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In December 2004 representatives of the Yukon government and the First People's Cultural Foundation of British Columbia signed an agreement to facilitate the use of digital multimedia technology to archive and teach endangered Native languages.1 "Without initiatives like FirstVoices, indigenous languages and cultural knowledge are at risk of disappearing forever," Yukon premier Dennis Fentie said in a prepared statement.2 The Tagish language website project being conducted by the Carcross Tagish First Nation was funded by this agreement and is one example of the ways Native communities are using digital technologies for cultural and linguistic self-representation.3 In many cases, the use of new media generates wide-ranging discussions concerning cultural values, modes of representation and teaching, and contrasts between Native and non-Native ideologies. This article examines the discourses of the Tagish website team as they formulate an Indigenous language ideology based on traditional values and contemporary responses to language endangerment that contrasts with the approaches of outside agencies.
The Tagish website project makes use of digital sound files, photographs, videos, and text. In addition to promoting language revitalization efforts, the new technologies used in this project have also facilitated community control over the representation of the Tagish language and culture. Access to new media has made it possible for the local community to manage and conduct the project, and the technological sophistication of the website lends authority to their efforts. A central concern of the project members has been defining their language ideology as they take control of the representation of their heritage.
Canadian political economist and communications theorist Harold Innis suggested that innovations in communications technology often compel realignment in the monopoly or oligopoly of knowledge.4 Borrowing imagery from Hegel, who wrote, "Minerva's owl begins its flight only in the gathering dusk," Innis identified cases where the flowering of culture has come before a final collapse.5 Similarly, the use of digital technologies by Indigenous groups is also facilitating a realignment of authority as local communities are able to represent their own languages and cultures in sophisticated ways.
This study is based on our experiences participating in the Tagish FirstVoices project and earlier language documentation initiatives. Between 1992 and 1994 one of us (Moore) conducted language documentation projects for the Yukon Native Language Centre and the Carcross...