Translating Encounters: Connecting Indigenous Young People with Higher Education through a Transmedia Project

This piece draws on multiple voices to reflect on a collaborative project between university-based researchers and a local community organization devoted to Indigenous Blackfoot children and their families. The evolution of the project from one based on photo-elicitation to one devoted to building a digital storytelling library meant a methodological shift to acknowledge the role of translation in encounters between university researchers and community practitioners, between Elders and youth, and between settlers and Indigenous people. Our experience provides lessons on the importance of taking seriously the moments when difference is encountered and translated during the research and community-building process.