Social media is increasingly entangled in our everyday lives, and it appears inevitable that this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. Although there has been a wellspring of research on ...social media, very little is known about Indigenous Australians' use of these online communication channels. Similarly, there is a paucity of research that investigates the links between social media and intimacy. This article explores Indigenous use of dating applications for 'hooking up' and engaging in online romances, and investigates the incidence of 'sexual racism' that is often directed at Indigenous online users of romance social media platforms.
'Total Control' (2019-2024) is a political drama that follows the story of Rachel Griffiths as the prime minister of so-called Australia and Deborah Mailman as her political rival. Available on ...demand on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) iView, Total Control was initially called "Black Bitch" to draw attention to the historical racial slur but was forced to change its title due to a social media storm. 'Total Control' demonstrates striking parallels with the treatment of real- life Indigenous women in politics. This article looks at the role of social media as a platform that provides a way for Indigenous women to engage in public politics. It discusses these technologies as providing settlers with the means to publicly malign Indigenous women. It draws from research on the use and abuse of social media in relation to Indigenous users and is underscored by the blurred boundary between fiction and non-fiction Indigenous realities.
It may be argued that the emerging discourses focusing on the social, emotional, educational, and economic disadvantages identified for Australia's First Peoples (when compared to their ...non-Indigenous counterparts) are becoming increasingly dissociated with an understanding of the interplay between historical and current trends in racism. Additionally, and if not somewhat related to this critique, it can be suggested that the very construction of research from a Western perspective of Indigenous identity (as opposed to identities) and ways of being are deeply entwined within the undertones of epistemological racism still prevalent today. It is the purpose of this article to move beyond the overreliance of outside-based understanding Western epistemologies, and to explore not only the complex nature of both racism and identity from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, but to also explore the role of education and research in perpetuating varying levels of racism and resistance to Indigenous identity(ies) from a contemporary insider-based standpoint. It is hoped this article will shed some light on the pervasive nature of racism directed at Indigenous Australians, and highlight the need for the continual acceptance, respect, and promotion of Indigenous voices and identities within the educational environment and beyond.
Many Aboriginal Australians have participated in, and take pleasure from, country music. Country music has provided a vehicle for Aboriginal people to tell our stories and assert our connection to ..."Country" - term used to describe our ancestral lands. Country music is often associated with such terms as "redneck" and "hillbilly" (Malone, 2006) and is often associated with White working class. However, Indigenous participation in the country music genre disrupts this assumption. Indigenous people as both consumers and producers derive a great deal of pleasure from the country music genre. This paper will explore the appropriation of country music by Aboriginal Australians and Native Americans who continue to express their histories, beliefs and connection to Country through country music.
Social media technologies have had ambivalent political implications for Indigenous peoples and communities. On one hand, they constitute new horizons toward which settler colonial forces of ...marginalization, disenfranchisement, and elimination can extend and strengthen their power. On the other hand, social media have also offered opportunities to resist and reject the violence of colonization and its ideological counterparts of domination and racial superiority, and work toward imagining and realizing alternative futures. In this article, we draw on insights from settler colonial studies and affect theory to chart the politics of “affect” through the stories of Indigenous Australian social media users. We first argue that the online practices of Indigenous social media users are often mediated by an awareness of the ‘settler gaze’—that is, a latent audience of non-Indigenous others observing in bad faith. We then outline two responses to this presence described by participants: policing the online behaviors of friends and family, and circulating hopeful, inspiring, and positive content. If “policing” is about delimiting the things of which online bodies are capable, then an affective politics of hope is about expanding a body’s capacity to act and imagining other possible futures for Indigenous people.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the social and economic instability that followed, has given new life to conspirituality and far-right ideology in so-called Australia. This article discusses how ...politico-spiritual communities invested in both conspiracy theories and New Age spirituality have pieced together settler narratives about a New World Order and external threats to Western society from far-right and white supremacist Christian ideology circulated via new media. Using anti-colonial discourse analysis, we elucidate the undercurrent of white supremacist ideology in the Australian anti-vax movement, and highlight the misuse of Indigeneity in far-right and anti-vax narratives. We discuss how these narratives are settler-colonial and how conspiritualists co-opt and perform Indigeneity as a form of settler nativism. As a case study, we analyse the use of the term sovereignty by settlers attached to Muckadda Camp—a camp of ‘Original Sovereigns’ occupying the lawn outside Old Parliament house from December 2021 to February 2022. Using Indigenous critique from both new media and academia, we argue that although settlers may perform Indigeneity, they are exercising white supremacist settler narratives, and not Indigenous sovereignty.
