LibGuides: First Nations, Métis & Inuit in Canada: Visual & audio material

Images

LAC: Art and Photographic Collections
Library and Archives Canada search instructions tailored for researchers interested in finding images of Indigenous people in Canada.
Reciprocal Research Network
A resource that allows one to use a single interface to search for artifacts housed in a variety of museums and heritage institutions in Canada and the United States that originate from Indigenous communities in areas of British Columbia's Northwest Coast.

Finding images at York University Libraries

Use key words and search terms in the library catalogue, for example:

Indigenous AND Portraits

First Nations AND Photography

Métis AND Photograph collections

Inuit AND Pictures

Aboriginal AND Illustrations

Indians of North America AND Pictorial works

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase:

Example: "first nations", "traditional use study"
Use a question mark to truncate a term, i.e. search words with the same stem.
Example: aborig? searches aboriginal, aboriginals, aboriginality, etc

Video

Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
APTN, the world’s first Indigenous national broadcaster dedicated to Indigenous programming, features daily news and coverage of issues concerning both Indigenous and northern populations in Canada.
Wapikoni Mobile
Wapikoni Mobile hosts educational workshops and film screenings to raise awareness and educate the wider public about Indigenous cultures, issues and rights.
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
An Indigenous-run organisation that showcases, promotes, and celebrates Indigenous filmmakers and media artists in Canada and internationally.
Inuit Nunangat Taimannganit
A storytelling project tells the story of Inuit Nunangat (the Inuit homeland in Canada) from time immemorial (taimannganit).
IsumaTV
The world's first website for Indigenous media art, now showing over 6,000 films and videos in 84 languages.
NCTR: Decolonizing lens
The Decolonizing Lens is a film and discussion series that features the work and words of Indigenous artists from Winnipeg and beyond.
National Film Board - Indigenous Cinema
The NFB's online collection of Indigenous-made films.
Video streaming collections at York University Libraries

Finding videos at York University Libraries

Try key words and search terms in the library catalogue, for example:

Indigenous AND video

First Nations AND documentary

Métis AND film

Inuit AND movie

Aboriginal AND documentary

Indians of North America AND video

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Example: "first nations", "traditional use study"
Use a question mark to truncate a term, i.e. search words with the same stem.
Example: aborig? searches aboriginal, aboriginals, aboriginality, etc

Audio

11 Indigenous podcasts
A list curated by New Journeys of podcasts that aim to tell stories from an Indigenous perspective.
History of Aboriginal Broadcasting
A list of Indigenous radio stations is included in this article on the "History of Canadian Broadcasting" website hosted by the Canadian Communications Foundation.
Indigenous Music Countdown
A twenty year old program that spotlights today’s best new Indigenous music and shares interviews from artists who range from several genres.
Indigenous Story Tellers: Podcasts
2021 podcast recommendations from University of Toronto's tri-campus Indigenous Book Club.
NCTR : Statements and Videos
The NCTR received thousands of hours of video and audio recordings produced by the TRC during the course if its mandate. This footage was taken at the TRC’s various events, and includes statements made by Survivors, and former staff members.

Inuit artist index arranged by disc number
Call Number: N 6548 N67 1992A
Publication Date: March 1992
A list of the approximately 3700 Inuit artists on file at the Inuit Art Section, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

Finding audio at York University Libraries

Try key words and search terms in the library catalogue:

Indigenous AND Audio

First Nations AND Songs

Métis AND Sound/Field recordings

Inuit AND Interviews

Aboriginal AND Oral Histories

Indians of North America AND Music

Streaming Audio @ York University Libraries

The library streaming resources below provide access to a total of close to 50,000 CDs. This will not meet every need since many mainstream labels, especially those for popular music, are not available (please see below: audio on physical formats). Classical or Western Art music is well-represented, and there is good representation of substantial areas in Jazz and Global music.

Metropolitan Opera on Demand: 600 full-length Met performances, including 100 HD video.

Music Online (Alexander Street Press):

American Music - Canada: about 65,000 albums, including songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and anti-war protests. Labels include Arhoolie, Document Records, Folkways, JSP and Rounder.

Classical Music Library: about 80,000 albums. Labels include CBC, Chandos, Hanssler Classic, Hyperion, Mode, Nimbus, Nuova Era, Tactus, Telarc and Warner Music.

Classical Music in Video: 1,000 hours of classical music performances and masterclasses captured on video—approximately 1,500 performances in all. The collection contains performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.

Opera in Video: 500 hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. Selections represent the world’s best performers, conductors, and opera houses and are based on a work’s importance to the operatic canon.

Jazz Music Library: about 90,000 albums, including selections from the Blue Note, Impulse, Leo, Pablo, Prestige, and Verve labels, among others.

Contemporary World Music: about 272,000 albums, representing important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, and gagaku.

Smithsonian Global Sound: about 3000 albums, including the Folkways, UNESCO, ILAM, and Monitor labels.

Naxos:

Naxos Music Library is billed as "the world's largest online classical music library," with over 160,000 albums:
Naxos Music Library Jazz: over 20,000 albums.
Naxos Music Library World: 15,000 albums.

DRAM: labels include Albany, CRI, Lovely Music, Mode and New World Records.

Record labels represented in the resources above are in the hundreds, including Albany, Arhoolie, Blue Note, Concord, CRI, Document, EMI Classics, Fantasy, Folkways, Hänssler Classic, Hyperion, JSP, Lyrichord, Mode, Naxos, New World, Prestige, Rounder, Verve, and Virgin Classics (see the audio link in this guide).

Research guides

Indigenous Studies: Photographs & Images
A research guide, compiled by the University of Saskatchewan, that lists links to online databases and collections.

First Nations, Métis & Inuit in Canada: Visual & audio material

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