Youth video explores racism through media

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The media is a very powerful tool.

Whether it is in the form of television, movies or the Internet, just to name a few, it has the ability to shape our perceptions of the world and colour our views of the people around us.

In the video Expressions of Aboriginal Youth, three youth seize the opportunity to use the camera to express their frustrations over the racism they have encountered throughout their lives as they embark on their own quest to find pride in their Aboriginal identities.

Produced by the Access to Media Education Society (AMES), Expressions of Aboriginal Youth is 23 minutes long and aimed at elementary and high school students.

Told through the eyes of Red Wire magazine writer Tania Willard, filmmaker Michelle Ryan and Vern Beaver, each of them talk about their own experiences growing up as an Aboriginal person and the powerlessness they sometimes felt because of their cultural background.

Short as it may be, the video is effective in its sincerity and straightforwardness. One particularly poignant moment captures Ryan trying to choke back her tears as she recalls witnessing her classmates ridicule her drunk uncle, who endured the residential school experience, while she was on a bus during a school outing.

Beaver talks about feeling like a "third class citizen" and says she believes the structure of society is meant to "keep you poor" and on welfare.

The creators of this video express great frustration over the "Disneyfication" of Native people and how this form of racism seeps into people's views of who Aboriginal people really are.

The observations made by Willard, Beaver and Ryan are thought-provoking and should spark some interesting discussions among students.

Accompanying the video is a comprehensive 32-page resource guide that provides teachers with recommended individual and group exercises they can do with the class.

Included in the package is a residential school backgrounder and quotes from the video that students can discuss in small groups.

There are also helpful tips on the 'do's and don'ts' for educators teaching Aboriginal issues.

Do's include inviting a member of an Aboriginal community to speak to the class and reading books and poetry by contemporary Native writers.

Both the video and learning package are well linked and organized.

Students and teachers will benefit from this insightful look at Native culture as Willard, Beaver and Ryan implore its viewers to look beyond the stereotypes and see people as individuals with their own stories to tell.

To order Expressions of Aboriginal Youth, visit the AMES Web site: www.accesstomedia.org or e-mail the society at ames@gulfislands.com.