From feasts to Facebook and back again : technology, media, and belonging among urban Nisga'a and Tsimshian youth ...

• Main Author: Wolowic, Jennifer Marie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Subjects: First Nations; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0340568; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0340568

For urban Tsimshian and Nisga’a youth in Prince Rupert, cell phones, cameras and Facebook are among the latest tools used to connect with families and friends across geographical distance as well as address the historical, cultural, and economic gaps created by processes of displacement. Traditional Northwest Coast First Nations’ social practices and feasts are expressed in intensely public ways; that visibility construct and maintain their social relationships and communities. Although the youth I met sometimes feel alienated from larger Canadian society as well as from village communities and feast protocols, traditional ideas of public participation embedded in social activities are sometimes successfully remediated to digital technology and Facebook for two reasons. First, public presentation and dissemination have effectively stabilized Northwest Coast First Nations’ societies across vast geographical distances for centuries. Second, the continued emphasis on public expression is part of new, creative ...