IsumaTV: Indigenous community media and online activism

By: Teague Schneiter, Posted: Oct 5 09

Regions: Global, Canada

Issues: Corporations and human rights, Discrimination, Education, Environment, Food & health & development, Freedom of opinion & expression, Indigenous peoples, Internally displaced persons, Minorities, Sustainable development, Transitional justice

Tags: community media, indigenous media, inuit, social media

*This is the second post of our weekly series on Indigenous media.

Since I first heard of what folks were calling a 'YouTube for indigenous media' in early 2008, the word about IsumaTV has been spreading: in its first nine months the site registered almost 4 million hits. Since its birth, the internet portal for global Indigenous media has been reaching out and making a significant contribution to the online Indigenous media landscape. Though IsumaTV emerged out of a very interesting and prolific history of Inuit filmmaking practice, in this post I will be discussing the platform's increasingly global and political focus, made possible by a growing user base, new networking capabilities, and issue-based curation. The post is quite long, so if you are short on time, read up to the fold and bookmark IsumaTV to check out later. If you're really interested, keep scrolling!