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Digital Decolonization and the Inuit
Dec. 23rd, 2017 03:06 pm(This research paper was written for my academic communications course. Please forgive the formatting issues. APA format isn't terribly easy to do on Dreamwidth. Rest assured that the copy I handed in was formatted correctly.)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recently demonstrated the horrors of colonialism within Canada. Inuit, badly affected by the legacy of colonialism, are using social media and digital technologies as a tool to heal from these effects. Although social media is frequently considered a vice, this research shows how Inuit use educational websites, Facebook community groups, personal Facebook pages, and hashtag activism as a means of decolonizing.
Much has been said about the negative roles of social media and digital technologies upon society. As an example, op-ed columnist David Brooks (2017) claims technology ruins youth, capitalizes upon intentionally-addictive materials, and unfairly infringes upon content creators while commodifying the private lives of users. (paras. 5-8). Although Brooks makes fair points, outliers have been omitted from his narrative. Digital technologies and social media play a vital role for Inuit, and have done so for several years. These digital tools have two key uses for the Inuit community: They assist in restoring the cultural knowledge and resources taken away from them by their colonizers, and they decolonize through promulgating key issues to the rest of the world.
Hundreds of years ago, when maritime explorers revealed the resource-rich Americas to the European monarchy, “an unceasing wave of migration, trade, conquest, and colonization” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [TRC], 2015, p. 45) was unleashed. At the time, colonizers believed they were bringing civilization to uncivilized, savage people (TRC, p. 46). This alleged civilization was brought to the Inuit through discursive groups and practices including Christian missionaries, residential schools, and anti-sealing campaigns. These colonial practices resulted in the forcible disconnection of many Indigenous people from their languages, lands, customs, and even one another. The treatment of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized is condescending and marginalizing, and this marginalization is made worse “by processes of socio-economic globalization and global environmental change” (Young, 2017, para. 5). The Inuit, in the face of these formidable obstacles, improvise and adapt through the use of digital technologies.
Qanuqtuurunnarniq is Inuktitut for the concept of improvisation and resourcefulness. This principle is vital for survival in the inhospitable ever-changing environment of the Arctic, and lends itself well to changing social and political climates as well. When the viewpoints of Arctic people are overlooked by southern demographics, the Inuit do not despair. They respond by making good use of digital technologies. Social media and websites give Inuit the capacity for self-representation on a global level, and they also allow them to communicate with one another. Through digital media, many Inuit “reassert their own culture, improve social ties within and across communities, and resist the ongoing effects of colonialism in the Arctic” (Young, paras. 8-10).
Affordable access to high-bandwidth broadband is a necessity for the Inuit (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). They resist colonialization by sharing their culture and knowledge with one another online, a practice endorsed by the findings of the TRC Calls to Action (2015). The Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for a commitment to “respecting Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in spiritual matters, including the right to practise, develop, and teach their own spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies, consistent with Article 12:1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” (p. 5).
This online sharing of spiritual and cultural traditions is exemplified by a variety of online initiatives. One such initiative is the community-based Nanisiniq Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) Adventure Website. Qaujimajatuqangit is a knowledge system. The word is Inuktitut for “that which has long been known by Inuit” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). The website encourages users to refer to their elders for guidance and wisdom, rebuilding “the ancient cycle of knowledge transfer” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 222). Similarly, the Inuit Myths & Legends website, a bilingual (Inuktitut/English) resource, links Inuit to their ancestors and culture (Inuit Myths & Legends, n.d.).
Tattooing is an example of an Inuit practice banned for years by colonizers. The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project uses FaceBook as a platform to share resources on this tradition (The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project, n.d.). Facebook is also used as a platform for online communities such as the Aboriginal Services at Conestoga group (n.d.) and the Inuit Southern Ontario Resource Group (n.d.). Both groups share community- and education-based information, and give means to meet up with Inuit elders in person. Through these online resources, Inuit in southwestern Ontario are afforded an opportunity to learn and share traditional skills like throat singing, drumming, and leather crafting. They also have opportunities to partake in traditional meals (eg. seal meat and whale blubber).
Figure 1. Traditional Inuit tattooing. From Inuit Tattoo Revitalization (2017).
