Author Archives: rika vuong-lam

My final post focuses on the different Indigenous content creators I will be exploring for my final project. I attempted to learn about and explore creators that were situated on the same land as I. I started with looking for Indigenous Toronto based creators, to Ontario and then any within Canada.

https://www.tiktok.com/@scottwabano?referer_url=www.ellecanada.com%2Fculture%2Fsociety%2F10-indigenous-content-creators-you-should-be-following&refer=embed&embed_source=70842512%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_name&referer_video_id=6969054109659925766

The above link is to Scott Wabano’s TikTok account–a Two-Spirit Iyiyuu creator from the Cree Nation of Waskaganish. His content uses a comedy-sense to represent Indigenous fashion and beauty content. He gears his content specifically toward Indigiqueer youths, relating to a wider audience and hoping to bring acceptance for people to feel comfortable and not ashamed to be who they are.

https://www.instagram.com/officialsherrymckay/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=d1767b04-315c-40f8-9018-2a61631235da

Sherry McKay is Sagkeeng First Nation in Winnipeg, a public speaker and works to empower other Indigenous people to share their content and voices via social media. A previous post I made about TikTok’s accelerator program is made with help of Sherry McKay to assure that the content is culturally responsive.  She took uses video as a tool to share the real-life challenges of Indigenous people. For example, racism and bias in stores when they place their hands into their pockets, in a hilarious post, she shares what “pretendians” are (those who fake Indigenous identity) and warns against people using Indigenous identity and culture for self-benefit as it silencing their stories and voices, just to name a few issues she brings up. Her entertaining and approachable content creates conversations and dialogue in her comment section to bring Indigenous issues to the forefront.

https://www.instagram.com/nikitaelyse/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=7d2bbd80-43d4-41fd-839c-933bcbc13714

Nikita Kahpeaysewat is Nēhiyaw and a storyteller who shares personal experiences and personal style, while advocating for community building, Indigenous peoples’ land rights and environmental autonomy. She uses beautiful photography and thoughtful Instagram captions that are usually stories or thoughts to capture her audience. Her posts are more of a serious and artistic tone to create dialogue with her audience.

Missing in my earlier posts in regards to Identity and social media is how it is politically controlled and distributed. In my more recent posts, you will see that I have begun to situate how histories and politics continue to silence Indigenous people or decide for them who they are and what health or care they need or should have. Similarly, social media can be seen as  settler colonialism due to the long times that it was unavailable to remote communities until more recently. This demonstrates a sense of ignorant behaviour to Indigenous people again. Alike how officials have yet helped Indigenous people with their contaminated water, this article also demonstrates “Indigenous Elimination” through their exclusion of Indigenous people early on in the roll out of internet use and social media use, but also through racism and cyber bullying that Indigenous people are especially susceptible to. Again, drawing on the same colonialism racism and bullying that occurred in and after residential schools.

Frazer, R., Carlson, B., & Farrelly, T.  (2022). Indigenous articulations of social media and digital assemblages of care. Digital Geography and Society, 3, 1-10. 

As I look into other benefits or adversities of social media, I came across its power for activism. This article researched by Professor Bronwyn Carlson and written by Susan Skelly (2021), talks about the power of social media. It has the power to quickly spread a message to the masses and it allows Indigenous people to not only share their talent and art in curated spaces but also spread it to the masses regardless of location, age, social status, and many other things. This article tries to differentiate what different social media platforms are used for. For example, Facebook used to connect friends, families and communities, Twitter used for openness invitation and dialogue, and TikTok and instagram used for activism.

