indigenous learning.

We learned through the course of this semester that Indigenous peoples have been consistently undermined in today’s modern media, and frequently face scrutiny that other communities, typically white, do not experience. This course has shown me the value of learning about other communities and the discourse that follows the Indigenous communities, specifically when we look at media, media coverage, and media representation.

As someone who has grown up as a white settler on Indigenous land, I have watched and seen the stereotypes play out growing up. I watched many people close to me portray Indigenous people as the ‘drunk, dancing, drumming, dead, or defiant” stereotype that we first learned about in our text “Decolonizing Journalism”. I also heard the word “Indian”* get tossed around more than once.

As a young girl, I can’t tell you how I had felt at the time, but as an adult woman, I break the stereotypes that people around me once used, and educate myself to be better not only for myself, but for future generations. Over the course of this semester, I have even used this class to teach the older generation of people around me the toxic culture by continuing to use these stereotypes. I teach them how harmful it is, and how important it is that we move that needle forward to be better to those that were here before us. I understand the importance of how we as white society need to be better about advocating for our Indigenous communities.