenous girls can imagine a different kind of future for themselves. This approach to the use of the arts builds on their talents and skills. At a time when the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Women and Girls in Canada occupies a high profile, it is critical to see how young Indigenous girls themselves are addressing change.

Authors

• Kari-Dawn Wuttunee, National Indigenous Young Women's Council

• Sarah Flicker, York University