Awake is a documentary we watched in class that conveyed what it was like at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in Standing Rock. Thinking back the first time I heard about DAPL activism and how damaging pipelines are to the earth, I think of social media since that’s where I got most of my information from during that time. The Internet has made it easier to be able to connect to others through things such as messaging apps, email, and social media. With that connection, there can be costs and benefits. Social media allows people from all over the world to connect. Indigenous people and allies have created communities where they can share and find other people who share the same interests. In this blog, I will be going over the positives and negatives of Indigenous social media and how important it is.
Kinsale Hueston is an Indigenous artist who runs a very popular social media account on Instagram. She has been highlighted in magazines such as Time, LA Times, and The Navajo Times to name a few. On her account, she highlights not only things she is involved in but also other Native artists. Through this, someone can see so many aspects of Indigenous art like poems and beadwork. Through looking at her page it is evident that social media artists can highlight their work and showcase other Indigenous artists, as well.
Social media has many outlets for activism. One Instagram page that I find particularly important raises awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in North America. The name of the true-crime podcast is the Red Justice Project. On their page, they show pictures of the people they discuss in their episodes with quotes from people they have interviewed. From this page, it can be seen that social media is used to promote awareness of these cases.
UNC-Chapel Hill Indigenous student organization accounts are also a vital part of recruitment and helping people find others with similar interests. The Alpha Chapter of Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Inc. (the first Native American Sorority) has an Instagram account in which their historian posts events among other things. I want to highlight this page because throughout the pandemic we had to go mainly all online. Many of our posts include educating by giving study advice, how to make prayer bundles, teaching about the four sacred herbs, and raising awareness of how COVID-19 has affected Native communities. This is not the only Indigenous Social Media from UNC, there is also the Carolina Indian Circle’s page and Phi Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. the Native American interest fraternity. Each group showcases what it means to be Native at a PWI.
Social media has not been around that long, and it became popular especially while I was growing up. I have seen firsthand how social media can elevate our goals of promoting certain things to Indigenous peoples through knowledge and awareness. Indigenous social media matter because Indigenous peoples all over can create a space for themselves. In this space, we can be activists, artists, and so much more. Engagement occurs when people can follow, like, subscribe, etc. to the Indigenous content creator. From this engagement, the Indigenous social media community can spread to all of those who are interested.
I want to show the positives of social media but there are some negatives. One is that since it’s public to everyone, that means anyone can comment back. I have personally seen attacking comments guided towards Indigenous people and their practices. For example, I have seen people saying incorrect information about Indigenous people and then when corrected they would get defensive. I think this is seen as a negative side of the social media world because people can say incorrect information that could spread as true. Being able to spread misinformation is something that can be seen negatively in social media as a whole.
Overall, Indigenous social media is a space that is created by Indigenous people for Indigenous people and allies. I hope that, though there are caveats to having a public space where incorrect statements can occur, Indigenous social media can overpower that. Social media and engagement in Indigenous communities are very important in thriving in the digital age we are in currently. Overcoming misinformation is something that isn’t just a social media occurrence that can happen like settler memory-denying certain parts of history that happened. The people and pages I have highlighted above are examples of Indigenous social media which isn’t just one thing. These pages speak out on justice, emphasize Indigenous art, educate, and it all goes against Indigenous erasure.
Works Cited
Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Inc.-Alpha Chapter (2012). @alphachapterpis. Instagram
Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock. , 2017. https://awakethefilm.org/.
Bruyneel, K. Settler Memory: The Disavowal of Indigeneity and the Politics of Race in the United States. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Carolina Indian Circle. (2014). @cic_unc. Instagram
Hueston, K. (2016). @kinsalehues. Instagram
Phi Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc. (2016). @phinu_warriors_unc. Instagram
The Red Justice Project. (2020). @redjusticepodcast. Instagram