Due to social media’s ability to bridge distance and time, mobilize Indigenous people and build “coalitions” so that people can stand in solidarity with Indigenous stories and challenges. It has given Indigenous people and voices more hope and in numbers, help with change. These open platforms dares people to become emotional and feel for each other’s stories, drawing on similarities to Indigenous practices.

https://lighthouse.mq.edu.au/article/august-2021/Social-media-changed-the-game-for-Indigenous-activism-new-book

In my research about how Indigenous people identify as Indigenous, many times I have read that it has often been external. That the Canadian government has mostly identified who was Indigenous. In my research, I did come across stats Canada who gets their definition from the UN. This made me think that again, another external part or group is deciding for Indigenous people who can or cannot be Indigenous and how to identify. This definition is also very broad to include that Indigenous people are those “who identify as First Nations (North American Indian), Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit), and/or those who report being Registered or Treaty Indians (that is, registered under the Indian Act of Canada), and/or those who have membership in a First Nation or Indian band” (Government of Canada, 2021). This definition only uses Western language and does not do justice to the complexity of Indigenous identities.

https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3Var.pl?Function=DEC&Id=42927

In researching about how Indigenous people use social media for storytelling and to spread their community, identity and culture, I came across TikTok and National Screen Institutes accelerator program meant to teach the ins and outs of using social media. It is aimed at Canadian Indigenous content creators. In developing their program, they did work with an Indigenous content creator, Sherry Mckay to be culturally responsive. The program is meant to help creators develop collaborations with brands, to increase their presence on social media and to learn the best tools and skills to tell their stories. It aligned with my research as it really works to empower Indigenous voices and storytelling, a main theme to why many content creators began their social media presence. I have also included some news articles about people who were chosen for the program. Beyond culture and identity, some of these articles situate social media to a “connector” position. Some have noted how social media was part of their healing or reconnector to lost family members.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/tiktok-indigenous-accelerator-1.6654248

Five Inuit content creators join TikTok bootcamp

TikTok Accelerator for Indigenous Creators

In continuing to narrow my focus to resources that articulate the impact of social media on Indigenous Identity, Dinero (2020) articulates the stresses of youths that feel the pressure to prove their Indigenous identities. However, with the use of social media, there is no true “Gatekeeper” to police how one identifies themselves. This paper then articulates how youths and others are given the ability to self identify. This coincides with some of my earlier resources and findings that many Indigenous people are self-identifying to combat the colonial ways where Indigenous people were identified to be controlled or put through genocide. This paper argues that social media allows for flexibility and voices to be heard. Many Indigenous people are using social media to fight for their voice and a seat at the table, meaning, they want their stories and their needs heard and communicated. The paper challenges how some articles articulate indigenous culture as something you can put on and take off. For example, a question about using social media to post Indigenous culture. This resonated with me as I have focused on the loud and sometimes stereotypical posts made by influencers that “demonstrate their culture and identity.” However, this paper accentuates that sharing their everyday lives is sharing their culture. This lens reminds me that culture may not be something I can observe in a post, but the sharing of any kind, is the culture of that individual.

Dinero, S.C. (2020). Virtual tribe: Indigenous identity in social media. McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=6129807&ppg=26 

Prior to watching this video, I do warn you of some real pictures and stories of abuse and racism is pictured, so watch and listen with care. The problem with this statement that I had just made is that many stories we hear about Indigenous people require such a discretion to be read out.

My focus for my paper is on Social media and how it maintains Indigenous Identity, language and  culture, this TedTalk resonated with me because social media allowed them to reverse the dialogue and to come out of stereotypes and deficit thinking. #IndigenousDads was started by Joel Bayliss who used his rage from racism and mistreatment and social media to reverse the dialogue of portraying Indigenous Dad’s in negative ways to that of positivity. It was started as a response to a cartoon that used a very negative stereotype of Indigenous people, particularly Indigenous father’s, showing them as alcoholics that can’t even know their child. This was shortly after a Detention Centre leaked photos of Indigenous youths that were detained had covers placed over their heads and were abused. This made Joel Bayliss and many Indigenous people feel like the blame was on families to what had happened in the Detention Centre. Joel’s hashtag and twitter post of his day spent with his family garnered much attention, and demonstrates how social media allows authentic representations of Indigenous people, their culture, identity and language.