Individual Inuit content creators also use Facebook to promote their creations to one another and to the general public. Naulaq LeDrew, for example, sells her sealskin products on her page (LeDrew, n.d.) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril promotes her documentary about the Inuit perspective on the seal hunt and upon the #sealfie movement. (Arnaquq-Baril, n.d.).
Figure 2. Sealskin backpack. Adapted from Naulaq’s Unique Art (2017).
The seal hunt has always been a vital part of Inuit survival, and this has not changed in the 21st century. In 2014, celebrity Ellen DeGeneres used her considerable international clout to perpetuate the anti-sealing narrative through hashtag activism. The hashtag, a function of Twitter which permit users to focus their tweets around a single focus or issue (Moscato, 2016, Introduction section, para. 1), became instrumental to her cause. She took a star-studded selfie of herself at the Academy Awards and used the #selfie tag to raise money for charities including anti-sealing campaigns (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Mutable multimedial and mass section, para. 5). She raised millions of dollars for the Humane Society of the United States at the same time as they launched their annual anti-sealing campaign, and she specifically censured the seal hunt as “one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government” (Rodgers and Scobie, 2015, pp. 70-71). Her personal website featured an image of a baby seal and included a link for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ anti-sealing donation website (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, From selfie to #sealfie section, para. 4). Degeneres had, perhaps inadvertently, perpetuated the colonial perspective of Inuit as uncivilized savages.
The #sealfie tag emerged as a direct response to Degeneres’s #selfie activism. The #sealfie campaign was intended to “counter the impact of colonialism and... explicitly protect and preserve identity and culture of the Inuit” (Rodgers & Scobiie, 2015, p. 70). Across a variety of social media platforms, Inuit used their own hashtag activism to testify their perspectives to the rest of the world. They shared personal photos, first-hand accounts of hunting seals, and cast aspersions upon the morality of anti-sealing organizations. They demonstrated how anti-sealing movements had devastating effects upon their communities and livelihoods (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Discussion section, para. 1). They showed how seal hunting is more ethical than the pork/beef/poultry industry taken for granted by people from more southern climes. They used hashtag activism to repudiate the colonial narrative that they are uncivilized savages.
Figure 3. Musician Tanya Tagaq’s #sealfie. From MacNeil (2014).
Despite the commonly-held belief that social media use is a vice, Inuit are using digital technologies and social media as a positive force. They have a great facility with using the Internet to battle colonialism and marginalization. Through hashtag activism, they get their voices heard by the rest of the world. Websites and social media provide platforms for the dissemination of cultural teachings and to assist in the promotion of Inuit creations to others. As high-bandwidth broadband Internet becomes more accessible in Arctic regions, Inuit become more empowered in self-advocacy.
Alexander, C.J., Adamson, A., Daborn, G., Houston, J., & Tootoo, V. (2009). Inuit Cyberspace: The Struggle for Access for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. Journal of Canadian Studies, 43(2), 220-249.
Arnaquq-Baril, A. (n.d.). Angry Inuk. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/angryinuk/
Brooks, D. (2017, November 20). How Evil is Tech? The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/how-evil- is-tech.html?_r=0
Hawkins, R., & Silver, J. J. (2017). From selfie to #sealfie: Nature 2.0 and the digital cultural politics of an internationally contested resource. Geoforum, 79114-123. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.06.019
LeDrew, N. (n.d.). Naulaq’s Unique Art. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/NaulaqsUniqueArt
MacNeil, J. (2014, April 2). Inuit Singer Tanya Tagaq’s “Sealfie” Photo Supporting Seal Hunt Sparks Backlash. Huffpost. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/02/inuit-tanya-tagaq-sealfie_n_5077203.html
Moscato, D. (2016). Media portrayals of hashtag activism: a framing analysis of Canada's #Idlenomore movement. Media And Communication, (2), 3. doi:10.17645/mac.v4i2.416.
