Abstract

This thesis is a result of an ethnographic study of identity and culture of young people within a context of dramatic social and economic change. A discussion is presented on ways in which young people in an eastern James Bay Cree community are interpreting and using extralocal flows of cultural symbols, ideas and meanings from a number of sources and creolizing them within their local context. Two sources of cultural flows are focussed on: the mass media and Pan-Indian ceremonies, which were both found to be important factors in shaping town-life experiences and to be providing mediums that are used by some young people to establish their own cultural space in the community. Cree youths in Red Bank is their highly visible use of new cultural symbols, provides a good example of the diversity of a community's cultures and how these cultures are in continual processes of change.