Problem/ Opportunity

For the decolonization project, Marina and I focused the topic of promoting Indigenous music and musicians in the Canadian music industry. Some of the defined challenges faced by the Indigenous music community in Canada are systemic barriers, insufficient funding along and performance/ recording opportunities. The study of APTN (The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network)n also outline the opportunities to increase the success of Indigenous artists, some of which include getting increased support from provincial/territorial arts and music organizations as well as getting easy access to audiences through social media.

https://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Music-Impact-Study.pdf

Solution & Strategies

There were a few things we had to put into consideration before we move forward to identify our deliverables. We had in mind that we wanted to do a partnership with Aboriginal Music Manitoba (AMM) as they offer generous resources, including training and programs to familiarize existing Indigenous Musicians with Canadian Music Industry. They have also organized The Sākihiwē Festival with the goal of getting them to participate in performance without risking their financial security, personal safety, or family responsibilities. As we move along, we put down few points we had to identify:

  • Whether to focus on recorded or live music? We went to recorded and decided to partner with The Sākihiwē Festival by AMM
  • Music streaming platform or social campaign for promotion and education? We went with a social campaign with a focus in promoting through digital media as we identity that getting an audience in a music streaming platform would be challenging. This is because most mobile users are familiar with Spotify and Apple Music etc. Our goal is to focus on familiarizing Canadian youths and young adults with Indigenous Music. We also wanted to focus on the theme of “telling their stories” and “listening to understand”.

Concepts and Sketches

As we defined our theme and goal, the next major step was to come up with a hook for the campaign. 

The hook has been undecided and we jumped into the sketches right away (which we later on realized was not a good idea).

Here are some of sketches and brainstorming process to decide on what goes into the website and Instagram pages:

We came back to brainstorm for the “hook” and through many ideas, we came up with  the phrases “SILENT NO MORE” and “LISTEN”. The phrases resonate with the sense of resilience, power of Indigenous communities through years of oppression. Moreover, the two words are anagram and they both reflect auditory senses.

Self Evaluation

8/10: It was definitely interesting and a good exercise to work as a team for the project. I believe that the part I struggled with the most was doing research and gathering useful information. I am glad we spent the majority of the time on research and ideation. Getting feedback from the indigenous film students, Judy and Patrick were extremely beneficial!!