Rodgers, K., & Scobie, W. (2015). Sealfies, seals and celebs: expressions of Inuit resilience in the Twitter era. Interface: A Journal On Social Movements, 7(1), 70.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Calls to Action. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Abstract
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has recently demonstrated the horrors of colonialism within Canada. Inuit, badly affected by the legacy of colonialism, are using social media and digital technologies as a tool to heal from these effects. Although social media is frequently considered a vice, this research shows how Inuit use educational websites, Facebook community groups, personal Facebook pages, and hashtag activism as a means of decolonizing.
Much has been said about the negative roles of social media and digital technologies upon society. As an example, op-ed columnist David Brooks (2017) claims technology ruins youth, capitalizes upon intentionally-addictive materials, and unfairly infringes upon content creators while commodifying the private lives of users. (paras. 5-8). Although Brooks makes fair points, outliers have been omitted from his narrative. Digital technologies and social media play a vital role for Inuit, and have done so for several years. These digital tools have two key uses for the Inuit community: They assist in restoring the cultural knowledge and resources taken away from them by their colonizers, and they decolonize through promulgating key issues to the rest of the world.
Background
Hundreds of years ago, when maritime explorers revealed the resource-rich Americas to the European monarchy, “an unceasing wave of migration, trade, conquest, and colonization” (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [TRC], 2015, p. 45) was unleashed. At the time, colonizers believed they were bringing civilization to uncivilized, savage people (TRC, p. 46). This alleged civilization was brought to the Inuit through discursive groups and practices including Christian missionaries, residential schools, and anti-sealing campaigns. These colonial practices resulted in the forcible disconnection of many Indigenous people from their languages, lands, customs, and even one another. The treatment of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized is condescending and marginalizing, and this marginalization is made worse “by processes of socio-economic globalization and global environmental change” (Young, 2017, para. 5). The Inuit, in the face of these formidable obstacles, improvise and adapt through the use of digital technologies.
Qanuqtuurunnarniq is Inuktitut for the concept of improvisation and resourcefulness. This principle is vital for survival in the inhospitable ever-changing environment of the Arctic, and lends itself well to changing social and political climates as well. When the viewpoints of Arctic people are overlooked by southern demographics, the Inuit do not despair. They respond by making good use of digital technologies. Social media and websites give Inuit the capacity for self-representation on a global level, and they also allow them to communicate with one another. Through digital media, many Inuit “reassert their own culture, improve social ties within and across communities, and resist the ongoing effects of colonialism in the Arctic” (Young, paras. 8-10).
Reclamation of Culture
Affordable access to high-bandwidth broadband is a necessity for the Inuit (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). They resist colonialization by sharing their culture and knowledge with one another online, a practice endorsed by the findings of the TRC Calls to Action (2015). The Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples calls for a commitment to “respecting Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in spiritual matters, including the right to practise, develop, and teach their own spiritual and religious traditions, customs, and ceremonies, consistent with Article 12:1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” (p. 5).
This online sharing of spiritual and cultural traditions is exemplified by a variety of online initiatives. One such initiative is the community-based Nanisiniq Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) Adventure Website. Qaujimajatuqangit is a knowledge system. The word is Inuktitut for “that which has long been known by Inuit” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 228). The website encourages users to refer to their elders for guidance and wisdom, rebuilding “the ancient cycle of knowledge transfer” (Alexander et al, 2009, p. 222). Similarly, the Inuit Myths & Legends website, a bilingual (Inuktitut/English) resource, links Inuit to their ancestors and culture (Inuit Myths & Legends, n.d.).
Tattooing is an example of an Inuit practice banned for years by colonizers. The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project uses FaceBook as a platform to share resources on this tradition (The Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project, n.d.). Facebook is also used as a platform for online communities such as the Aboriginal Services at Conestoga group (n.d.) and the Inuit Southern Ontario Resource Group (n.d.). Both groups share community- and education-based information, and give means to meet up with Inuit elders in person. Through these online resources, Inuit in southwestern Ontario are afforded an opportunity to learn and share traditional skills like throat singing, drumming, and leather crafting. They also have opportunities to partake in traditional meals (eg. seal meat and whale blubber).
Figure 1. Traditional Inuit tattooing. From Inuit Tattoo Revitalization (2017).
