Social Media A Tool for Indigenous

Empowerment


Our young First Nation population understands the issues and with social media across the country they
are bringing the issues to the forefront.
-Chief Isadore Day, Serpent River First Nation (Jackson, 2012)

Claudia E. Marchessault
Student ID: 87436144
University of British Columbia, MET Program
Class: ETEC 521 66A
Professor: Michael Marker
August 7, 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

Introduction
In December 2012, Canadian news media was bombarded with images of Indigenous people and their
allies engaged in public rallies, flash mobs, hunger strikes, marches, and blockades that choked highway
and railroad traffic across the nation. The spike in media exposure and public interest in the movement,
which came to be known as Idle No More, emerged in large part out of a ballooning social media
campaign that drew millions of people to the Idle No More website, twitter account, and Facebook page
every day. The events drew media coverage and international attention to the many profound issues
associated with the status and living conditions of Canadas Indigenous population, inciting parallel
rallies and protests in several other countries. Although the movement secured little more than a
commitment from Canadian government leaders to revisit the terms of historical treaties, the rapid and
wide-spread publicity and support received by the movement revealed the tremendous power of social
media to unite and mobilize collective action.
Canadas Indigenous communities are one among the many groups that have capitalized on social
medias capacity for giving voice and bringing attention to the people and matters often overlooked by
popular media, and for gaining the traction necessary to mobilize collective action. By examining social
medias impact on media culture, Indigenous community building, as well as its potential for bolstering
civic engagement and political activism, this paper contends that social media is a powerful tool which
can foster social cohesion and empowerment amongst Canadas Indigenous people.

Media Culture
The significance of social media cannot be appreciated without being placed within the context of media
culture within which Canadian indigenous communities have historically resided. Over several decades,
Canadas Indigenous communities have experienced numerous cultural assaults from epidemics and
dislocation, to disenfranchisement and residential schooling. These all but annihilated Indigenous
communities: dispersing families, fraying cultural bonds, and contributing to the disintegration of the
indigenous way of life. Although, from the earliest examples of media creation, Indigenous people have
been depicted through a variety of unflattering stereotypes, it was in the aftermath of these assaults
that the media attention became particularly negative and injurious. Even as the relationship between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people reached a critical juncture, and Indigenous groups began
reclaiming control over areas such as reserve finances and education, a new stereotype emerged: that
of dysfunctional and inept Indigenous communities (Harding, 2005; Bussidor & Bilgen-Reinart, 1997).
These disparaging depictions cast doubt on the ability of Indigenous people to successfully manage their
own affairs, stalling gains on their journey towards self-determination (Harding, 2005). Media outlets
reported on the trajectory of loss that characterized the Indigenous experience, and promoted discourse
about the continuing conditions of poor health, impermanence, and self-destructive behavior (Brave
Heart& DeBruyn, 1998).
While some communities and individuals undeniably succumbed to the traumas they faced, this was
certainly not the case for all. Nevertheless, negative and stereotypical depictions continued to dominate
representations of Indigenous peoples in popular media coverage. The consequences of such media
hegemony present significant consequences for Indigenous populations: For one, damaging media
representation skews public opinion, making it unlikely that the public at large will be sympathetic to
Indigenous issues, and equally unlikely that they will lend their support to vital initiatives such as treaty
negotiations, the resolution of land claims, or the further devolution of authority to Indigenous people

