The last topic looked at how others frame stories. This one looks at what happens when communities tell their own. When First Nations, Métis and Inuit creators control the camera, the microphone and the edit, they choose the first voice, the language, the pace and the context. That is why self-representation in media is often discussed alongside sovereignty: deciding how your own story is told is a form of deciding for yourself. Studying that work also gives you the codes and conventions you need to make a media text of your own.
Indigenous creators and outlets
- APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) launched in 1999 as a national television network in Canada. Its programming is by, for and about Indigenous peoples, and it broadcasts in English, French and Indigenous languages.
- Alanis Obomsawin is an Abenaki filmmaker whose documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada span decades. Her film Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) documents the 1990 standoff at Kanehsatà:ke from behind the barricades, with people from the community speaking in their own words.
- Igloolik Isuma Productions is an Inuit production company. Its feature Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), directed by Zacharias Kunuk, was made in Inuktitut and won the Caméra d'Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Community and regional media such as local radio, newspapers and podcasts carry news in Indigenous languages and cover stories that national outlets rarely reach.
- Online creators use social video, podcasts and digital art to reach audiences directly, without waiting for a mainstream outlet to decide their story is newsworthy.
Media and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action include calls directed at media. Call 85 addresses APTN's role in supporting reconciliation, and Call 86 calls on journalism programs and media schools to require education on the history of Aboriginal peoples. Journalism programs and media schools are named because how stories are told shapes what the public understands.
Codes and conventions
| Kind of code | What it includes | Example of its effect |
|---|---|---|
| Technical codes | Camera shots and angles, lighting, editing pace, sound and music | Long, still shots of land with natural sound slow the viewer down and invite reflection |
| Symbolic codes | Setting, colour, clothing, objects, body language | A speaker filmed in their own kitchen rather than a studio suggests someone at home in their community, not an outside expert |
| Written codes | Headlines, titles, captions, lower thirds, fonts | A lower third giving a speaker's name, nation and role tells the audience whose knowledge they are hearing |
| Audio codes | Voice, music, silence, sound effects, language | Opening with a speaker in their own language before any English places that language first |
| Form | Common conventions |
|---|---|
| Podcast episode | A cold open or hook, intro music, a host introduction, segments or interviews, a clear ending and credits |
| Poster | One dominant image, a short headline, a visual hierarchy from most to least important, the key details (what, when, where), and a call to action |
| Short documentary | Interviews, B-roll that shows what the speaker describes, lower thirds identifying speakers, optional narration, and end credits |
| Social video | A hook in the first seconds, vertical framing, on-screen captions, short running time, and a clear takeaway |
Planning your media text
- Purpose. Decide what you want the audience to understand, feel or do by the end.
- Audience. Name a specific audience, such as Grade 9 students at your school, and what they probably already know or assume.
- Form. Choose the form that suits the purpose and audience: a podcast for depth and voice, a poster for one clear message, a short video for showing places and people.
- Research and permission. Gather accurate sources, and get permission from anyone you record or whose images, words or knowledge you use.
- Structure. Write an outline, script or storyboard that places each code and convention deliberately.
- Create and revise. Produce a draft, test it on someone from your intended audience, and revise.
- Credit. Name every source, speaker and contributor, including their nation where they have asked to be identified that way.
Protocols for making media about Indigenous topics
Ask before you record, and explain where the work will be shared. Credit Elders, Knowledge Keepers and community members by name and role if they agree. Do not use sacred symbols, ceremonies or a nation's designs as decoration. Present stories as belonging to the people who shared them. First Nations data is also guided by the First Nations principles of OCAP — ownership, control, access and possession — established in 1998 and now stewarded by the First Nations Information Governance Centre, which set out that First Nations control information about their own communities.
Reflecting on your media text
- Purpose and effect. Did the finished text do what you planned? Point to the specific code or choice that worked, or did not.
- Audience response. What did a test viewer or listener take away, and did it match your intention?
- Framing in your own work. Whose voice came first? What did you leave out, and why? Apply the same questions you used on news stories.
- Form. Would a different form have served the purpose better? What did this form make easy or hard?
- Respect and accuracy. Did you get permission, credit sources properly and avoid speaking for a community you are not part of?
- Next time. Name one skill you developed and one concrete change you would make.
Amplify rather than speak for
If you are not First Nations, Métis or Inuit, the most respectful media text is usually one that brings forward Indigenous voices rather than explaining Indigenous experience in your own words. Interview, quote and credit creators and community members, link to their work, and let them define the terms. Your role can be the host, editor or designer who makes room for their voice.