Individual Inuit content creators also use Facebook to promote their creations to one another and to the general public. Naulaq LeDrew, for example, sells her sealskin products on her page (LeDrew, n.d.) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril promotes her documentary about the Inuit perspective on the seal hunt and upon the #sealfie movement. (Arnaquq-Baril, n.d.).
Figure 2. Sealskin backpack. Adapted from Naulaq’s Unique Art (2017).
Hashtag Activism
The seal hunt has always been a vital part of Inuit survival, and this has not changed in the 21st century. In 2014, celebrity Ellen DeGeneres used her considerable international clout to perpetuate the anti-sealing narrative through hashtag activism. The hashtag, a function of Twitter which permit users to focus their tweets around a single focus or issue (Moscato, 2016, Introduction section, para. 1), became instrumental to her cause. She took a star-studded selfie of herself at the Academy Awards and used the #selfie tag to raise money for charities including anti-sealing campaigns (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Mutable multimedial and mass section, para. 5). She raised millions of dollars for the Humane Society of the United States at the same time as they launched their annual anti-sealing campaign, and she specifically censured the seal hunt as “one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government” (Rodgers and Scobie, 2015, pp. 70-71). Her personal website featured an image of a baby seal and included a link for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ anti-sealing donation website (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, From selfie to #sealfie section, para. 4). Degeneres had, perhaps inadvertently, perpetuated the colonial perspective of Inuit as uncivilized savages.
The #sealfie tag emerged as a direct response to Degeneres’s #selfie activism. The #sealfie campaign was intended to “counter the impact of colonialism and... explicitly protect and preserve identity and culture of the Inuit” (Rodgers & Scobiie, 2015, p. 70). Across a variety of social media platforms, Inuit used their own hashtag activism to testify their perspectives to the rest of the world. They shared personal photos, first-hand accounts of hunting seals, and cast aspersions upon the morality of anti-sealing organizations. They demonstrated how anti-sealing movements had devastating effects upon their communities and livelihoods (Hawkins and Silver, 2017, Discussion section, para. 1). They showed how seal hunting is more ethical than the pork/beef/poultry industry taken for granted by people from more southern climes. They used hashtag activism to repudiate the colonial narrative that they are uncivilized savages.
Figure 3. Musician Tanya Tagaq’s #sealfie. From MacNeil (2014).
Conclusion
Despite the commonly-held belief that social media use is a vice, Inuit are using digital technologies and social media as a positive force. They have a great facility with using the Internet to battle colonialism and marginalization. Through hashtag activism, they get their voices heard by the rest of the world. Websites and social media provide platforms for the dissemination of cultural teachings and to assist in the promotion of Inuit creations to others. As high-bandwidth broadband Internet becomes more accessible in Arctic regions, Inuit become more empowered in self-advocacy.
References
Alexander, C.J., Adamson, A., Daborn, G., Houston, J., & Tootoo, V. (2009). Inuit Cyberspace: The Struggle for Access for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. Journal of Canadian Studies, 43(2), 220-249.
Arnaquq-Baril, A. (n.d.). Angry Inuk. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/angryinuk/
Brooks, D. (2017, November 20). How Evil is Tech? The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2017 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/opinion/how-evil- is-tech.html?_r=0
Hawkins, R., & Silver, J. J. (2017). From selfie to #sealfie: Nature 2.0 and the digital cultural politics of an internationally contested resource. Geoforum, 79114-123. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.06.019
LeDrew, N. (n.d.). Naulaq’s Unique Art. Facebook. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from https://www.facebook.com/NaulaqsUniqueArt
MacNeil, J. (2014, April 2). Inuit Singer Tanya Tagaq’s “Sealfie” Photo Supporting Seal Hunt Sparks Backlash. Huffpost. Retrieved December 23, 2017 from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/04/02/inuit-tanya-tagaq-sealfie_n_5077203.html
Moscato, D. (2016). Media portrayals of hashtag activism: a framing analysis of Canada's #Idlenomore movement. Media And Communication, (2), 3. doi:10.17645/mac.v4i2.416.
Rodgers, K., & Scobie, W. (2015). Sealfies, seals and celebs: expressions of Inuit resilience in the Twitter era. Interface: A Journal On Social Movements, 7(1), 70.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Calls to Action. Winnipeg: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
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