Misrepresentation Of Aboriginal People In Canadian Media: Essay Analysis.

The Assignment: Read Harding (2005) and Belanger (2013) Chapter 14 carefully.

Harding, R. (2005). The Media, Aboriginal People and Common Sense. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XXV(1): 311-335. 

Using these readings as a starting point, provide a critical reading / analysis of a current media presentation on an Indigenous issue / event in Canada. 

The assignment is to pay attention to what is making the news, and how it is being reported / presented. Which points of view are being favored? How is the media source "spinning" the story? What are the implicit and explicit assumptions built into this "spin"? 

• Indigenous run media
• Mainstream / non-Indigenous media 
• Print media o Television / Film 
• Internet sources .

Basically - any public source of information that is reporting / presenting an Indigenous issue or event. 

The issue to be focused in this paper is the misrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canadian media and the focus would be on the right of Aboriginal parents to take care of their children. The story in focus here is the decision of an Aboriginal mother to cure her ill daughter through traditional methods and not in a hospital.

The story was published in The Star in 2014 with the heading First Nations parents can now doom their sick children(Thestar.com, 2018)..

The essay attempts to bring to light the issues of Aboriginal people in Canada and its representation in the media. Wide-ranging issues are there that are faced by the Aboriginal people in Canada including murder of and the missing Aboriginal girls and women, racist attacks on men and so on.

The governments for long have found it difficult to address these issues properly. One of the main reasons for this is that the issues have not been viewed from the Aboriginals perspective.

The essay links the work of Hardinger (2005) to analyze critically, the “common sense” shown by the Canadian media in portraying the issues of the Aboriginal peoples. The essay discusses other resources that would provide further insight into the issue.

In 2014, The Star, one of Canada’s leading dailies, published a news article by Rosie Dimanno, where the author demonstrated concerns regarding the attitude of the Aboriginal parents regarding the health of their children (Thestar.com, 2018). According to the article, an 11-year old Aboriginal girl’s mother rejected chemotherapy and decided to treat her cancer through traditional healing methods.

The hospital authorities had moved to court to demand chemotherapy. However, the ruling went against them as the Judge stated that denying the mother the right to choose for her child would be denying Aboriginal sovereignty. The article questioned the ruling of the court stating that it was taken in a hurry and risked the life of the girl.

The arguments made in the article by the writer have some valid points but it also brings to light the hypocrisy of the Canadian media. On one hand, the First Nations people are encouraged to govern themselves but on the other, when they take any decision, the government and the media put them down. The girl took the decision to stop chemotherapy as she was having great difficulties and pain.

Thus, instead of criticizing the court’s ruling and the mother’s decision, the media could have shed light on it from a neutral perspective without being hypocrite.

Harding (2005) explains elaborately the function and nature of the media when it comes to portraying the First Nations people. The author, in his seminal work titled The Media, Aboriginal People and Common Sense talks about the primary function of the media, which is “to construct common sense that audiences use to interpret news”(Harding, 2005).

He further states that the recent news stories by the Canadian media on Aboriginal people have mostly tried to prevent the community to “exercise complete control over their lives” (Harding, 2005). In other words, the news texts have portrayed a picture of the First Nations people that they are incapable of controlling their lives.

The News Article: Stereotyping the Aboriginal People

The author made use of content analysis technique to analyze the three Canadian newspapers that include The Vancouver Sun, The Province and The Globe and Mail. Robert Harding’s work on the media and Aboriginal people is largely based on the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) work that highlighted the three detrimental stereotypes of First Nations people. These included stereotyping them as victims, warriors and environmentalists.

Further, the Canadian news media has had a history of functioning as a “loyal auxiliary of the state” that often included news that demonstrated excessive ethnocentrism and blatant racism (Harding, 2005).

Although the present situation has shown marked change from the past, yet, there are instances as the one presented in the essay prove that a lot still needs to change. The Aboriginal people have also been vocal about their representation by the ‘white’ newspapers as uncivilized and violent from the early years.  

The news article chosen for analysis has also stereotyped the Aboriginal people as victims. The little girl has been portrayed as a victim of the rights given to the Aboriginal peoples by the government. As mentioned in the news article, the girl was released from the McMaster Children’s Hospital after she wrote a letter to the authorities to be allowed to stop the chemotherapy.

The case however was dragged to Ontario Court when the McMaster’s Hospital demanded intervention from the Children’s Aid Society into the matter. Judge Gethin Edward passed the judgment in favor of the Aboriginal parents and the girl. In the Judge’s words, “the mother’s decision to pursue traditional medicine for her daughter is her Aboriginal right”.

However, the news article attempted to portray the girl as a victim of these rights as it deprived her chemotherapy treatment that had better chances than the traditional methods. Harding (2005) has pointed out in his work that stereotyping Aboriginal peoples as unable to “manage their own affairs successfully” has emerged as a new stereotype. This new stereotype shows the Aboriginal peoples are victims of their own traditions and rituals since they are unable to accept modern way of living.

The mainstream Canadian media dominated mostly by the non-Aboriginal peoples have tried to construct common sense about the Aboriginal people in “ways that suggest that they are not ready or able to assume full responsibility for their lives”(Harding, 2005).

The news article published in The Star has done the same thing by creating a common sense that the Aboriginal girl should not have been allowed to reject chemotherapy, as traditional methods are not effective and neither accepted in medical science. However, the article failed to fathom that the Aboriginal parents are also aware of their child’s wellbeing and they are aware of the step they have taken.

