Reflection

While embarking on this assignment, I learned a lot about the indigenous peoples’ struggles and explored different online platforms to aid with text and data visualization like Palladio and Voyant. The visuals throughout the exhibit helped enhance the argument, as I could reference visuals when speaking about the Wampum Belt. Rather than just relying on their imagination, the reader could see it. The Voyant visual was the most helpful as I could present visual links with the trends graph and analyze the confluences, as just writing about it isn’t as engaging and can also be unclear. However, I faced challenges with uploading an Excel spreadsheet to Palladio; after going through the lecture slides, I noticed that my structure for the residential schools and their coordinates was inaccurate.

The largest ethical concern I faced was when writing the rebuttal, I found it unethical to state and expand on why we should not preserve Indigenous languages and culture and also struggled to find journals linked to it. Furthermore, I felt it unethical to access the Library and Archives Canada website as there are thousands of photographs/text about indigenous peoples, and the likelihood that the distribution was consented to is low. Jules et al. (2018) highlight the con of digital archives, “and collect their data without having to participate in equitable engagement as a way to understand their lives, communities, or concerns” (p. 3.) Further emphasizing that the indigenous peoples’ personal information has been publicly distributed for years when permission was never given.