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

in education, justice, and child welfare. Persistent stereotypes also have damaging consequences on
Indigenous self-identity insofar as they contribute to the shaping of negative self-concepts (Harding,
2005). According to labelling theory, negative stereotypes have potential to become self-fulfilling
prophecies for those individuals and groups that are subject to them. (Anthony, 2013)
A large part of this skewed portrayal of Indigenous people in the media can be attributed to Indigenous
peoples exclusion from positions of media creation. Historically, avenues for communicating with and
presenting information to the masses have been controlled by a small group of the nations elite a
narrow strata of wealthy, white men (Artz et al., 2003). Although Indigenous peoples, like other
marginalized groups, have often be the focus of media making, they have largely been prevented
gaining access to roles in which they are able to negotiate their public perception. Systemic oppression
hindered their ability to accumulate the skills, expertise, and financial resources necessary to access
positions that would enable them to help shape their portrayal to the public (Artz et al., 2003). As a
result, Indigenous people have remained tied to those conceptualizations and projections embedded in
prevailing media stereotypes.
The advent of social media has helped to destabilize hegemonic power relations in mass media and
communications. Sites, like Twitter and Facebook, which allow users to establish connections with
individuals from around the globe, combined with sites like Instagram and YouTube, which enable users
to document and share images, sounds, and video, have had major consequences for mass media, with
some crediting social media with democratizing or decentralizing media creation (Guo & Saxton, 2014).
For one, the requisites for engaging in social media production are minimal, and all but eliminate those
skill-, expertise-, and financial-related barriers that have historically prohibited marginalized groups from
participating in media creation. Secondly, social media consumers have opportunities to curate what
they deem to be matters of importance, and have access to a variety of perspectives on those matters.
Whereas before social medias existence, corporate-controlled news media determined what issues and
stories were news-worthy enough to be reported on, and more importantly, how those issues and
stories were to be framed in their reporting, media consumers now play a critical role in deciding both
what is relevant as well as whose opinions are taken to be the authority. Insofar as social media
decenters the expert author, placing the emphasis instead on the conversations which can happen
through comments, blogs, tweets and so on(Petray, 2011, p.924), it enhances possibilities for people
around the globe to exercise their right to communicate(Petray, 2011). Of particular note for
Indigenous groups, social media offers the opportunity to communicate in their own language (Petray,
2011).
For groups like the First Nations, social media has a compound effect. Not only does social media
provide a way to generate traction to bring issues which are commonly overlooked or ignored by mass
media outlets to the forefront, but in giving Indigenous people control over both the content and
framing of the issues they choose to present, social media can be utilized as means for self-
representation. By giving groups the power to present themselves and their concerns in the manner of
their choosing, social media offer a new and unique opportunity for groups to negotiate their own
identity and influence public perceptions. Ginsberg suggests that this power enables Indigenous groups
to reverse processes through which aspects of their societies have been objectified, commodified, and
appropriated and recuperate their histories, land rights, and knowledge bases as their own cultural
property(2008, p. 139). For First Nation and Indigenous peoples, social media presents an opportunity
to refute prevailing stereotypes and attitudes, reshape public and self-perceptions, and generate greater
attention and support for critical issues. With their propensity for bypassing the traditional gatekeeping

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

mechanisms of mass media, social media and social networking sites offer First Nation and Indigenous
communities the opportunity to wield greater influence over the framing and representation of
Indigenous people and issues to the public.

Building Community
With its massive geographic sprawl and harsh climate, Canada has a population density among the
lowest in the world (The World Bank, 2015). The hundreds of kilometers which separate Canadians
from one another, however, shrinks as communication networks grow and evolve. The newspaper,
followed by the radio and television, transformed how quickly and broadly local, regional, and national
news and information could be transmitted, while the postal service, followed by the telegraph,
telephone, and later e-mail accelerated our ability to correspond with one another. Social media merged
both of these functions, allowing users to create and spread information and ideas to an expansive and
intricately linked network of individuals instantaneously. For groups like the First Nations, whose
populations are largely fragmented and broadly dispersed across the country, social media helps to
bridge geographic distance and join together individuals with shared identities, shared interests, and
shared experiences.
Although, Aboriginal elders and leaders have long been concerned about the potential for such new
circulatory regimes to undermine Aboriginal languages and culture, as Faye Ginsburg reports in her
article, Rethinking the Digital Age, Indigenous groups are coopting social media and other digital
technologies as a means for generating broader understandings of their histories and cultures, for wider
audience, but most importantly, for their own cultural futures (2008, p. 134). A cursory examination of
Indigenous websites and Facebook groups suggest that these communications technologies are being
used in the fight to preserve Indigenous culture, language and identity (Taylor, 2011, p. 9). An assistant
professor of museum studies at University of Toronto notes that younger members of the Haida Nation
use Facebook to socialize, to promote community news and events, to share images of Indigenous arts
and crafts, and through the use of family photographs, to record family and community history.
Similarly, she notes a growing trend of people using Facebook as a means of communicating cultural
knowledge -- i.e. using their status to inform people of what you should do when someone dies to show
respect or using posts to elicit and discuss Haida vocabulary. There are young people making a very
concerted effort to learn the Haida language while mother-tongue speakers are still alive these
students use Facebook as a practice space (Taylor, 2011, p. 15) As her comments reveal, social media
are also being used to revive Indigenous languages and cultural practices.
As Ginsbert asserts, social media, like other digital technologies, are being taken up by Indigenous
communities on their own terms, furthering the development of political networks and the capacity to
extend their traditional cultural worlds into new domains (2008, p. 133). Indigenous people from all
social strata have embraced social media as a means to connect with family and friends, to revitalize
dying languages and practices, to advocate for environmental conservation, to showcase Indigenous
cultural identity and promote political activism (Taylor, 2011). As such, Indigenous participation in social
media have helped to create and contest social, visual, narrative, and political spaces for local
communities and in the creation of national and other kinds of dominant cultural imaginaries that, until
recently, have excluded vital representations by First Nations peoples (Ginsburg, 2008, p. 140). This
highlights social medias ability not only to forge connections across Canadas vast geography, but also
its capacity for promoting collective identity, and fostering cultural revival and revitalization. Faye
Ginsberg uses the term cultural activism to describe the trend observed whereby Indigenous groups
use the production of media as cultural forms which serve as a means for revivifying relationships to

