| dc.description.abstract | Indigenous activism focusses on Indigenous rights and Indigenous sovereignty. One issue that connects to both these themes is that of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and Girls (MMIWG). This issue entails the disproportionality between the numbers of Indigenous women who go missing or are murdered and that of other women in Canada. The issue is emblematic of the marginalized position of Indigenous women as a result of racism, sexism, and colonialism. Indigenous activists need to mobilize two key audiences, an Indigenous and a “White settler” audience, in order to achieve change with their activism. This research studies the resonance construction of Indigenous grassroots activists concerning the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada since 2016. Through the use of participant observation, interviews, and the use of secondary sources, such as newspaper articles and documentary film, this research provides a description of the context in which Indigenous grassroots activism on MMIWG takes place and identifies Benford and Snow’s (2000) core framing tasks in Indigenous grassroots activism. Eight in-depth interviews serve as the basis of an analysis of resonance construction among an Indigenous as well as a “White settler” audience, the two key audiences of MMIWG activism. This research finds that conditions of colonialism, social marginalization, and lack of government response have shaped the context of activism. Additionally, activists tend to frame MMIWG as a structural issue that needs to be addressed at the root while also preventing further harm to Indigenous women and girls. This research also finds that among the sample of this research credibility, i.e. the “believability” of a frame, weighs more heavily than salience when activists construct resonance among a “White settler” audience, while salience, i.e. the “visibility/recognizability” of a frame, weighs more heavily than credibility among an Indigenous audience. This research proposes the idea of the resonance equilibrium to visualize this finding. There are also indications that other factors, such as space and collective identity, play significant roles in resonance construction among Indigenous grassroots activists. | |
