In order to get access to Indigenous documents and items without the help of institutional archives, we will need to broadcast our mission to Indigenous peoples across Canada and the world. The TCG has created an online social media campaign that will use the hashtag #bringithome. The purpose of the campaign is to spread images of Indigenous culture and life via social media, sharing the stories associated. This campaign hopes to promote the importance of preserving Indigenous heritage and encourage Indigenous peoples to come home to their land.
AUDIENCE
This social media campaign will be aimed at Indigenous Canadians and communities that want to preserve their culture and heritage. The campaign hopes to inspire Indigenous communities to care about how their heritage is being preserved and take action to ensure it’s done properly. This campaign also hopes to get the attention of institutional archives across Canada to encourage repatriating Indigenous items and documents back to their nations.
RESEARCH
According to the 2021 Census of Canada, just under one third of the indigenous population in Canada live on reserves. Of the members of the Tahltan Nation, 90% now live outside of our territory. With an increasing number of Indigenous people moving off reserves and into cities, it is vital that steps are taken now to ensure their cultures heritage has been properly preserved. More importantly, there is a need for spaces and more reasons for Indigenous people to come back home so they can remember, learn about, and celebrate their heritage.
In 2016, The Canadian Encyclopedia reported that `one in five Indigenous people (19.4%) lived in housing that required major repairs. In comparison, only 6% of the non-indigenous population face these issues. The issue is nearly twice as bad for those living on reserves. Through the mass sharing of images of Indigenous culture, the TCG hopes non-indigenous Canadians will realize just how much space they take up. This will hopefully put pressure on the institutional archives we are speaking with to realize Indigenous peoples need to bring these items and documents home.
SPOKESPEOPLE
For this social media campaign, it is important that our spokespeople appear passionate about the initiative and embrace the value of sharing and community. Chad Norman Day, TCG’s President, and Sandra Marion, TCH’s Director of Cultural Heritage will be spokespeople on behalf of the Tahltan Nation. Their experience and passion for the archives is strong and their titles give them credibility. We would also like to invite Indigenous artist Lou-Ann Neel to be a spokesperson. Neel was formerly head of Indigenous collection and representation at RCBM. Neel can provide excellent insight into how institutional archives work and explain why Indigenous peoples need to start taking action on their own.
Lou-Ann has been quoted when asked about Indigenous archives saying, “BC and Canada are a work in progress as far as I’m concerned. We didn’t hit the end any point. I’m not even sure we’re in the middle point yet, and I think that hearing what real citizen have to say to us, and taking that as our lead, that’s what’s going to make the museum of the future. That’s what’s going to change what these places are all about, and I think that all citizens then are going to have an opportunity to learn the real histories, all of it, not just somebody’s narrow interpretation of it, but all of it.”
CONTENT
The campaign is designed to inspire Indigenous Canadians to search for and bring home documents and images of their Indigenous ancestry. TCG will create several of their own posts containing photos from their heritage, and messages that spread the goals of the campaign. The campaign will use #bringithome to give everyone a way to collect the images in one spot across multiple platforms. TCG will make use of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to spread the campaign. These platforms have been chosen because of their ability spread content quickly and all three platforms actively use hashtags. TCG post captions will share the stories represented in the image, encouraging others to do the same. The purpose behind the campaign is to inspire Indigenous communities across Canada to remember and preserve their heritage, TCG hopes that the sharing of stories will help communities bond and want to create a space to honour their nations history.
CALENDAR
Week 1: Find and select photos to use as TCG social media posts for the campaign.
Weeks 2-3: Write story captions for each image, ensure that stories are reliable and do further research or interviews if needed.
Week 4: Begin posting on the three selected social media platforms from all TCG accounts once a day. Use connections with other indigenous communities and community archives on social media to help spread the campaign. Take advantage of “story” features throughout the day by laying the story out easier to read and reposting or highlighting posts that have used the hashtag.
Week 5: Continue to post at least once a day. Interact with anyone outside of TCG participating in the campaign, send them a thankful message and let them know what TCG is trying to accomplish.
Week 6 Onwards: Continue to post on a regular basis and spread other posts that have used the hashtag. Use judgement and data to determine exact number of posts based on levels of engagement.
CONCLUSION
This online social media campaign will allow Indigenous peoples to share their stories, spread their culture, and remember their heritage while simultaneously encouraging the preservation of Indigenous documents and creation of archives.