Media coverage about Indigenous land return can inadvertently center Euro-American voices and reproduce white savior narratives. We’re assembling resources and Indigenous-led trainings to learn how to reshape conservation narratives to center Indigenous issues.
Same land, different story: An example of different narratives around land transfers to tribes, featuring three articles on the land returns to the Kashia and Esselen Tribes in California, from Indian Country Today, Good News Network, and the Los Angeles Times.
Learnings from our training with Sunlight Media Collective: In April 2022, Sunlight Media Collective led a “Changing the Narrative” training for First Light organizations. In reflecting on the training, participants assembled these values for our organizations to aspire to.
“The Sign Speaks Volumes” – Islands and Erasure Narratives: Join us in hearing the experience of Ann Pollard Ranco, Penobscot writer, artist, and activist. Ann’s journey to reconnect with ancestral homelands in Wabanaki territory led her this summer to a place now called Barred Island. While there, she encountered a sign telling the story of Barred Island. The story erased her ancestors, their vital connections with this place, and the violence that drove them from home. In “The Sign Speaks Volumes”, Ann’s conversation with First Light, she recounts the pain of finding that sign and– gently, insistently, hopefully– demands better stories and better relationship from dominant culture in Wabanaki homelands.