Take Action: Let them hear your voice!

 

The problem: The mass media thrives on clickbait. Clicks generate revenues. So mass media has an incentive to sensationalize and oversimplify. They have an incentive to make you think that there are ‘enemies’ that you need to be aware of, so they create ‘others’ to capture our attention and upset us. When media stories, videos, and article represent Indigenous land rights, land defenders, and treaty rights as instances of “us” (settlers) versus “them” (Indigenous peoples), they are obscuring the truth. If Canadians are going to take effective climate action collectively, these tropes and stereotypes need to end.

The Challenge: The time is now to speak back to media, to let them hear your voice. To let them know that the ‘othering’, the stereotypes, the identity politics that position Indigenous nations as obstacles to ‘progress’ need to end. Indigenous people’s are on the front lines of the climate battle all around the world. They are leading the fight. Climate change affects us all. There is no “us” and “them” on a warming planet. We all breathe the same air. It is time to let the media know that this sensationalism and clickbait framing is not acceptable anymore. To let them know that as long as they split Canadians and Indigenous nations and put them against each other, that coherent actions on Climate Change will suffer.

Action Plans:

• Write an Op-Ed in your local paper challenging this “us” vs. “them” mentality.
• Write a letter to the editorial board expressing your disapproval of these clickbait tactics that prevent cooperation and coordination on climate action.
• Organize or attend a protest outside of a media organization’s headquarters to demand an end to the stereotyping and misrepresentations of Indigenous nations, and to demand that their contributions to climate action and climate awareness be recognized.
• Tweet @ your media outlets. Tweet constantly and aggressively demanding an end to these misleading representations that try to politicize and fearmonger.
• Contribute a story to a community newspaper on the work that local Indigenous groups are doing to preserve and conserve ecosystems in your area. Highlight the role that Indigenous communities play in taking direct action to clean up ecosystems.
• Write a post on Facebook and share it across your network. Do a little research on the land management and sustainable philosophies of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge. Spread the word among your friends about what can be learned from land-based cultures that have centuries of experience managing ecosystems and landscapes with their own eyes and hands.