← Unit 4: Sovereignty, Treaties and Media
NBE3U · Unit 4 test review
Sovereignty, Treaties and Media: Test Review
Everything for the Unit 4 test on one page: the key facts from all 6 lessons, the mistakes that cost the most marks, and a practice test that points you back to the lessons you need.
Key facts
Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government
- Sovereignty is about the source of authority; self-determination is the right to choose a people's political status and development; self-government is the institutions that run affairs day to day.
- An inherent right is recognized, not granted: it comes from nations having governed themselves before the Crown arrived.
- Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples.
- UNDRIP was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007; Article 3 affirms the right to self-determination. Canada passed a law to implement it in 2021.
- Nunavut was created on April 1, 1999, following the 1993 Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. It is a public government with an Inuit majority.
Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims
- A treaty is an agreement between nations; section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms existing treaty rights.
- Oral and written understandings differ because of interpreters, English-only texts, promises spoken but not written, and different ideas of what makes an agreement binding.
- The Two Row Wampum shows two vessels side by side on one river, each with its own laws, neither steering the other, joined by peace, friendship and respect.
- Specific claims concern the Crown's obligations under existing treaties or its management of First Nations lands and assets; comprehensive claims arise where land rights were never dealt with by treaty.
- The Numbered Treaties were signed from 1871 to 1921; modern treaties began with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975.
How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues
- Framing is the set of choices — what to emphasize, whose voice leads, which image runs, what background is included — that shapes a story without changing its facts.
- Check five places: word choice, whose voice comes first, images and captions, headline structure, and missing context.
- Passive headlines ('camp removed') can hide who acted; active headlines name the actor.
- Episodic coverage reports single events; thematic coverage explains the history and system behind them.
- No media text is frame-free: deconstruction explains the effect of choices rather than declaring one correct side.
Reading Indigenous Film and Television
- Shot size controls emphasis: long shots establish place, close-ups reveal emotion.
- Low angles suggest power or dignity; high angles suggest vulnerability or control.
- Diegetic sound exists in the story world; non-diegetic sound, such as score and voice-over, is added for the audience.
- Editing creates meaning between shots; cross-cutting makes two lines of action comment on each other.
- At 24 frames per second, shot length in frames is seconds × 24, so pacing can be measured.
- Indigenous filmmakers often bend genre conventions so the genre carries history it once ignored, as Rhymes for Young Ghouls does with horror.
Social Media, Music and Digital Activism
- Idle No More began in Saskatchewan in November 2012, sparked by Bill C-45, and spread through a hashtag, teach-ins and round dances.
- The National Inquiry into MMIWG issued its final report in 2019 with 231 Calls for Justice; Jaime Black's REDress Project began in 2010.
- 'Water protector' is the term many Indigenous-led movements use for themselves; using it is a framing choice.
- Music is a media text: analyze sound, language, visuals and context, and never reproduce lyrics.
- Algorithms rank posts by predicted reactions, which rewards outrage and builds filter bubbles; engagement rate = interactions ÷ views × 100%.
- Responsible sharing means verifying, crediting creators, avoiding graphic trauma images, respecting consent and acting beyond the share.
Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text
- APTN launched in 1999 as a national network in Canada, broadcasting in English, French and Indigenous languages.
- Alanis Obomsawin, an Abenaki filmmaker, made Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) with the National Film Board of Canada.
- Codes are technical (camera, sound, editing), symbolic (setting, colour, objects) and written (titles, captions, lower thirds); conventions are the familiar patterns of a form.
- Plan a media text through purpose, audience, form, research and permission, structure, creation and revision, and credit.
- Reflection applies framing questions to your own work: whose voice came first, what was left out, and what effect did the choices have?
