An online stroll through history...
November 19, 2009 3:57 PM Subscribe
On The Path of the Elders is a site tells the story of Treaty Nine, or James Bay Agreement, through an online role playing game.
Fantastic. Thank you.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:14 PM on November 19, 2009
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:14 PM on November 19, 2009
Thank you from me as well. I hope that people take the time to look at the site. This is a wonderful post.
posted by jokeefe at 8:40 PM on November 19, 2009
posted by jokeefe at 8:40 PM on November 19, 2009
Wow, this is great. Many thanks.
posted by aclevername at 8:52 PM on November 19, 2009
posted by aclevername at 8:52 PM on November 19, 2009
For a couple of years, I was going up to James Bay Cree communities and doing refresher courses in radio for the JBCCS (journalism, largely) thanks to having run a community radio station for a while further south.
There's an amazing history up there, and if the creators of this game ever wanted to follow up with a horror RPG, all they'd have to do is explore the Residential Schools program, which gutted an entire generation of Cree culture. There's literally a swath of elders that know nothing but Cree, an entire middle generation that mainly only speaks English, and -- and this is the good news -- a younger generation that's grown up in split schools where half of the instruction is in Cree and half in English, so they can switch fluidly between the two.
The relationship between the Cree and the rest of Canada is too... big... for me to really understand. They're not like any other native community in the rest of the country, in that (on the Quebec side of the Bay, anyway) they enjoy more autonomy and financial independence thanks to the megadams and land leases than most other Native Canadians. At the same time, there's a broad understanding that they've been screwed over by the government for hundreds of years; at the same time, there's a resilience and optimism that's you just can't overlook. As a f'rinstance, the JBCCS Web site is in English, but they broadcast only in Cree. There's a huge emphasis on retaining traditions, the language, and their stories caught in a perpetual tug-of-war with the glitz and money of what comes up from down south.
I'm really looking forward to the game, as I know much more about recent history (the Residential Schools) than the original Treaty. Thanks a lot for posting it.
posted by Shepherd at 3:47 AM on November 20, 2009 [1 favorite]
There's an amazing history up there, and if the creators of this game ever wanted to follow up with a horror RPG, all they'd have to do is explore the Residential Schools program, which gutted an entire generation of Cree culture. There's literally a swath of elders that know nothing but Cree, an entire middle generation that mainly only speaks English, and -- and this is the good news -- a younger generation that's grown up in split schools where half of the instruction is in Cree and half in English, so they can switch fluidly between the two.
The relationship between the Cree and the rest of Canada is too... big... for me to really understand. They're not like any other native community in the rest of the country, in that (on the Quebec side of the Bay, anyway) they enjoy more autonomy and financial independence thanks to the megadams and land leases than most other Native Canadians. At the same time, there's a broad understanding that they've been screwed over by the government for hundreds of years; at the same time, there's a resilience and optimism that's you just can't overlook. As a f'rinstance, the JBCCS Web site is in English, but they broadcast only in Cree. There's a huge emphasis on retaining traditions, the language, and their stories caught in a perpetual tug-of-war with the glitz and money of what comes up from down south.
I'm really looking forward to the game, as I know much more about recent history (the Residential Schools) than the original Treaty. Thanks a lot for posting it.
posted by Shepherd at 3:47 AM on November 20, 2009 [1 favorite]
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The way the (alternate future) history is presented in Fallout 3, for example, via thousands of tiny scraps, found audiotapes, diaries, monuments and character interactions, is intriguing as a history-teaching method.
posted by rokusan at 4:09 PM on November 19, 2009