Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism ed. by Bronwyn Carlson and Jeff Berglund

Reviewed by: Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism ed. by Bronwyn Carlson and Jeff Berglund Adam W. Coon (bio) Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendency of Social Media Activism edited by Bronwyn Carlson and Jeff Berglund Routledge, 2021 indigenous peoples rise up offers a much-needed global exploration of Native activism on social media, addressing Indigenous movements principally within Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Northern Abiayala (U.S. and Canada). This collection analyzes myriad strategies to garner support, such as the deployment of memes, hashtags, and tweets. Taken together, the fourteen chapters underscore the far-reaching influence of Native artists and activists within online media. The first essays focus on how movements have garnered support through hashtags and Facebook groups. In chapter 1, Alex Wilson and Corals Zheng examine the exponential growth of the Idle No More Movement (INM) through the hashtag #IdleNoMore. While they highlight the powerful role of social media, they also caution against the risks of large corporations’ “free sites.” The apprehension that participation on these sites could “end up funding our own domination” is a concern shared throughout Indigenous Peoples Rise Up (25). Nicholet A. Deschine Parkhurst posits that social media use in the #NoDAPL Movement disrupted existing colonial systems and created enduring connections. Bronwyn Carlson and Ryan Frazer observe how Native activists deploy anger and hope in posts tagged with #SOSBlakAustralia and #IndigenousDads to counter colonizing misrepresentations in Australia. Steve Elers, Phoebe Elers, and Mohan Dutta study how Māori #ThisIsNZ tweets rejected dominant narratives that depicted the 2019 Christchurch attacks as “unprecedented,” a false portrayal that erases colonial violence (71). In chapter 5, Mounia Mnouer considers Amazigh Facebook groups that educate people about Amazigh and demand protection of their rights. Subsequent chapters foreground Native LGBTIQ+ and women’s innovations within social media. In chapter 6, Marisa Elena Duarte and Morgan Vigil-Hayes emphasize a “relational scholarship” that perceives the “interrelatedness of Indigenous science, technology, activism, and gender and belonging in digital studies,” calling for consultation with Native domain experts to identify the issues that matter most to Native peoples (94). Taima Moeke-Pickering, Julia Rowat, Sheila Cote-Meek, and Ann Pegoraro study how Indigenous activism on Twitter amplifies women’s voices on mainstream media in the movement for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (#MMIWG). Cutcha [End Page 93] Risling Baldy frames Indigenous women’s social media activism in a “radical relationality” where new relatives are continually found struggling for territorial rights and systemic change (137). In chapter 9, Andrew Farrell explores how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQ+ activists engage in a “digital re-storying” that promotes justice and well-being through the Facebook group Black Rainbow (148). The final chapters address Native artistic production and activism through social media. In chapter 10, Miranda Belarde-Lewis argues that art plays a fundamental role in advancing the work of social justice through an Indigenous lens. Jeff Berglund interviews Debbie Reese, whose blog, American Indians in Children’s Literature, promotes works that accurately represent Native Nations. The blog format allows her to reference previous posts and openly acknowledge her own mistakes. Tristan Kennedy examines how Indigenous metal bands bypass traditional music production and directly share their perspectives through social media. Bronwyn Carlson interviews Dulguburra Yidinji media influencer Carly Wallace. Most known for her Facebook page “Cjay’s Vines,” Wallace humorously tells stories to expose and change stereotypes about Native peoples. In chapter fourteen, Jeff Berglund considers the influence of the 1491s, an Indigenous comedy troupe. Avoiding common depictions of Native peoples mired in “poverty porn,” their YouTube videos highlight the “beauty, intelligence, survival and wit” of contemporary Native peoples in an “aesthetic activism” (218). Authors throughout Indigenous People Rise Up foreground the need to build community not only within social media but also offline. They frame social media precisely as a tool to bring people into offline movements, privilege Native community building, promote empathy, and hold leadership accountable. Edited volumes like Indigenous Peoples Rise Up offer a key international approach to exploring Indigenous social media use. With that in mind, this volume could be strengthened by engagement with perspectives from Southern Abiayala (Latin America). In part because of...

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.