Video project allows multicultural youth to tell their stories
- Fraser Needham | December 12, 2015
Giving people of all cultures and ages an opportunity to tell their stories through short videos is part of a new project coordinated by the Saskatoon Open Door Society.
Across Generations, Across Cultures: A Digital Story Telling Project is a partnership between SODS and the Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op (CNYC).
A number of Aboriginal youth and new Canadians participated in the project.
Kelley Bird-Naytowhow is the project coordinator who worked with 25 Indigenous and new Canadian youth.
He says the project is all about confidence building.
“When I was younger, there was no one there to help me shine and so I tripped and fell a lot but learned a lot while falling and I had a lot of people help me to get up,” Bird-Naytowhow says. “So now I am in a role that I am that person that helps others get up, inspire and share with the youth that they behold a very sacred story but knowing they can’t always get their sacred story out in a good way because their environment may not allow them to. So I was able to walk with them and help them just for a little bit in their lives to make that safe environment happen.”
Bird-Naytowhow says they starting working with the youth in January giving them a crash course on how to use a camera and shoot video.
“Part of the program itself was engagement in the hands on and help them transition from their mental domain as far as breaking story boards down, getting them to think of what a story board is and getting them to think about how films are put together,” he says.
The program coordinator also admits the project was as much a learning experience for him as it was for the youth.
“On a personal level, I got to learn a lot about different ethnicities, different cultures – realizing that increasing my own paradigm of what culture is and allowing myself to step out of the box even further and realize that it’s not just Aboriginal culture. There’s more cultures out there and there’s more beautiful voices out there.”
Bird-Naytowhow says although he was dealing with a multiplicity of youth cultures, the stories of the struggles of being a teenager often had a lot of similarities.
Late last month, a selection of videos from Across Generations, Across Cultures were presented at the Broadway Theatre.