Oct. 9, 2019
Northern Arizona University is co-sponsoring “Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: An International Symposium on the Global Ascendancy of Social Media Activism” with Macquarie University of Sydney, Australia. Scholars from NAU, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere in the United States will share their research beginning at 9 a.m. Oct. 17 in the Native American Cultural Center.
Moving from chain emails to creating profiles, posts and content on social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat, the use of social media has expanded further today than at any other point in history. #BlackLivesMatter or the #ALSIceBucketChallenge, among other social media campaigns, have brought like-minded activists together around important causes. Indigenous peoples throughout the world have similarly forged connections across nations and continents and publicized movements through social media. #SOSBlakAustralia, for example, serves to support all Aboriginal communities in Australia to remain in their homelands and country and to enable them to determine their own futures. In reaction to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the Missouri River with the potential to pollute the water supply into the reservation, protesters created the #NoDAPL movement in support of those on the Standing Rock Reservation.
Want to learn more about these and other Indigenous Peoples’ social media movements? Register for the symposium online; to mark “community” if you have no affiliation with Macquarie University. For more information, contact professor Jeff Berglund.