Welcome to Digital Matriarchs!
What is a Digital Matriarch?
A Digital Matriarch is…
Someone who stands in their own power
Someone who passes down knowledge
Someone who creates opportunities for others
Digital Matriarchs: Northern Pathways is a digital skill sharing resource. This virtual space holds our stories, our roots, and our offerings to you from this learning journey.
Shä̀w níthän | Gùnáłchîsh | Mähsi’ | Sógá sénlá | Quyanainni | Merci | Thank you
Our Pathway
This project emerged from connections and conversations among individuals and organizations sharing a common goal: to amplify the voices of Indigenous women and non-binary people in the north, and to bring Indigenous ways of knowing to digital design.
The way we exchange information is fluid.
We asked:
How can the digital world contribute to amplifying the voices of Indigenous women and non-binary* people in the north? How can digital design bring forward Indigenous ways of knowing and being?
We explored this question through ongoing conversations:
- Engaging an advisory council of Indigenous women and non-binary people with specialized knowledge, skills, and lived experiences in the north.
- Facilitating a community conversation and creative visioning session through collage in Kwalin/Whitehorse about the key focuses and structure of the project.
- Conducting one-on-one conversations and consultations with Indigenous women and non-binary people from Teslin, Carcross, Atlin, Inuvik, Kwanlin/Whitehorse, and Watson Lake.
- Observing how the question was already being answered through projects led by NGOs, artists, academics, and grassroots initiatives in our communities.
*Non-binary is gender identity and experience that embraces a full universe of expressions and ways of being that resonate for an individual, moving beyond the male/female gender binary. It may be an active resistance to binary gender expectations and/or an internal creation of new unbounded ideas of self within the world. For some people who identify as non binary there may be an overlap with other concepts and identities like gender-expansive and gender non-conforming. Many people who identify as non-binary use ‘they/them’ pronouns. Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. Gender and Queer Terminology and Toolkit (2023).
After three years of nurturing relationships, meaningful conversations, and the establishment of a mentorship initiative, we are thrilled to present this work to you through five learning pathways that showcase the endeavours of our mentors and mentees, all born of our original question.
"When I go out onto the land and I'm trying to connect and I feel like everything around me has a spirit. And when we try to convey that idea with technology, a lot of people have such a logical mind that they can't connect to that idea because they view these things as being dead. Like, there's no spirit there. But I feel like when we view this project, or when we're putting things into this web page, that we have to lose that logical way of thinking, that colonized way of thinking, and bring that spirit into it. This is the heart of it: all that information and all that learning and everything from the start of this project, is going onto this website. This is the heart and the spirit of it all."
- Héel' (Lyndsay) Amato
OUR HISTORY
"All Indigenous Peoples come with different forms of strength and we are highly theoretical. We do not need any outside people to imprint their research models on us but through these forms of strength -- that is one reason why we are still here and having these conversations."
This initiative emerged from a community-led research project that investigates how digital technologies can amplify the voices of Indigenous women and non-binary people in three sister sites: northern Turtle Island/Canada, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
There is a long legacy of Indigenous-led work in the Yukon and beyond that this project builds on.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that this work has been created on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. It has also been developed with many voices from across the north including those from, or residing on, the traditional territories of the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, Teslin Tlingit Council, Liard First Nation, Taku River Tlingit First Nation, Inuvialuit and Gwich’in Tribal Council. We are thankful to work, create and imagine together in this place.
Shä̀w níthän | Gùnáłchîsh | Mähsi’ | Sógá sénlá | Quyanainni | Merci | Thank you