Indigenous Screen Cultures/Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect

Sigurjon Baldur Hafsteinsson and Marian Bredin (eds), Indigenous Screen Cultures (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2010), 216 pp. Cased. $55. ISBN 978-0-88755- 190-1. Paper. $27.95. ISBN 978 -0-88755-718-7. Marusya Bociurkiw, Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism and Affect (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011), 192 pp. Paper. $32.95. ISBN 978-1-55458-268-6. For indigenous language communities broadcasting has long been regarded as crucial in the struggle to preserve their sense of nationhood and their cultures. In the UK for example, Welsh language and Scots Gaelic radio programming are long established but television services are much more recent. The Welsh S4C, which went on air in 1982, only came into being after a Welsh Nationalist MP threatened to fast to death unless the Thatcher government kept its promise to establish such a service; BBC Alba began transmission in 2008 after a long and determined, but less melodramatic, campaign. These services have been generally, if sometimes grudgingly, welcomed. Critics draw attention to the high cost per thousand viewers and the variable quality of the programming, but such responses cut little ice with the relevant language communities who believe that historical injustices are being at least partially remedied. The collection of essays edited by Marian Bredin and Sigurjon Baldur Hafsteinsson discusses the development of Aboriginal media in Canada, a country which is generally regarded as having done well by its Native peoples on the media front, and far better than its southern neighbour. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is central to the discussion. Beginning operations in 1992 as a Northern service and utilizing English and several Native languages, it became a national service financed by subscription and advertising in 1999. Lorna Roth, in charting its development, acknowledges the unevenness of the programming but argues that it 'offers a symbolic mediated space for indigenous and non- Native peoples to mingle and to communicate their common interests' (p. 32). In her chapter, Jennifer David observes that there has been no systematic research on the overall impact of broadcasting on the survival of indigenous languages, and makes the point that research on television audience reactions shows that people are happy to consume programmes in their own language but do not want to have to put up with other people's languages. In his own chapter, Hafsteinsson looks at the ways in which news is presented: not surprisingly, its content is very much oriented to Native concerns. In her chapter, Bredin examines the contrast between the ideal viewer envisaged by the APTN and the actual viewers, most of whom inevitably - and perhaps even gratifyingly - are non-indigenous. Offering a wide range of programmes is financially challenging, so much is bought in from independent companies and from elsewhere in the world. But there to be celebrated is Moccasin Flats, a six-part drama series set in Regina, which offered a gritty and realistic portrayal of life for Native people in a contemporary urban environment. …

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