Media Portrayal of Aboriginals

In our society, the media and news outlets hold a lot of power and influence over us because they are the places we get all of our information from. Through social media and technology, even children are learning a lot from the media, even if it’s not always what I, as an educator, would want them to learn. I say this because news outlets can shape the perspectives and opinions of young, impressionable minds by tweaking news stories to fit their own agenda and by choosing to highlight or omit certain information. For example, the news coverage of aboriginal people and their

stories have been greatly manipulated in the Canadian media over the past century and a half in order to create a certain image of the First Nations. Precisely, Harding (2006) discusses how aboriginals have been described and portrayed as savage, threatening, inferior to white people, corrupt, drunk, emotional, irresponsible, and in need of protection or guidance. In addition, they have not been given many opportunities in the media to make their own voices heard. Either that, or their views are diluted in news articles because the main target audience is non-aboriginals. Therefore, aboriginals aren’t given the chance to tell their own stories, which is something Nock (2014) also emphasizes. In her article, she explains that many of the headlines about Aboriginal women devalue what their values and lives are actually like. Harding discusses this in a similar way because both authors touch upon the idea that First Nations are often unfairly represented, or only one aspect of their “story” is told. According to Nock, it is better to hear the stories directly from the Indigenous women themselves because this is a more touching, authentic, and worthwhile experience for the listener. She ends her article with a powerful message that Harding also subtly implies, which is that the media should stop trying to tell Aborginals’ stories because the truth, although it may be difficult to hear, will come from the actual storytellers.

I participated in a meaningful experience that allowed me to gain more knowledge and insight into the issue of aboriginals, but more specifically, child welfare. While watching a video of Cindy Blackstock giving a speech on the topic, I took notes using the Sketchnoting technique (click here to watch a tutorial video), which I discuss in another post. This alternative form of note taking helped the information sink in. When I looked back at my Sketchnote, I was able to follow the train of thought as well as the connections that I made between ideas. Apart from that, some of the assignments that I’ve found to be the most meaningful on aboriginals have been those that required me to write a journal, or diary, from the perspective of an aboriginal. In high school, I didn’t study a lot of current day issues with regards to First Nations (which would have been a good element to incorporate), so I mostly wrote pieces from the perspectives of aboriginals in history. Click here to read one of my assignments!

When I think back to all of the time I spent learning about the First Nations people during my high school years, I realize that this content was never really exciting or captivating, most likely because we always seemed to be learning about same things. My feelings about this topic as a learner can help me as a teacher because I can use my negative experiences to improve my teaching practices. I haven’t had the chance to develop any lesson plans on the topic of aboriginal history/life, but I am currently working on a toolkit for my Social science class that explore the topic of Iroquois and Inca life. I think this experience will help me to develop lesson-planning skills in the area of social science, or more specifically, skills with regards to the Professional Competency 3. Apart from that, I also think Competency 1 is being developed because I have to act as a critical interpreter of the knowledge that comes from the media on aboriginals before presenting it to my students.

I don’t remember learning much about aboriginal people in elementary school, but I definitely learned about it high school. That being said, I think that even if I did learn about it, it didn’t have much of an impact. In the QEP, there are some components of Social Science class that relate to natives, but I only saw mention of the Iroquois. Because teachers do have to follow the QEP, I don’t think there’s a ton of wiggle room when it comes to teaching children about aboriginals, but I would definitely try to incorporate more information and sources that came directly from aboriginal people. In other words, one of my goals would be to represent the voice of the aboriginals in order for students to really hear their stories, instead of relying on the information that the media provides us with. As seen in Harding’s article, the media is an expert at manipulating headlines and stories as a way of getting people to believe what they want. Therefore, I think it’s important for me, as a teacher, to serve as the filter between the media and young children. Of course, they should develop the critical skills necessary for analyzing media sources, but before they can do that, teachers have to ensure that their students are learning authentic and unbiased content.

Blackstock, C. (2013, March 8). Equity, Human Rights, and how we are failing Aboriginal children [Video File] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-RGF1KPvWE

Harding, R. (2006). Historical representations of Aboriginal people in the Canadian news media. Discourse and Society, 17(2), 205-235.

Nock, S. (2014). Being a witness: The importance of protecting Indigenous women’s stories. Retrieved from http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/samantha-nock/2014/09/being-witness-importance-protecting-indigenous-womens-stories

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