“I Am Not a Fairy Tale”: Indigenous Storytelling on Canadian Television

Abstract

When Indigenous traditional stories are adapted for mainstream media platforms, they enter into a complex media space already saturated with story genres and a regulatory environment specific to national broadcasting. With attention to both screen aesthetics and contexts of folktale categories and media infrastructures, I explore Indigenous agency in Canadian broadcasting of First Nations stories for youth audiences. Recognizing the influence of European story systems and the demands and limitations of media production and transmission, I argue that Indigenous media makers’ negotiations of these dynamics are inscribed in the animated productions themselves through emphases on Indigenous voices, tribal design, and Indigenous homelands and pedagogies.