Widely circulating textual and visual discourses that represent communities shape public perception and awareness. This article discusses a research collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers and artists to reflect on co-creating the Reimagining Attawapiskat project with youth artists. Attawapiskat is an Indigenous community that became the focus of widespread media attention following several State of Emergency declarations due to factors ranging from inhabitable housing conditions to escalating suicide attempts. Informed by Indigenous storytelling research methods and arts-based community-engaged research, the mixed-media storytelling approach advanced here aims to challenge and interrupt mainstream media narratives that frame Attawapiskat as a troubled community constantly in crisis. This collaboration contends with the shadows of Canada’s settler-colonial context through community stories that counter hegemonic portrayals. Reimagining Attawapiskat sheds light on the nuances of community health in Attawapiskat through a collection of youth voices and place-based digital stories that centre Cree life, well-being and culture.

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Stories shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us. They inform our sense of belonging, and connect us to our past. Stories are our lives. And we are our stories. Given their undeniable weight, we ought to question what their form and content teaches us. Increasingly, stories are shared as interactive digital experiences; a reshaping that impacts their configuration, their reach and their outcome. For Indigenous peoples, who continue to resist the colonial paradigm, digital storytelling can represent a weapon of subtle yet pervasive colonialism or be a tool to talk back. Virtual Aamjiwnaang is an interactive platform that integrates Indigenous storytelling practices in recounting the lived realities of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation online. Inspired by the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which encourages embracing multiple perspectives, and building on previous digital experiences, Virtual Aamjiwnaang proposes methods for creating digital territories that honour Indigenous ways of knowing.

Stories shape how we understand ourselves and the world around us. They inform our sense of belonging, and connect us to our past. Stories are our lives. And we are our stories. Given their undeniable weight, we ought to question what their form and content teaches us. Increasingly, stories are shared as interactive digital experiences; a reshaping that impacts their configuration, their reach and their outcome. For Indigenous peoples, who continue to resist the colonial paradigm, digital storytelling can represent a weapon of subtle yet pervasive colonialism or be a tool to talk back. Virtual Aamjiwnaang is an interactive platform that integrates Indigenous storytelling practices in recounting the lived realities of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation online. Inspired by the Two-Eyed Seeing approach, which encourages embracing multiple perspectives, and building on previous digital experiences, Virtual Aamjiwnaang proposes methods for creating digital territories that honour Indigenous ways of knowing.