Abstract
This article examines representations of indigenous peoples in Swedish and Canadian press coverage of the Copenhagen climate summit (COP15). It discusses tensions between the international character of UN summits and the often transnational character of indigenous peoples as well as the issue of climate change. It considers how conceptions of nature, culture and politics intersect in the coverage, and in what roles indigenous peoples appear. Building on theories concerning the representation of indigenous peoples, traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and identity politics, the study combines content and framing analysis with discourse analysis of a small sample of articles about indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the coverage. When indigenous voices emerge they appear as victim-heroes and important intermediaries of urgency and spirituality. They also appear as intermediaries of de-nationalization, but they are misframed politically, recognized in terms of their culture rather than represented in terms of their status.
Keywords
Introduction
United Nations climate summits constitute crucial defining, legitimating and mobilizing events when it comes to understandings and actions related to one of the most pressing global issues of our times: climate change (Cottle, 2009). These understandings and actions are made public through the media. The media makes a huge contribution to the structuring of these summits, which can be defined as media events on a supranational level (Dayan and Katz, 1992; Eide et al., 2008; 2010). The media also takes on the role of an actor shaping public perceptions and opinions through how they frame debates pertaining to the summits and to climate change more broadly (Entman, 1993; 2007). When considering framing it is essential to identify not only what is being framed and how, but also who or what is not being framed or misframed (Fraser, 2008). Misframing is understood here as a form of misrepresentation, where just political representation is hindered by a community’s boundaries and excludes some people from the chance to participate (Fraser, 2008: 19). Misframing arises for instance ‘when the state-territorial frame is imposed on transnational sources of injustice’ (Fraser, 2008: 114).
This article examines how indigenous peoples are (mis)framed in mainstream Swedish and Canadian news coverage of the UN climate summit, COP15. The event took place in Copenhagen from 7 December to 18 December 2009. COP stands for ‘Conference of the Parties’, and refers to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) held annually since its inception in 1994. The COP summits connect to the national–international–global continuum in complex ways. Climate change is frequently defined as a global issue while summit negotiations take place between nations – often first and foremost protecting their own interests – in an international setting. In this setting indigenous peoples occupy an ambiguous position. They often constitute transnational or intra-national communities, sometimes recognized as nations with partial independence, but are rarely granted the right to negotiate on a par with nation-states in international political settings. At COP summits, nations negotiate while transnational groups often end up on the margins or outside of official negotiation processes.
Indigenous peoples also occupy a specific place in relation to climate change. In dominant media discourses, they are often represented as specifically connected to nature and thus most directly affected by climate change. This is clearly manifested by references to communities located in close proximity to melting ices, eroding coastlines and shrinking forests. Consequently, indigenous peoples have maintained an active presence at UN climate summits. During COP15, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) challenged official climate change policies and perspectives by producing alternative media coverage of the event that questioned dominant frameworks. Arguably this transnational network could use its status as a form of leverage to bring indigenous perspectives on climate change to the attention of media producers operating within larger public spheres (Meadows and Avison, 2000). The aim of this study is to map the extent to which indigenous peoples are represented in mainstream media coverage of climate change during COP15 and examine how indigenous peoples appear when they are represented; specifically in relation to a nature–culture–politics nexus, where distinctions are made between representations of cultural identity versus political status. We address two key questions: Where (if at all) do indigenous peoples and perspectives enter into coverage of a media event largely structured in accordance with national and international interests? What roles do indigenous peoples play in media narratives about climate change in relation to the summit as a political event and in relation to climate change more broadly?
The article is divided into three parts. The first establishes a conceptual and theoretical background for analysing media representations of indigenous peoples and climate change. Clarification is provided for several terms frequently used to represent indigenous peoples in Swedish and Canadian news coverage. Differing scientific and indigenous perspectives on nature and culture are introduced here since the contexts in which they are drawn upon in media reporting is a primary focal point for analysis. Finally, identity politics theory is evoked; theories pertaining to the recognition of identity and status, the redistribution of means and the representation of people in politics are considered in relation to moral and geographical scales of justice (Fraser, 2008).