The rights of the First Nations people have been guaranteed by the constitution of the country and that includes the right to reject any treatment or follow traditional ways. It is therefore not acceptable that a newspaper should treat the independent and rightful decision of an Aboriginal family to be ghastly for the child. The newspaper’s headline itself was enough to notice that it had misrepresented the Aboriginals as being unable to take the right decisions and risk the lives of their children.

Harding's Analysis of Canadian Media's Representation of Aboriginal Peoples

Nonetheless, if the non-Aboriginals faced similar situation then the headline would have been different. Stating that First Nations parents can kill their children is extremely regressive and demonstrates the mentality of the mainstream media while representing the issues of the First Nations people.

It is nevertheless important to mention that not all media platforms portray the Aboriginal peoples as being unable to take control of their lives and that they need intervention. To cite an instance, the same news story was published with a neutral view giving more space to the concerns of the Aboriginal parents.

The news published in CBC Canada presented the headline ‘Stress’ over chemo court fight ‘uncalled for’: family of Aboriginal girl(Cbc.ca, 2018). The headline made it clear that the newspaper did not try to portray the Aboriginal family as weak or on the wrong side.

The Globe and Mail published the story of the Aboriginal girl’s demise in 2015 due to stroke with major focus on the parent’s views on her condition and the reasons she was taken off the chemo. The headline of the 2015 report read Aboriginal girl begged parents to stop chemo treatments, mother says. Further, the report elaborately added views and insights from the girl’s parents and family members especially the mother.

It was revealed that the girl was in excruciating pain and was on the verge of dying due to chemo. On the other hand, without knowing or even trying to know the reason for the decision taken by the Aboriginal parents, The Star published an article criticizing the First Nations parents for negligence.

The representation of the First Nations people in films has been far better than in print media especially in the recent past. Indigenous cinema in Canada has seen a tremendous growth with films like Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance and Rhymes for Young Ghouls receiving recognition and accolades at the international level.

Apart from that, the 1980s and 1990s era saw visible change in the portrayal of the Aboriginal peoples in narratives including films, theaters and television shows.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had produced a series of shows like Spirit Bay, North if 60, The Beachcombers and The Rez where the Native actors had the chance to portray their own lives, their own people (Cbc.ca, 2018).

The progress has been remarkable as compared to other countries like Australia or even America but some areas still need focus. The main area of concern is, as evident from the above discussion, is the representation of the Aboriginal peoples in the mainstream media.

Traditionally, the non-verbal communication was not of utmost importance for the endurance of the languages. The stories that were been told by the storytellers used to bring the whole communities together.

However, things have changed today. Televisions, telephones, internet and most importantly, the social media sites like Facebook have created new social connections over all the societies, comprising of the aboriginals or the First Nations people. All the new social connections are elicited by the searches for much more efficient communication.

Conclusion

An individual who is isolated in the Northern Quebec could also today communicate and share his and her lifestyles with people all over the world. For the people from Inuit or aboriginal societies and that from the First Nations, the rising success as well as the rapid distribution of the main media of communication is regarded as the major giver to the dissolution of cultural fundamentals of their respective communities or societies. Many aboriginals are there who have gained empowerment in different forms of creative expression in past twenty-five of the last century.

Theatre, filmmaking, music and literature have become some of the very important forms of expression between the aboriginal and the First Nations people in Canada. For example, the “Rez Sisters” by Tomson Highway have marked the onset of the Aboriginal theatre on the stage of Canada. For many of the First Nation People and the Canadian Aboriginals, the documentary filmmaking has also become a favored form of expression, often with the encouragement of the National Film Board (NFB). 

Furthermore, the Aboriginal radio networks such as the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) are and websites like “Inui Tapiriit Kanatami” and “isuma.tv” are all available. Each helps to make it likely for the Aboriginals to correspond their culture and share with others.

With the same, a very capable initiative in between the computer scientists, academic researchers and aboriginal representatives has resulted in the creation of the website called the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace . The aim of it is to encourage such Aboriginal people to learn make use new technologies.

Conclusion

In the end, it can be stated that the Aboriginals have been misrepresented and stereotyped mostly in the print media. The news article that is chosen for analysis of this case has also stereotyped the Aboriginal people as the victims. It is also to note that stereotyping Aboriginal peoples as unable to “manage their own affairs successfully” has emerged as a new stereotype. This depicts that the Aboriginal peoples are victims of their own traditions and rituals, as they cannot accept the new way of living. The newspaper’s headline itself was enough to notice that it has misrepresented the Aboriginals as being unable to take the right decisions and risk the lives of their children. Notwithstanding this fact, it is also to mention that not all media platforms portray Aboriginals as the same and that they need intervention. The best example of it is the news that CBC Canada presented as headline ‘Stress’ over chemo court fight ‘uncalled for’: family of Aboriginal girl”. Hence, there is a misrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canadian media to a great extent.

References:

Thestar.com. (2018). First Nations parents can now doom their sick children: DiManno | The Star. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/11/15/first_nations_parents_can_now_doom_their_sick_children_dimanno.html

Cbc.ca. (2018). 'Stress' over chemo court fight 'uncalled for': family of aboriginal girl | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/judge-to-decide-if-aboriginal-girl-should-be-taken-from-family-for-chemo-1.2834674

Harding, R. (2005). The media, Aboriginal people, and common sense. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 25(1), 311-335.

Cbc.ca. (2018). Top 10 indigenous films of all time | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/top-10-indigenous-films-of-all-time-1.2807553