Pangaea Archival Network embarks on Docu/Trip

The Pangaea Archival Network’s mission statement is “to document the past and present effects of corporate globalization upon the First Nations of the world.”

In the near future the Pangaea Archival Network (P.A.N) will be engaging in a series of Docu/Trips which will focus on the past and present effects of corporate globalisation upon the First Nations of the United States, Canada and extending to the far corners of the planet. They are currently planning two other Docu/Trips one of which will begin in the near future entitled “The Desert Diaries” which will highlight the various First Nations of the Southwestern United States. The other planned Docu/Trip which has the working title “Seattle to Santiago Docu/Trip” is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2012 and will also be focused on the past and present effects of corporate globalisation upon the First Nations encountered during the 11,000+ mile journey.

The Docu/Trip’s focus will be upon the cultures, languages, rituals and any other aspects that the First Nation(s) being interacted with at that specific time choose to share with the team. The aim of the Pangaea Archival Network is to remain as unobtrusive as possible while maintaining a professional level of journalistic curiosity. P.A.N. feels that this approach will aid them during the time spent with the various First Nations over the course of the Docu/Trips. Going only where they are invited and leaving as small a footprint as possible both culturally and environmentally will allow P.A.N. to gather truly remarkable footage and to create documentaries of the highest calibre. P.A.N. feels that by engaging directly with the various First Nations of the world that we will not only expand understanding of these ancient cultures and civilisations but also come to a broader understanding of the past and present effects that corporate globalisation has and continues to have on not only these communities but the environment as a whole.

P.A.N.’s intent is to encourage the First Nations to express their concerns freely and openly by offering them a platform through which they can address students, artist and the rest of humanity in a direct and meaningful manner. This is intended to help raise awareness of and how meaning is made in these diverse communities, often in the face of encroaching Capitalist consumerism. It has been noted by contemporary anthropologists that filmed ethnography of people, relays in a way that printed documentation never could, nuances of how culture is experienced and conveyed in a lived and embodied way.

The video documentation will be developed into a multivolume set of DVDs designed for distribution within indigenous communities and to educational instructors in a wide variety of fields. Funds thus raised will go towards benefiting the least fortunate of those communities visited and aiding in distribution of the series to the indigenous schools and indigenous studies programmes.

For further information, visit P.A.N’s Facebook page.

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