Writing Back: The Decriminalization Of Media In Indigenous Film

Indigenous media is about fighting back. Back against racism, generalization, marginalization, and everything in between. Luana Ross said “Outsiders have filmed indigenous communities since the birth of cinema, but these films have had little to do with the real lives of Native people.” In this statement Ross captures the essence of indigenous media - facing a stream of endless negative images of themselves, indigenous filmmakers have taken in upon themselves to do everything they can in defense of their identity. Similar to the idea of “writing back” to develop a native historiography to rival the Western historical frame of mind, creating indigenous media fights the saturation of media in the world created by people who share almost nothing

Native people have been misrepresented as savages, experienced racism, and overall been oppressed ever since colonization began. In the modern era, native peoples face these less so in day to day life. However, with the onset of these new media technologies, another period of colonization, that of media, has taken its place. Natives today face numerous false representations, racist works, and omissions entirely in media. But in this case, indigenous groups now have ways to fight back. They can uses these mediums just as non-natives can, and fight this new type of colonization. They can use their media as a platform to spread their views. In this case, it gives native people an opportunity to have a voice where before they had

The conceptual frameworks provided by tribal worldviews are paramount to this project, and tribal languages and traditional sources are at the core” (141) This statement can be extended to native filmmakers as well. These filmmakers are, instead of “writing back”, as Miller discusses, “filming back”, and face the same issues regarding the best way to do so. By telling tribal stories, discussing tribal interests, and illustrating age-old tribal traditions, filmmakers are utilizing these new tools to further the indigenous worldview. Despite “using the master’s tools to disassemble the master’s house” (142) , as Miller says, they are using media to fight the racism and misrepresentation present in the works of non-natives. As Randolph Lewis states in Alanis Obomsawin: The Visions of a Native Filmmaker, “the relationship between imagemaker and Native subject has often veered into rank exploitation” (191). Indigenous people have been grossly mistreated and oversimplified in traditional, non-native, mainstream media. Through the use of these technologies, indigenous people have made it clear that they will not, as they should not, let these images and misrepresentations dominate the public mind. They desire to change these opinions and fight to correct any wrongs through the