Success Stories

Our Elders: Interviews with Saskatchewan Elders

Wisdom of Native Elders Goes On-line

Our Elders: Interviews with Saskatchewan Elders is a web site that brings the wisdom, stories and images of the Saulteaux, Dakota, Assiniboine, Dene and Cree elders to the Information Highway. It was researched, designed and digitized by a group of four young people working for the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre this past summer.

The project was carried out under contract to Industry Canada’s SchoolNet Digital Collections program, which gives people 15 to 30 years of age entrepreneurial and technology-based job experience converting collections of Canadian material into digital form for display on SchoolNet. The SchoolNet Digital Collections web site has grown to become possibly the largest single source of Canadian content on the Information Highway.

Jim Bruce, of the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre and Digital Collections project supervisor, had warm words of praise for his team’s work experience. "All four members of the team benefited from this project," he said. "They learned their way around Internet technology, which is invaluable in today’s world. They also sharpened their research, interview and project management skills."

Belinda Daniels, a team member from Sturgeon Lake First Nation and a third year student at the University of Saskatchewan, is looking forward to a career in education administration. Lorrie Dodwell, from Ahtahkakoop First Nation, is in her third year of nursing at the University of Saskatchewan. Both young women found the Digital Collections project stimulating in terms of what they learned about technology, and inspiring in terms of what they discovered about their aboriginal ancestry.

Duane Turner, a recent graduate of the Library Technician Program at Saskatoon’s Kelsey Institute, said the Digital Collections project taught him a lot about technology. In fact, he’s turned this experience into a new job and is now working for Northern Lights Internet Solutions, the company that trained the four young people on the technical aspects of this project.

Ketan Parmar, a University of Saskatchewan computer science student, said he too learned about Internet programming. He said he also enjoyed learning more about another culture. "By reading the elder interviews one can gain a real insight into the spiritual nature of this culture," he said. "I hope this project serves to build more tolerance and understanding of First Nations heritage."

Jim Bruce agrees that team members learned many valuable lessons about native cultures. He said that most of the elders have traditional values, and some of the young team members came across these for the first time. "Our team learned that when you interview an elder, you must show complete respect," said Bruce. "For example, it’s customary to bring tobacco if you want to talk. You put this on the table, and if the elder picks it up, it means he agrees to the conversation." Bruce explained that the young people learned that when interviewing elders, one must not ask personal questions, nor look them in the eye. The elders must be allowed to respond in their own way, on their own time. And, the cardinal rule is: don’t be nosy. Bruce noted that those elders who were veterans wanted this fact posted on the web site. He explained that native elders are proud of being veterans, and indeed, no one in native cultures is more honoured than a veteran who has fought bravely.