Radio gives voice to marginalised communities
In many parts of the world, indigenous peoples continue to be marginalised. One manifestation of this exclusion is under-representation in mainstream media. Minority groups often struggle to make their voices heard, or find that their culture is caricatured or misinterpreted. Community radio has therefore emerged as a powerful tool for marginalised communities to represent themselves, to discuss issues that matter to them and to provide a sense of solidarity. This phenomenon caught the attention of Katie Moylan, associate professor at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, and TRR project coordinator. “I’d previously examined the role of community radio for migrant groups in Ireland and had started to research community radio in North America for a book I was writing,” she explains. “I quickly realised that I couldn’t write about North American community-led radio without taking into account indigenous radio.”
Representation through radio
The TRR project, undertaken with the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, enabled Moylan to research and visit stations run by indigenous tribes in Arizona, Oklahoma and southern California. “There are between 50 and 70 tribal stations across the United States,” she notes. “This sounds like a lot, but there are 574 recognised tribal communities.” Moylan researched radio content and interviewed practitioners about their work, to learn more about how tribal groups represent themselves. She was able to see how these stations were organised, from funding through to scheduling. From this work, commonalities in indigenous radio content and practices, such as the importance of self-determination and resilience, were identified. Moylan was also able to note on-air community-building strategies at different stations, such as traditional storytelling and shout-outs to community members. A key commonality was providing culturally specific support while reinforcing tribal values, with few resources.
Importance of communication
Everything took a turn however with the arrival of the COVID pandemic in March 2020. While some of Moylan’s on-site visits were necessarily cancelled, she was still able to see first-hand the critical role of tribal radio during a time of crisis. “Many tribal communities are accustomed to precarity and dealing with difficult situations,” she adds. “This meant that, initially, they were more prepared for the pandemic. Stations quickly put in place protocols such as hand sanitisers and elbow bumps.” These stations provided vital information and health updates to vulnerable communities, at a time when a lot of disinformation was being spread via other means. “Indigenous radio was often the first port of call for many of these communities,” says Moylan. “Tribal radio quickly adapted their programming, for example by live broadcasting tribal meetings.” Moylan is currently finalising an online map of Native American stations, to provide researchers with a better understanding of where tribal radio stations are located and linking to livestreamed content in real time. Her research findings have been shared with tribal radio practitioners, and open access articles of her work will be freely available. Many of the concepts explored, for example decolonising strategies such as first-language programming, are also eminently transferable to other contexts, for instance the situation of indigenous groups in Europe such as the Sami, as well as minority communities such as the Roma. “The COVID pandemic has really underlined our need for better connectivity,” adds Moylan. “The communication role of these tribal radio stations really resonates, and I think seeing these communicative practices in action has also made me a better teacher.”
Keywords
TRR, indigenous, marginalised, communities, radio, media, tribal, decolonising, Sami, Roma
