Can We Digitize Ceremony?

Dr. Shawn Wilson, Southern Cross University, Australia

Dr. Shawn Wilson, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, currently lives on Bundjalung land on the east coast of Australia.  He is Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledge at Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples at Southern Cross University and Adjunct Professor of Psychosocial Work at Østfold University College in Fredrikstad, Norway.

Would you attend an online sweat lodge?  What about an online pipe ceremony?  How about a talking circle? Hold an interview or conduct a focus group? Covid19 has pushed us all online into this digital space. We need to recognize how Internet protocols interact with and impact ceremonial protocols. Digital communication is great for transmitting content but as Indigenous Knowledge is relational, we really need to consider the process and relationships that lie beneath the online experience. If research is ceremony, what aspects of ceremony can be digitized?