As I search for young people who use social media to share their Indigenous identity, voices, stories and culture, on multiple occasions, I was re-introduced to Shina Novalinga’s tiktok and instagram. I first came across her Instagram in the summer where she shared her journey in getting a traditional Inuit face tattoo with her mom. She shared the Western perspectives that were shared with her during her process such as, “you will ruin your face” or “you will regret it.” Her short recorded journey included a current pop song, text of her feelings of pride, anxiety and support from her mom who was also getting the tattoo, and selfie video content resulted in more than 700K likes. Her other videos utilizes her big social media platform to share her throat singing to viewers, the silenced voices of her ancestors such as her grandfather who never shared his experience in residential schools, and her advocacy for Inuit families and citizens of Nunavut that included voicing their lack of food security and high food costs, and she advocate for women who suffer from domestic violence. She also uses her platform to raise money for less fortunate communities. She also shares videos of the norm in her community of Puvirnituq, Quebec. For example, in Ontario, cupcakes cost 3 dollars but in her community it costs 11. There are only two stores in that community and water only comes from tanks and a light appears when you are running out. She gives perspectives to much of the Inuit community’s current lived experiences and situations. Through her followers’ responses (and my own), you can really see the untold or silenced realities that her platform allows her to inform. I have also attached some of the articles written about her sharing of identity and culture, but also the voice she gives to real issues.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shinanova/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shinanova?refer=embed

Yahoo: https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/29-dollars-grapes-food-insecurity-140705994.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANFgZkNVArxllMWIljbQp9PFihxDQs3sCgs8zgbvDZt7eLKq6SKBeJSCnZHwY1LmsAmIUKEvcc23XqYHgDVyrDjv3G1iFRcOkluNvoH7cKL0–xdEcKqqQ_cckungLMkatRbp0h5I6Rn1Fh-EYN2GDAYwYwvs34hIxIEiU0g38gV

wbur: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/04/15/inuk-throat-singing-shina-novalinga

vogue: https://www.vogue.com/article/shina-novalinga-indigenous-inuk-throat-singer-tiktok

As I continue to look into Indigenous identity and how social media can be (or not) a tool to maintain culture and identity for many Indigenous youths, I came across this UBC site that tries to unpack historical and current definitions of Indigenous identity. Much like my previous Module 3 post, this page accentuates how certain identities are externally given and act as a means to oppress Indigenous groups. For example, during the residential school era, Indigenous people were identified so that their children were removed from their homes and made to convert to the Western ways and practices, or when identities were stripped of Indigenous people due to their choice of inter-cultural marriage. This demonstrates that the blanket term “Indigenous” may not be a term that many identify with. Rather, Indigenous people may identify themselves by specific local terms based on family and community location and traditional names. This seems to be how I have determined the Indigenous identities of the Indigenous youths I have come across on social media. That is, through their self-identification.

If you’re ever questioning the use of your terminology, this is a good read.

Kesler, L. (2010, February 10). Aboriginal identity and terminology. University of British Columbia. Retrieved from https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/aboriginal_identity__terminology/

Aboriginal Identity & Terminology

As I focus my final project on What Identity Is and how Indigenous people are using social media to maintain their identity, language and culture, I needed to determine, How Indigenous community members identify with their distinct identities. This blog is of a self-identified “Kwakwaka’wakw located between Comox and Port Hardy on Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland of British Columbia, I am an initiated member of the Hamatsa Society and am in line to become a hereditary chief. I am a status Indian” (Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., 2018). He establishes the importance and reason why many Indigenous community members have moved to self-identification rather being ascribed their identities. This is due to the historical practices of assimilation, where Indigenous people are constantly being told how to act and what their cultural practices should be like. Even today, many Western perspectives judge Indigenous people on their cultural practices. As well, historically, Indigenous people who lose their identities if they married non-Indian members. This constant control of their identities pushed Indigenous people to reclaim their own identities and reclaiming their own voices of who they are.

Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. (2018, February 8). What is Indigenous identity? Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/what-is-indigenous-identity