Take Three: Filming Three Participatory Videos with displaced Indigenous People from Little Saskatchewan First Nation and Lake St. Martin First Nation

Participatory video research methods were applied to engage members from two flood-impacted Indigenous communities in telling their film stories. The process and product outcomes for three films were assessed by eight indicators of community participation in the filming process as well as by seven measures regarding the films’ outreach for social change. These fifteen indicators are not limited to First Nations or displacement but are broad general categories that can be easily applied to any film story and can be objectively checked by viewing the credits in the film for director, videographer, editor, the narrator, etc., as well as YouTube views and publication dates. The indicators show that community members were able to engage in all the film-making process, except for hands-on editing, with the resulting film showing compelling visible evidence of their suffering due to the long displacement and flood. Digital stories from elders, youth and women over the seven years of displacement created awareness about the injustice of targeting their Indigenous communities with diverted flood waters and provoked social change. Each successive film documenting another few years of displacement will be continued as they have requested we train youth to film the issues that arise as they resettle. These indicators signal that the process and product outcomes are better than that for journal paper writing and meet the benchmark for qualitative academic research and participatory action research.