The Urgent Need for Anticolonial Media Literacy

Abstract

In this article, we advocate for anticolonial media literacy as an important complement to critical race media literacy. Given the pervasive misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in media, teachers must explicitly learn to challenge colonizing and dehumanizing representations of Indigenous life and help their students to do the same. By outlining several Native studies theories, we forward anticolonial media literacy to help teachers detect and interrupt colonial logics. After modeling anticolonial medial literacy in practice, we draw from Nambé Pueblo scholar Debbie Reese’s framework of “critical Indigenous literacies” to support teachers in including and creating respectful alternatives.