The second part of the article outlines a research methodology that combines mapping, framing and discourse analysis of newspaper materials collected in Sweden and Canada during COP15. In the final part of the article we analyse media representations of indigenous peoples in news coverage of COP15. Analysis is not limited to the domestic indigenous peoples of Canada and Sweden. Conversely it discusses similarities and differences in representations of domestic and foreign indigenous peoples in different geographical, political and journalistic contexts. Particular emphasis is placed on the significance given to differing perspectives on nature, culture and politics.
Indigenous peoples: Concepts, backgrounds and theoretical perspectives
There is no consensus on what terminology is deemed most appropriate when making reference to indigenous peoples. Preferences vary across mediums, disciplines, nations and cultures (Alia, 1999; Retzlaff, 2006). Further complicating the matter, postcolonial criticism has recently drawn attention to the pejorative nature of words which continue to circulate in popular representations of indigenous peoples (Pratt, 2008; Said, 1978; Smith, 1999). Hence, it is important to distinguish between several terms and concepts that are used in academic discussions as well as in news coverage of the Copenhagen summit. Clarification is provided for terms that appeared in summit journalism and come up frequently throughout this article.
‘Aboriginal’ and ‘indigenous’ are collective terms, sometimes used interchangeably, to refer to the original people to inhabit a particular area or region and their descendants. However, a subtle difference between these two terms informs the preference given to the words ‘indigenous’ or ‘indigenous peoples’ in this article. In Canada, ‘Aboriginal’ is an umbrella term for three distinct groups of people: First Nations, Métis and Inuit. It is generally employed to make reference to the indigenous peoples of North America. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada defines indigenous as ‘native to the area’, explaining that wider, international connotations are what differentiate the term from Aboriginal which the Canadian government uses exclusively to refer to North American groups (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2002). Smith adds historical depth and theoretical complexity to this raw bureaucratic language: [Indigenous peoples] is a term that internationalizes the experiences, the issues and the struggles of some of the world’s colonized peoples. The final ‘s’ in ‘indigenous peoples’ has been argued for quite vigorously by indigenous activists … recognizing there are real differences between different groups of indigenous peoples. The term has enabled the collective voices of colonized people to be expressed strategically in the international arena. It has also been an umbrella enabling communities to come together … and struggle collectively for self-determination on the global and local stages. (Smith, 1999: 7)
This article gives preference to ‘indigenous’ or ‘indigenous peoples’ because of the inclusive, transnational scope of this terminology. In summit coverage references to ‘indigenous peoples’ were often accompanied by the names of specific groups such as the Inuit and Sami. These news items mainly focused on challenges faced in northern indigenous communities where global warming is rapidly transforming local environments.
Canada and Sweden are both home to indigenous peoples. Sweden has an estimated Sami population of around 20,000 (Sápmi – Sameland, 2011). There are also approximately 2000 Sami in Russia, 8000 in Finland and between 50,000 and 65,000 in Norway, together constituting a transnational community of Sami (Sápmi – Sameland, 2011). The most recent Canadian census reported a population of 1,172,790 indigenous peoples, with 50,485 persons who identified themselves as Inuit (Statistics Canada, 2006).
Inuit communities in the northern Arctic were the only indigenous group to gain direct exposure in Canadian news coverage of COP15. Inuit means ‘the people’ in the Inuktitut language. In Canada, the word has gradually replaced ‘Eskimo’; a pejorative name given to the Inuit by European explorers (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2002). The traditional territory of the Inuit is vast, spanning across one-third of Canada, a large part of Alaska (USA) and Greenland (Denmark/self-governing). Geographical remoteness and a marginal status have meant that Inuit issues and perspectives seldom generate adequate exposure in mainstream Canadian media. Alia reveals a pattern of inaccuracies, misrepresentations and problematic stereotyping that has characterized dominant media representations of the Inuit (Alia, 1999). In recent years, Inuit have lived through dramatic climatic changes attributed to warming temperatures and a corresponding melting of the polar ice caps.
