Online Cree campaign for new school

Canadian officials strategize against Cree YouTube campaignA YouTube campaign that has gained the support of students across Canada for a new elementary school in a remote Cree community prompted Canadian government officials to contemplate retaining a top public relations firm, internal documents show.

The documents, obtained by Member of Parliament Charlie Angus under the Freedom of Information Act, show a shift in government policy after current Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl was appointed in September 2007, and plans for a new school in Attawapiskat First Nation were cancelled.

The young Crees’ online campaign has department of communications officials under pressure, according to the documents.The problems with the old school:Attawapiskat elementary students have been educated in portables since 2000, when the J. R. Nakogee School was closed because of the health effects of a 1979 fuel spill under the structure.

By early 2008, the student campaign had started to bite. Mainstream students were reacting with indignation to descriptions of overcrowded and unsafe conditions in portables designed to supplement a main school building. In this case, the portables are the school.Comment:  Curiously, this article is all about the government's response to the YouTube campaign and not about the campaign itself. Yet this is the first I've heard of this campaign. If you ask me, the campaign is the real story, not the response to it.

Natives have produced YouTube videos on many subjects--Indian mascots, language and cultural issues, powwows and dances, etc. But I don't think I've heard of an organized campaign to use YouTube to fight for a Native cause nationwide. Therefore, it's impressive.

This should serve as a model for future Native activism. Don't think only about making signs and marching outside a company or government building. Think about doing viral campaigns using videos, blogs, social networks, and other new technology.

MoveOn.org mobilized millions of people to work for Democratic causes. On a smaller scale, the Cree YouTube campaign is doing something similar for a new school. Such campaigns should be a tool--perhaps the main tool--in any activist's toolbox.

For more on the subject, see Rezkast Up and Running, Rezkast Aggregates Native Content, and Native American Tube.