The Digital Age & Indigenous Peoples

Some have speculated that social media and other digital tools could lead to a more globally homogenous monoculture for humanity, where smaller cultures become lost in the digital aether. Perhaps in a very long time, but not for now.

Looking at how indigenous peoples are embracing and leveraging social media in Canada and some other countries, shows us that by doing so, they’re not only enriching and strengthening their own culture, but building stronger relationships with other cultures. In a way, social media and other technologies, are enabling them to reclaim their rich, vibrant cultural heritage.

At the outset I will say that I live on unceded territory in Sipekne’katik. My goal is be as respectful as I can in an article that could certainly be a whole book! My perspective in this article is about cultural preservation and fostering positive engagement with other cultures.

In 2018, Jeremy Dutcher, an indigenous tenor, composer and musicologist of the Wlastqiyik nation in New Brunswick, won a Polaris Music Prize for his inaugural album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, sung entirely in his native tongue. It is haunting and evocative. In 2024 he won a second Polaris Music Prize and a Juno Award (Canada’s version of the BAFTAs). He is an example of how digital tools are enabling a deeper engagement with other Canadians.

L’nu (Nova Scotia) Mi’kmaw educator Jarvis Googoo uses Twitter (x) very effectively to educate and inform the public on interesting, often fascinating, aspects of Mi’kmaw cultural practices, history and activities. He’s also an avid marathon runner.

Indigenous cultures around the world are finding innovative uses of social media and related digital tools to create a deeper and more positive engagement with other cultures and bolstering their own cultures.

In New Zealand, Maori communities have built mobile apps to enable the learning of their language, mostly aimed at their own communities, but accessible to the broader public as well. The Torres Straight Islanders in Australia have used Instagram and TikTok to showcase their art to the world.

In Canada’s Northwest Territories there is the Gwich’in Digital Literacy Project, which has several projects, including building fast internet infrastructure, but also programs to teach their indigenous language to younger generations.

On the topic of younger generations, many in various tribal nations across Canada use TikTok to educate not just themselves, but broader society on interesting cultural practices. From song and art to land stewardship practices and foods. Often mixing them up with non-indigenous music to create dynamic, upbeat cultural explorations.

This ability for younger generations to learn and expand, then share their cultures is creating an interesting dynamic within their own cultures. In most indigenous cultures, there are the elders and knowledge keepers, who traditionally taught and communicated cultural norms, customs and behaviours. While they still do, younger generations can transmit their cultures to broader society in interesting new ways that shifts this traditional power dynamic.

Social media use by indigenous communities has also enabled them to bypass the traditional gatekeepers such as news media. This has enabled them to hold governments accountable when promises aren’t kept or projects fail.

In North Dakota, the use of social media played a pivotal role for indigenous communities to share their message regarding an oil pipeline proposed to cross their lands. They rallied support from tribal nations across the USA and Canada, as well as support from environmental activist groups.

Through the sharing of knowledge around stewardship of the land, from how to actually work with forest fires, to managing more effective use of animals in harmony with the land, has opened up new avenues to working with governments. Increasingly, the Canadian federal and provincial governments are taking guidance from indigenous communities for land management, changing colonial approaches that haven’t worked.

What all this has enabled in Canada is a more meaningful and positive form of cultural transmission, which slowly, is beginning to inform the cultural fabric of the country. Across many provinces we see an increase in Pow Wows, which are incredible events where indigenous communities make their festivals accessible to the public.

All of this is an important indicator that while we may see divisions on many social media platforms, we also see how they can be used to create harmony, effectively transmit cultural ideas and values and strengthen a culture rather than dilute it.

An ancient and powerful human technology is story telling. It’s how we come to understand one another and shape our realities. Indigenous cultures are incredibly adept story tellers, deeply rooted in their relationship with the land. In most indigenous languages, for example, they use verbs to describe aspects of nature, rather than adjectives like Western cultures. They see the land as moving, always changing and it informs much of their way of life and the stories they tell.

While deeper research would be needed to better understand the effects of social media with regard to cultural transmission and broader societal acceptance, we can anecdotally propose that because of the growth and online acceptance, that it is working in a good net effect.