The Sami are Arctic indigenous people who inhabit ancestral territories which span across parts of northern Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. They have moved across a vast geographic area, known as Sapmi (Sami land), for millennia. The Sami people have membership in circumpolar political organizations such as the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat. They are the only indigenous group with official status in this part of the world (Arctic Council, n.d.; Norokorpi, 2007). The Sami are sometimes described as ‘one people in four countries’ (Sápmi – Sameland, 2011). Hence they constitute a transnational community, while also making up intra-national communities within their respective nation-states. In Sweden, the Sami have had their own leet (parliament) since 1993. Its representatives do not play a governing role, but function in an advisory capacity to the Swedish government and parliament. Sweden has not ratified the United Nation’s ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1991). In 2011, Sweden was criticized by the UN for violating the human rights of the Sami. The Sami people in Norway, Sweden and Finland are concurrently considered to gain a high level of attention for indigenous issues from their respective governments. Since 2000, members of Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish leets have composed the Sami Parliamentary Council (with participation of Sami from Russia) to deal with cross-border issues and coordinate ‘the Sami voice’ in international contexts, including the UN (Anaya, 2011). Climate change is a global issue that has particular impact on Sami people who depend upon the Arctic climate for their livelihood. Reindeer husbandry, for instance, is a traditional form of sustenance for the Sami that has been recognized to be specifically endangered by climate change (Anaya, 2011).
It is not unusual to find the voices and perspectives of indigenous peoples underrepresented in mainstream media discourses. Scholars working across a range of disciplines have commented on this tendency and demonstrated how the legacy of these problematic representations often continues to inform current opinions, practices and perspectives on indigenous cultures (Pratt, 2008; Said, 1978; Smith, 1999). Meadows and Avison conclude that while there is a long history of Aboriginal print media in Canada and Australia: ‘Aboriginal people’s voices remain suppressed in news coverage of events in which they are deeply implicated. Investigations of mainstream media coverage of Indigenous issues … reveal Aboriginal voices are still vastly outnumbered by non-Indigenous sources’ (Meadows and Avison, 2000: 348). In a similar way, Pietikäinen (2003) concludes that Sami in Finnish print media are exposed to polarized ethnic representations which render them voiceless and marginalized in mainstream media discourse. Researchers have also examined instances where indigenous groups take media into their own hands to develop narratives that counter prevailing myths and assumptions (Alia, 1999; Meadows and Avison, 2000; Russell, 2005). These media representations aim, with varying degrees of success, to resonate more closely with the identities and lived experiences of indigenous peoples.
The clarifications and examples provided here suggest media representations that rely on collective terms like indigenous and those that identify specific groups may highlight social, political and environmental characteristics that transcend the boundaries of nation-states. However, media narratives are generally informed by a media logic dependent upon nation-states. It remains to be seen what happens when transnational issues connected to indigenous peoples intersect with the international structure of UN summits; events designed for nation-states to discuss the global issue of climate change and covered by national mainstream media.
The nature–culture nexus: Knowledge, spirituality and indigenous peoples
It is beyond the scope of this article to engage with a complex and multi-faceted literature on representations of indigenous peoples. However, within this extensive body of research, two fairly recent theoretical trajectories are pertinent to this investigation. The first strand involves a continuing effort, by researchers, to identify fundamental differences between indigenous and non-indigenous conceptions of the relationship between nature and culture. A second, related strand, examines to what extent indigenous or traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) has come to play a role in mainstream scientific and environmental discourses pertaining to climate change. Albeit limited and superficial, representations of indigenous peoples in summit journalism make subtle allusions to these theoretical developments.
