Welcome to Native Networks
By Elizabeth Weatherford, Head of the Film and Video Center
November 2001
In 2001 the NMAI has launched the Native Networks Website to
welcome you to the field of Native media throughout the Americas.
The site provides information about new productions and media
makers, current areas of special interest and accomplishments
in the field. As I am writing at the time of the site's launch,
it still is a pilot project. For this reason I encourage you to
give us your opinions and suggestions about its technical aspects,
accessibility, and contents. Let us know what you would like the
site to offer for your participation and, if you are a Native
media maker, how you'd like to use the site to express what your
own interests and activities are.
Mission Statement
The Film and Video Center of the National Museum of the American
Indian is dedicated to presenting and disseminating information
about the work of Native Americans in media. The Center's Native
Networks Website has four goals:
To provide a representation of current work in the field of
Native American media including film, video, radio, television
and new media.
To provide information to the public about the outstanding
media productions which have been presented in the museum's
programs.
To provide the FVC and NMAI a way to maintain regular and frequent
contact with the community of Native American independent media
producers.
To provide a space for Native media makers to exchange ideas
and to gather professional information.
Visitor Information
We have added this section to help you better use this Website.
Based on discussion with constituents this Website has been built
with technological accessibility as a priority. As the level of
technological access among our constituents improves, we intend
to add more features.
Please be aware that this site is best viewed with your screen
settings at 800 by 600 pixels.
If you have any questions or comments, please email
the Webmaster.
Printing the Website
Set print margins:
In your browser select File/Page Setup. Re-set the left and
right margins to .5"
Internet Explorer:
1. Click the Tools menu, Options, and select the Advanced
tab.
2. Scroll down to the "printing" category. Make sure the
box for printing backgrounds is checked. Then click OK.
With Netscape:
1. Click File/Page Setup.
2. Make sure the "Print backgrounds" box is unchecked.
Flash
For the gateway and home pages, we used Flash technology to
create an animated graphic. It is designed to be viewed in Flash
4.0 or higher. If you use Netscape as your browser and you would
like to view the Flash graphic, you may need to reinstall the
plug-in on your computer. A non-Flash graphic is available if
the Flash plug-in is not found. It will load automatically and
not interfere with the content of the Website itself.
For information regarding system requirements and instructions
to download, please enter Download
Macromedia Flash Player.
Portable Document
Files (PDF)
To view PDFs, you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed
on your computer. If you are not currently using Adobe Acrobat
Reader, you will need to download and install it to access the
PDFs. It is free to download, and installation is simple.
For information regarding system requirements and instructions
to download, please enter Download
Adobe Arcrobat Reader.
Real Media
To view streaming media samples (video and audio) on this Website,
you will need to have Real Media Player installed on your computer.
If you are not currently using Real Media Player, you will need
to download and install it to access the streaming samples.
For information regarding system requirements and instructions
to download, please enter Download
Real Media Player.
Online Translation
Tools
There are several Websites that offer free online translation
tools. They can translate blocks of text or whole Webpages.
We can recommend at least three of them: Google's translator
at www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en,
Free Translation's translator at www.freetranslation.com,
and Altavista's translator at http://world.altavista.com/.
We appreciate your comments regarding these or other translation
tools.
Website Staff
Translators
- Amalia Cordova
- Carlos Gómez
Editors English Version
- Emelia (Millie) Seubert, Assistant Curator, FVC
- Lisa Siegrist
Editor Spanish Version
Off-line Access
Discussions at the 2000 Native American Film and Video Festival
underscored the fact that the audience we hope will use this material
does not necessarily have Internet and/or even computer access.
We are considering distributing printed copies and CD copies of
the Website to community media organizations throughout Latin
America. We will evaluate and report on this process as we proceed
and come to better understand its difficulties. If you have any
recommendations, please share them with us.
Project History
The goal of the Native Networks Website is to
increase interconnnectivity and information flow among Native
media organizations, media producers, and their audiences. The
Website project grew out of a series of public symposia, media
maker workshops and informal activities during the 1995, 1997
and 2000 Native American Film and Video Festivals. "Native Networks"
events at the festivals brought together the seventy or so media
makers presenting works--in film, video, radio, television,
and new media--to discuss ideas, discuss resources, and share
concerns and interests. Media makers and media support organizations
were also able to interact informally and get to know one another
better. The Website is concerned with helping further these
discussions. It is also a kind of "research" into what are the
most useful site contents for the media makers who are its constituents.
Because about 40% of festival participants come
from Latin America and 60% from the U.S. and Canada, festival
workshops are presented, through simultaneous translation, in
English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and, on occasion, in indigenous
languages. On the Native Networks Website, we are starting with
two language versions-English and Spanish. We are also concerning
ourselves with how to make translation easier through free software,
so that all the site users can read the site links in their
own language as well (this is a BIG experiment!). Since at least
one link is in Cherokee (it happens to have an English version
too), we'll be exploring ways for people to present their ideas
and represent their projects in their own community's language
too. Because access to Internet technology varies greatly throughout
the Americas, the Native Networks Website project will also
be distributed outside of the Internet-on paper and on viewable
CDs-and distributed through network "nodes" at Native centers
throughout the hemisphere.
In November 2000, Hello
Design was hired to design the Native Networks Website.
Two representatives attended the NMAI Film and Video Festival
2000 to gain a better sense of the complexity of the constituency
base and to learn more about the work being done by contemporary
Native media makers.