Where marks get lost
- Using sovereignty, self-determination and self-government interchangeably in an essay, so the argument never says whether it means the source of authority, the right to choose, or the institutions. (Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government)
- Describing self-government as something Canada 'gave' to a nation, which reverses the idea of an inherent right that is recognized rather than granted. (Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government)
- Treating an Indian Act band council as the same thing as a nation's traditional governance, and missing that some nations have both, sometimes with different positions. (Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government)
- Calling Nunavut an Inuit-only government when it is a public government in which every resident votes. (Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government)
- Writing 'Indigenous people believe…' as if First Nations, Métis and Inuit nations shared one view or one model of governance. (Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government)
- Treating the written text of a treaty as the only version, and ignoring that many nations remember promises made aloud during negotiations. (Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims)
- Describing treaties as agreements between Canada and 'its' Indigenous people, rather than as agreements between nations. (Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims)
- Presenting the Two Row Wampum as a general Indigenous symbol rather than a Haudenosaunee understanding of a specific relationship. (Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims)
- Mixing up the two kinds of land claims: specific claims start from an existing obligation, comprehensive claims start where no treaty exists. (Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims)
- Stating a legal conclusion about a current dispute, such as who owns a particular piece of land, based on one news story or one text. (Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims)
- Calling a story 'biased' and stopping there, instead of naming the specific choices and their likely effect on readers. (How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues)
- Only analyzing the words and ignoring the photograph and caption, which many readers notice first. (How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues)
- Assuming a story with no false statements cannot be framing anything — omission and order frame just as strongly. (How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues)
- Treating one leader's statement as the position of an entire nation without noticing which governance body they represent. (How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues)
- Rewriting a story to argue for the other side and calling it 'neutral', rather than explaining what each version emphasizes. (How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues)
- Retelling the plot of a scene instead of analyzing the shots, sound and editing that create its meaning. (Reading Indigenous Film and Television)
- Naming a technique ('there is a close-up') without explaining its effect on the viewer or connecting it to meaning. (Reading Indigenous Film and Television)
- Confusing diegetic and non-diegetic sound, such as calling the score something characters hear. (Reading Indigenous Film and Television)
- Assuming a shot size or angle always means the same thing, regardless of context. (Reading Indigenous Film and Television)
- Describing a single 'Indigenous film style' instead of crediting the specific choices of a named director and production. (Reading Indigenous Film and Television)
- Sharing a post or video before checking who made it, when, and whether reliable outlets confirm it. (Social Media, Music and Digital Activism)
- Circulating graphic images of violence or grieving families without their consent, in the name of 'awareness'. (Social Media, Music and Digital Activism)
- Treating likes and shares as proof that a campaign achieved something. (Social Media, Music and Digital Activism)
- Quoting song lyrics in an analysis instead of describing sound, language, visuals and context. (Social Media, Music and Digital Activism)
- Reposting Indigenous creators' work without their name, so the credit and attention go elsewhere. (Social Media, Music and Digital Activism)
- Choosing a form before deciding purpose and audience, then forcing the message into a shape that does not suit it. (Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text)
- Using images, music or cultural designs found online without permission, or using a nation's symbols as decoration. (Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text)
- Narrating over Indigenous speakers instead of letting them explain their own work or experiences. (Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text)
- Writing a reflection that only says what went well, without analyzing specific choices and their effect on the audience. (Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text)
- Listing codes and conventions in an analysis without explaining what each one makes the audience feel or understand. (Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text)
Practice test
24 questions from across the unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.
- Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government1Which term is mainly about the working institutions a people uses to run its own affairs?
- Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government2Which statement about the Government of Nunavut is accurate?
- Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government3Match each example to the concept it best shows.A nation states its authority over its lands was never given to it by the CrownA community votes on which direction to take its education systemA nation's own school board runs schools under its own lawA council system set up by the federal government under a federal statute
- Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Self-Government4What is the capital of Nunavut?
- Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims5Which is the best reason the oral and written understandings of a historic treaty can differ?
- Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims6Match each kind of treaty or agreement to what it is known for.Peace and Friendship TreatiesNumbered TreatiesJames Bay and Northern Quebec AgreementNunavut Land Claims Agreement
- Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims7What kind of claim leads to a modern treaty where land rights were never addressed by an earlier treaty?
- Treaties, Wampum and Land Claims8Wampum belts such as the Two Row Wampum are made from beads of what material?
- How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues9Fictional headline: 'Camp cleared from construction site.' What framing choice does this headline make?
- How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues10A news outlet covers a community only when there is a crisis. What is this pattern called?
- How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues11Put the steps of deconstructing a news story in a sensible order.
- 1Examine the image and caption
- 2State the overall frame and its likely effect
- 3Name the missing context
- 4Identify the form, producer and intended audience
- 5Summarize what the headline and first paragraph alone communicate
- 6Mark the loaded words and suggest neutral alternatives
- 7List the sources in the order they appear
- How News Media Frame Indigenous Issues12What term describes news coverage that reports single events without explaining the history or system behind them?
- Reading Indigenous Film and Television13A shot lasts 4 seconds in a film shot at 24 frames per second. How many frames is it? (Give a whole number.)frames
- Reading Indigenous Film and Television14What editing technique alternates between two lines of action happening in different places or times?
- Reading Indigenous Film and Television15Why is it significant that Atanarjuat's dialogue is in Inuktitut?
- Reading Indigenous Film and Television16Which sentence is the strongest film analysis?
- Social Media, Music and Digital Activism17A post has 32,000 views and 1,280 interactions. What is its engagement rate, as a percentage? (Round to one decimal place.)%
- Social Media, Music and Digital Activism18Why were round dances in shopping malls an effective media choice for Idle No More?
- Social Media, Music and Digital Activism19Match each movement or project to how it began.Idle No MoreREDress Project#AmINext#NoDAPL
- Social Media, Music and Digital Activism20Why do algorithms tend to spread outrage and graphic content?
- Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text21In what year did APTN launch as a national television network?
- Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text22Match each example to the kind of code it uses.A slow push-in on a speaker's faceA speaker filmed at their own kitchen tableA lower third with the speaker's name and nationSilence held for three seconds after a key statement
- Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text23What is the name for on-screen text at the bottom of the frame that identifies a speaker?
- Indigenous Media and Creating Your Own Media Text24Match each media form to one of its conventions.Podcast episodePosterShort documentarySocial video
Endless drill
Fresh numbers every time, for the calculation questions in this unit.
Endless drillnew numbers every time
Generating a problem…