Protesters, Activists or Land Defenders? Narratives Around Indigenous Resistance in the Canadian Media : Discourse Analysis of Selected CBC Articles on Contemporary Indigenous Resistance

Abstract: Indigenous autonomy, self-government and self-determination have historically been an area of conflict within the settler colonial state of Canada. This thesis aims to analyze critically the Canadian state’s alleged progressive nature in regard to nation-to-nation relations as well as the discourses that portray Canadian society as fostering Indigenous rights. Grounded in previous research and contextual background, this study uses the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) to investigate how Canadian media produces and reproduces discourse around the issues connected with Indigenous resistance since the ‘Oka Crisis’ of 1990, based on the selected material published by The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The findings illustrate that while liberal-influenced narratives have improved, significant identification of decolonization within Canada’s media was not found and the structures of settler colonialism remain largely unchanged.