Freedom Train

Before there was media, there was the spoken word. Returning to this primary form of communication, Yinka Dene Alliance in 2012 traveled across Canada to engage the public face-to-face on the issue of First Nations opposition to Enbridge Northern Gateway, a pipeline to carry Alberta bitumen to Pacific Coast tankers at Kitimat BC.

In Freedom Train: Mobilizing Alternative Media, Patricia H. Audette-Longo examines this indigenous protest movement and its communication network as a form of alternative media. By taking their message across the country to other communities, the Yinka Dene countered the dominant narrative of the Canadian state by facilitating information exchange outside the boundaries of mainstream and social media.

In doing so, says Audette-Longo, the Yinka Dene became a communication medium that defined a collective identity which contrasted other news coverage. Their combined on and off-line efforts, she says, communicated a reframing of national issues and introduced ways for communities to relate to one another with empowering consequences.