Aboriginal Canada Portal Closure Notice

The Aboriginal Canada Portal closed February 12, 2013.

According to the original notice regarding the impending closure of the Aboriginal Canada Portal, it "was developed in 2001, when it was more difficult to find Aboriginal resources and services on the internet." The portal seemed to be a continuation of the previous annual Arrowfax publication, a large binder of every name, phone number and address related to Aboriginal infrastructure that ceased publication in 1999.

It may be surmised that the reason for the untimely closure of the aboriginalcanada.gc.ca site was in part retaliation for the resurgence of the okihcihtâw iskwêwak via the Idle No More movement that began a process of facilitating teach-ins and staging public protests to raise awareness about the implications of the then impending Omnibus bill changes. As the movement grew and evolved into national and international protests, it relied on various forms of social networking, text messaging and word-of-mouth to gain momentum. As was stated in the original notice "the rise of search engines and social media have rendered the Portal web site obsolete." Another reason for the untimely closure of the web portal may be due to federal cuts to Aboriginal infrastructure support and that as a result many dead links to organizations found within this portal might easily betray this fact.

Whatever the reason of the portal closure, it is the mission of the current keepers of this site and the information contained herein to bring this back to the people and begin a consultative process with First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities as to what should be done with this site, who should maintain it and what vital information needs to be included. This work will be carried out in several phases with this notice being part of phase one where some reconstructive work and initial modifications are made and a few nearby First Nations and Metis communities are consulted. Also part of this phase is planning and development of webinars for two focus groups: adult community members and youth.

Please keep your eyes and ears out for further developments and to the keywords and hashtags: #digitalaboriginals #aboriginalcanadaportal #digitalindigenous

You can send comments or questions by e-mail to: