Overcoming the Distance: Using Digital Media and Collaborative Video-making to Amplify Northern Voices and Share the Western Arctic with the World

The North has long been an object of study. This project allows Northern students and community members the opportunity to contribute their too-often absent voice to Northern and Southern Studies. "Take it from the Top" is a collaborative film research project that uses community-based participatory action research to capture the North. This film series made by Northerners for Northerners, is not limited by words in a textual vacuum, but comes directly from the source. In western culture print is often considered the ultimate repository of knowledge and research. Oral culture is not only the words said, but also the gestures made, where nuance and facial expressions provide essential context for the words being relayed. Research relies mainly on text even though other forms of communication may be better tools in the North. Northern communities are not waiting for research reports: rather they are waiting for engagement and dialogue. Video is a path towards communication; it allows for more ideas and voices to be shared and heard by more people. Researchers concerned with practical reciprocity should consider video as a primary research tool.

Northern culture has a rich and deep tradition of storytelling and new media can be a tool to share it and give it a new life. Northern cultures can be deeply adaptive and new technologies are adopted to meet Northern needs, such as the rifle and steel hulled ship. Digital media can be a powerful new means for Northern peoples to share their stories in their own way. "Take it from the Top" is a community-based video making research project in which students interviewed community members on their conceptions of the North and South and also made short personal films about their North. The films were shot predominantly in Inuvik but also along the arctic coast in Tutoyaktuk and Paulatuk and down into the Mackenzie Delta in Aklavik and Tsiigehtchic in Canada's Northwest Territories.

This paper will include an overview of the project but focus specifically on the theme segment of "North to South" where Northerners have the opportunity to say what they want people to know about their North. To view some of the project video clips please go to http://www.youtube.com/user/TakeItFromTheTopVids. More video is being added all the time and we also have a "Take it From the Top" Facebook fan film page. Modern technology has brought video to the masses; it can do the same for Northern research.