For the initial review of design concepts, the
Film and Video Center enlisted a number of constituents to view
and comment on the general design and palette of the Website
samples. Through the use of an extranet site, staff of the Film
and Video Center worked with the designers to develop a number
of functional templates. This process involved a lot of hard
work by all parties involved.
Thanks for Support
Native Networks Website would not be possible
without generous support of the organizations that have helped
the Film and Video Center develop the content and ideas we present
here, years before the site was planned, in our public programs
and information services, production projects and support for
the field of Native American media.
The Native Networks Website initiative was made
possible when The Ford Foundation's Media and Culture Program
reached out to four separate Native Internet projects in 1998,
and included this proposed Website for funding. Developing a
vision for the site would not have happened without the foundation's
John Phillip Santos and then-program assistant Bird Running
Water, who gave us the opportunity to transform the Native American
Film and Video Festival in 1997 to a complex event fully reflective
of the diversity of Native American media. Out of this experience,
our conversations led us to the creation of a Website to incorporate
many of the goals of the festival events. For assisting us in
expanding our work in both these ways, the Film and Video Center
is very grateful.
The festival has always been original and eventful,
and a dynamic showcase for independent Native American media.
The funders who helped us initiate all the various works we
have set out to do in public programs and in information services
are the Media Arts Programs of the National Endowment for the
Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, all of whom returned
to supporting us year after year, and helped us build the ideas
that underpin our determination to produce this site. For their
sustained support of the festival and other FVC projects we
are very grateful.
Since 1990 the festival and other projects have
been supported by additional funders interested in the FVC's
focus on international outreach and Native community media.
Over the years we have shown works and hosted producers in film,
video and radio from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia,
Ecuador, Mexico and Panama, as well as Native Alaska and Hawai'i.
Support from the Smithsonian's Latino Initiative Fund, US/Mexico
Fund, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade, The Canada Council, Mexican Cultural Institute of New
York, Alaska State Council on the Arts, and Varig Airlines have
permitted us to bring together travelers from great distances
so that the Native media world could use our museum as its meeting
place and also to regularly show the public here the best newest
Native work. This has been a great privilege and learning experience,
and for the support that has made this possible we are very
grateful.
In 2001 we launch the pilot of Native Networks
Website. We have tried to provide interesting new information,
lots of links, and a chance to know about Native media endeavors.
Wherever possible we have provided in plain language the technical
information accessing the site may require. We look forward
to hearing from its users-from you-and hope you'll enjoy yourself
while here.
Funding and Support
Native Networks Workshops and Festivals
-
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
-
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
-
Latino Initiative Pool
-
The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs
and International Trade
-
The Canada Council
-
Alaska State Council on the Arts
-
Channel 13 - WNET
Participating Media Organizations:
-
Aboriginal Film and Video Alliance of Ontario
-
Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers
(AIVF)
-
Banff Center for the Arts, Aboriginal Program
-
Film/Video Arts
-
Native American Producers Alliance (NAPA)
-
Native American Public Telecommunications
(NAPT)
-
Native Media Resources Center (NMRC)
-
New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)
-
NYU Program in Culture, Media and History
-
NY Women in Film and Television
-
Thundergulch
Other Support
Native Networks Website is a project developed
and produced by NMAI's Film and Video Center staff, contractors,
and interns, in association with a technical review team of
NMAI Internet staff and Native Internet producers. The pilot
site designs were circulated to numerous Native American media
makers interested in the site idea. As it develops, Native Networks
will continue to look to all these sources of input and criticism
to enable the site to serve a large and diverse constituency
and audience.
Website Reviewers
The following have given generously of time and ideas. However,
anything overlooked or in error is entirely the responsibility
of the Website staff.
-
Jane Sledge
-
Cheryl Wilson
-
John Dwight
-
Jim May
-
Marty de Montaño
-
David Bridge
-
Robert Gemmell
-
Melanie Printup Hope
-
Marrie Mumford
We also wish to express our gratitude to the many individual
media makers who discussed the site with us at the 2000 Native
American Film and Video Festival and via email.
-
-
-
-
-
Carole Lazio, Media Collections Data Manager
-
Edward Rivera, M.A. candidate, NYU Museum
Studies
-
William (Billy) Luther (Navajo/Laguna/Hopi),
Filmmaker
-
Hello
Design -David Lai, Szu Ann Chen, Kendrick Lim, and Jolene
Niwa
- Mimi Scharf
- Ryan Jacobs
- Michael Tuttle and the rest of the Web Services Division
of SI-OIT
Legal Counsel
- Joy Brewster (Shinnecock/Montaukett/Cherokee)
Project Proposal and Planning
1997 - 1999
- Ruth von Goeler
- Erica Cusi Wortham
Image Credits
Please refer to the bottom of individual pages.
-
Backbone of the World
Courtesy Pam Roberts
-
Keepers of the Fire
Courtesy Christine Welsh
-
Kayapo man with video camera at meeting to
object to dams on the Xingu River.
Courtesy Murilo Santos
-
-
-
Kinaaldá
Courtesy Lena Carr
-
Harlan McKosato, "Native America Calling"
Host Drumbeat for Mother Earth
Courtesy Joe Di Gangi/Amon Giebel
-
Women at radio board Finding My Talk
Courtesy Paul Rickard
-
Alberto Muenala (Quichua) and crew
Courtesy Guillermo Monteforte
-
Editing Workshop (Mexico)
Courtesy Guillermo Monteforte
Image credit: 2000
Native American Film and Video Festival - Photograph by
Georgetta Stonefish, NMAI
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