Scholars have observed key differences in indigenous and non-indigenous conceptualizations of the relationship between nature and culture. Smith suggests these differences emerge in the philosophy of ancient Greece where a continuing preoccupation with a division between man and nature first originated (Smith, 1999). Contrary to naturalistic explanations that viewed nature and life as constitutive features of one intrinsic whole, humanistic explanations began to ‘separate people out from the world around them, and place humanity on a higher plane (than animals and plants) because of such characteristics as language and reason’ (Smith, 1999: 47). Apffel-Marglin characterizes this as a division between knowledge and life that became more pronounced during the Enlightenment. This binary dualism played a central role in establishing the scientific method; a practice which has exerted tremendous influence on dominant western discourses (Apffel-Marglin, 1998). By contrast, in the Andean world view nature, culture and spirituality overlap, constituting a wholly different way of relating to the natural world. Apffel-Marglin argues that in this particular indigenous world view: The environment is not external, a distanced object of observation, rather it flows in and through the body. In the actions of seeing, smelling, eating, breathing, moving and so on, the body and the environment are changing, mutually affecting each other. Neither is a fixed, bounded entity. The world and the body are a unified field, always mutually intertwining and mutually affecting, creating, changing each other … in the Andean world there is no dualism between humans and the world. (Apffel-Marglin, 1998: 31–32)
Recently, scholars and activists have suggested that one method of responding to an imminent planetary crisis is to pay more attention to indigenous ways of knowing and relating to the natural environment. Hulme identifies a connection between the unprecedented challenges climate change poses and a growing recognition of the role indigenous knowledge can play in understanding and helping to mitigate this crisis (Hulme, 2009). He writes that: As climate change discourses have reached out geographically and culturally, the value of the role of local environmental knowledge about climate has begun to be recognised. Such local knowledge – sometimes referred to as indigenous or traditional knowledge – has frequently been established over centuries of habitation and is often unique to a particular community or ethnic group. … Although not conventionally classified as scientific knowledge, recent years have seen a number of efforts to bring together scientific and indigenous ways of understanding the natural world and climate change. This has been especially evident in Northern Arctic communities. (Hulme, 2009: 81–82)
Hulme’s observation brings us to a related theoretical trajectory that has sought to define traditional environmental or ecological knowledge (TEK) and consider to what extent this knowledge has taken hold in western scientific and environmental discourses.
McGregor observes how definitions of TEK, like conceptions of nature and culture, tend to vary in accordance with the world view of those who have sought to define it. Non-indigenous perspectives conceive of TEK as a ‘body of knowledge’ that is viewed as something separate from the people who possess it. On the contrary, indigenous peoples consider this knowledge to be ‘rooted in the spiritual health, culture, and language of the people and handed down from generation to generation. It is based on intimate knowledge of the land, water, snow and ice, weather and wildlife, and the relationships between all aspects of the environment’ (McGregor, 2004: 78). For adherents to the latter, TEK encompasses aspects of nature, culture and spirituality and directly informs the choices people make about how to live their lives.
McGregor (2004) identifies several promising instances where TEK has begun to play a role in sustainable development initiatives. The extent to which these emerging relationships between scientists, policy-makers and indigenous peoples have registered in summit journalism is considered in the analysis.
The culture–politics nexus: Identity politics and indigenous representation
Identity politics became a prominent issue during the second half of the 20th century and continues to hold a salient position today. 2 For much of the 20th century it was formulated in terms of redistribution, exemplified, for instance, by post-Second World War de-colonization processes. The main goal was to redistribute formerly maldistributed material means in order to obtain equality and justice. In the 1990s, this redistribution approach was largely replaced by a recognition approach, frequently associated with ethnic minority groups. The main objective was to obtain recognition of exclusive cultural traits, and gain rights pertaining, for instance, to language use in schools. While the recognition approach was important for understanding racism, sexism and colonialism, Fraser (2008) contends that it no longer complements the redistribution approach. Instead, she argues, recognition has come to dominate and has begun to work against redistribution through misrecognition, the reification of group identities, and a displacement of redistribution struggles. This has ultimately led to further maldistribution.