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

their lands, local languages, traditions, and histories, and of articulating community concerns (2008, p.
139).
In providing a public space where individuals can congregate to share knowledge, opinions, values,
traditions, and experiences social media provides an arena for reifying ones self-identity, for promoting
discourse on critical issues, and for solidifying bonds and affiliations among group members. Whether
on isolated reserve lands, or scattered throughout Canadas cities and towns, social media has helped to
strengthen First Nation and Indigenous communities through its ability forge connections across vast
geographic distance, unite fragmented groups, and foster collective consciousness.

Mobilizing Collective Action

A well-developed body of literature on social capital theory suggests that heightened social interaction
and and the resulting bonds between people are strongly correlated with civic engagement (Gainous &
Wagner, 2013). Although still in its infancy, studies have demonstrated a positive correlation between
social media and social networking site use, social capital, and as well as civic engagement/political
participation (Gainous & Wagner, 2013). Insofar as it can forge connections, helping to foster those
shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate cooperation within or among groups (Silver et
al, 2004, p.18), social media can be used to cultivate and strengthen civic engagement and political
activism.
Like Gutenbergs printing press, which helped to topple to Church and led to the Renaissance, the
Reformation, and the ensuing Scientific Revolution, social media joins a long history of technological
innovations which have been used to exact social change (Rosaldo, 1981). It is only in retrospect,
however, that we are able to fully appreciate the impact of such revolutionary and transformational
inventions. As was the case with the printing press, we must remain cognizant of the fact that the
transformative and disruptive power of social media can be coopted by all interests -- is equally likely to
be used to perpetuate oppression as it is to engender empowerment. As Richard N. Haas points out,
the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and cassettes all posed challenges to the
existing order of their day. And like these earlier technologies, social media are not decisive: they can be
repressed by governments well as employed by government to motivate their supporters (2011, para.
3) Nevertheless, [n]etworks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of
networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production,
experience, power and culture (Castells, 2010, p. 500)
Although Indigenous people remain underrepresented in cyberspace, social media has vastly extended
traditional networks of information and communication, and has greatly enhanced the visibility of
otherwise marginalized communities and individuals (Prins in Ginsburg, 2008, p. 133). Faye Ginsberg
contends that [s]ocial media are being taken up by Indigenous communities to further the
development of political networks and the capacity to extend their traditional cultural worlds into new
domains (2008, p. 133) In this way, social media has given even very small and isolated communities
the power to expand their sphere of influence and mobilize political support in their struggles for
cultural survival.
As was witnessed with the Idle No More protests, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even personal blogs
have been used to bolster the ongoing revolutions. The fact that these tools of social networking that
have previously had a reputation strictly for socializing are now being used as sources for information

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

and data speaks volumes of their relevance in contemporary political mobilization. Social medias
capacity for strengthening social bonds, raising awareness of pressing societal concerns, and
reinvigorating faith in the underdog make it a powerful force for generating support and mobilizing
collective action.

Conclusion
The advent of social media has transformed the way we connect and engage with the world around us.
From keeping in touch with home communities, to preserving cultural identity, and supporting political
advocacy, social media is being harnessed by Canadas Indigenous people for uses far more complex
than simply making communication easier. Through participation in media creation, Indigenous groups
are challenging the misrepresentations of Aboriginal people posed by non-Aboriginal media makers,
helping them to overcome prejudices, and secure greater domain over self-representation and self-
determination. Social media presents itself as a powerful tool which Indigenous people can coopt as a
means of furthering social and political transformation by inserting their own stories into national
narratives as part of ongoing struggles for Aboriginal recognition and self-determination(Ginsburg,
2008, p. 139). As was observed in the Idle No More campaign, social media has proven itself as a major
asset in the promotion of social and political unity. Its interactive, decentralized nature enables groups
to foster a dialogue with a global audience, draw attention to issues which might otherwise be
overlooked by popular media, and most importantly, mobilize members and supporters. Though there
are well-founded misgivings among Aboriginal peoples regarding the potential negative impact of social
media on their cultures and languages, it is clear that many are using these technologies in the fight to
preserve Aboriginal cultures, language, and identity. By connecting Indigenous people from the around
the world and by making their shared concerns more visible, social media has the capacity empower
Indigenous groups and exact meaningful political change.

SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL FOR INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT

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