Yarning circles and social media activism Carlson, Bronwyn; Frazer, Ryan
Media international Australia incorporating Culture & policy,
11/2018, Letnik:
169, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The practices of 'yarning' and 'yarning circles' are relatively common across groups of Indigenous Australians. This practice broadly consists of storytelling within a respectful and deeply ...democratic space, where each participant takes turns in speaking, and in which the direction of discussion may meander, fixate, or take divergent and creative lines of flight. The existing literature has explored the use of 'yarning circles' in promoting both ethical, culturally appropriate research practices and effective, culturally relevant pedagogical techniques. However, there has yet to be any work to investigate the relationship between yarning circles and Indigenous activism. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the nexus between Indigenous online activism and yarning circles. In the first section, we outline work that has engaged in different ways with the use of yarning circles. Next, we offer our own, more political conceptualisation of 'yarning circles' through a reading of Paolo Freire's work on conscientisation and, in particular, his concept of the 'culture circle'. Finally, we draw on this new conceptualisation to explore an actual case of the use of yarning circles in political collaboration and conscientisation. Through this analysis, we discuss a number of convergent and divergent experiences shared by Indigenous activists.
Digital health is becoming ubiquitous, and we must ensure equity in access. Indigenous people across most high-income countries typically have not benefited as much as other citizens from usual ...health care systems and technologies. Despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s clear interest in, and enthusiastic use of, new technologies, little research has examined the needs or interests of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This study prioritizes the perspectives of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, tapping into their expertise associated with Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing, as well as their unique position within their families and communities, to design a model for using digital technologies to improve health for themselves and their families as well as their communities. Older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women from 4 partner organizations were recruited for this study. This co-designed qualitative research included citizen scientists in shaping the protocol as well as collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data. We used yarning, an Indigenous research method validated for use in health research with Indigenous people and seen as respectful and culturally safe, as a primary research tool. The use of Indigenous methodologies and our iterative process enabled us to deeply explore and incorporate perspectives from all participants and ensure that the perspectives of Indigenous citizen scientists with lived experience were privileged. The data-checking methods also used a yarning methodology, which ensured that the findings and translational model derived from the findings were validated by the participants. Health is a fundamental right. As we move toward greater reliance on digital health solutions, we must recognize and address the concerns of the smaller populations of people who differ in their needs. We must urgently address the financial, connectivity, and other limiting factors highlighted by older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in this study that limit equitable access to digital health tools.
Research associated with digital health technologies similar to the technologies themselves has proliferated in the last 2 decades. There are calls for these technologies to provide cost-effective ...health care for underserved populations. However, the research community has also underserved many of these populations. Older Indigenous women are one such segment of the population.
Our objective is to systematically review the literature to consolidate and document what we know about how older Indigenous women living in high-income countries use digital health technology to enhance their health.
We analyzed the peer-reviewed literature by systematically searching 8 databases in March 2022. We included studies published between January 2006 and March 2022 with original data specific to older Indigenous women from high-income countries that reported on the effectiveness, acceptability, and usability of some user-focused digital health technology. We incorporated 2 measures of quality for each study. We also conducted a thematic analysis and a lived experience analysis, which examined each paper from the perspectives of older Indigenous women. We followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines in this study.
Three papers met the inclusion criteria. The key findings were that older Indigenous women do not see themselves reflected in mainstream health messaging or other digital health offerings. They prefer an approach that considers their uniqueness and diversity. We also identified 2 significant gaps in the literature. First, research reporting on older Indigenous women from high-income countries' experiences with digital health technology is minimal. Second, the limited research related to older Indigenous women has not consistently engaged Indigenous people in the research process or governance.
Older Indigenous women want digital health technologies to respond to their needs and preferences. Research is needed to understand their requirements and preferences to ensure equity as we move toward greater adoption of digital health technology. Engaging older Indigenous women throughout the research is essential to ensuring that digital health products and services are safe, usable, effective, and acceptable for older Indigenous women.
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