Originally published in TEACH Magazine, Digital Citizenship Special Issue, 2020
By Shelby Lisk
As a kid, I only ever saw my community, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, make headlines when there was a highway or railroad blockade. The public knew us for protests, cigarettes, and gas. Even from a young age, I knew there was more to that story and there still is.
Most media content about Indigenous communities are created by non-Indigenous people, for their consumption. This leads to the reproduction of the stereotypes we’ve seen time and time again. Accomplished Anishinaabe reporter Duncan McCue coined the WD4 rule, which has become ubiquitous in the Indigenous journalism world. In a CBC article, he shares the story: “An elder once told me the only way an Indian would make it on the news is if he or she were one of the 4Ds: drumming, dancing, drunk or dead.” (He added the “W” for warrior.)
In 2011, Professors Carmen Robertson and Mark Anderson co-authored Seeing Red: A History of Natives in Canadian Newspapers, an examination of Indigenous representation in Canadian newspapers from 1869 to 2009, and will be releasing an updated version in 2021.
Shelby Lisk is a multidisciplinary artist and journalist from Kenhtè:ke (Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory). She currently lives in Ottawa, where she works as a multimedia journalist, capturing news and current affairs stories that affect Indigenous communities across the province.