Addressing injustice in the global age, Fraser (2008) identifies a meta-injustice which she refers to as ‘misframing’. Misframing occurs when state-territorial frames are imposed on transnational sources of injustice (Fraser, 2008: 114). Misframing can be remedied by political representation since it is, according to Fraser, only together with political representation that recognition and redistribution approaches work. Thus a redistribution–recognition–representation nexus must be invoked. Moreover, in a global age, the nexus can only work if adjusted to transnational settings. The moral scales of justice, tackled by recognition, redistribution and representation, are thereby connected to geographic scales of justice.
This article considers what extent redistribution, recognition or representation approaches are associated with indigenous peoples in coverage of COP15. When it comes to recognition, status versus identity models must furthermore be distinguished. The status model comes close to the redistribution approach since what acquires recognition is not group identity but rather the ‘status of individual group members as full partners in social interaction, able to take part on par with everyone else’ (Fraser, 2000: 113). Fraser’s take on status resembles Marshall’s classic definition of citizenship: ‘a status bestowed upon those who are full members of a community. All who possess status are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed’ (Marshall, 1950: 28–29). The identity model conversely stresses identities to the point that they may become reified. According to Manuel Castells, identity, as it refers to social actors, can be understood as the process of constructing meaning on the basis of cultural attributes which are given priority over other sources of meaning (1997: 6). Identities are thus constructed through processes of selection and discrimination. In the ensuing discussion, identity politics theory and theoretical perspectives on indigenous representation are operationalized in an analytical approach that investigates media representations of indigenous peoples in Canadian and Swedish summit journalism.
Method and research materials
The data for this study were collected during a three-week period from 1 December to 22 December 2009, covering the Copenhagen climate summit, its prelude and aftermath. In each country an ‘elite’ newspaper and a ‘popular’ newspaper were selected and all articles with the search words ‘climate’ and/or ‘Copenhagen’ were collected. 3 Elite newspapers are defined as those with an agenda closely linked to the elites (politicians, bureaucrats, business actors, etc.) of a national power system. By contrast, popular newspapers are understood to maintain a consumer-oriented approach and cater to the general public 4 (Eide et al., 2010: 19). The Swedish material includes 113 articles from Dagens Nyheter (elite) and 45 articles from Aftonbladet (popular). The Canadian material consists of 129 articles from the Globe and Mail (elite) and 132 articles from the Toronto Star (popular). The combined total of the data sample is 419 Swedish and Canadian articles. Within this sample, articles that mention indigenous peoples were selected for analysis. These materials make explicit reference to indigenous peoples, either using the word indigenous or equivalent terms in the languages of the examined media. We also include references to specific indigenous groups such as the Inuit and Sami.
Our previous research on Swedish and Canadian reporting from COP15 identified two main news frames: the Political Game Frame placed emphasis on the political game at the summit; while the Issue Frame focused on climate change, beyond the political game, in natural environments and other settings (Roosvall, 2010; Tegelberg, 2010). These stories assessed the impact of climate change in various places and considered conflicting perspectives on how it should be understood and addressed. Here we examine the ways indigenous peoples appeared in material relating to both frames, and identify sub-frames that pertain to the roles indigenous peoples play in these articles. Building on Entman, frames are identified through attention to selection and salience in the journalistic material (1993: 52). Thus the frame analysis focuses on headlines, pictures and other conspicuous parts of the examined articles. Pictures are studied in conjunction with texts to observe the analytics of mediation (Chouliaraki, 2006). Multimodal analysis of relationships between texts and pictures is combined with discourse analysis of relationships between material and geopolitical contexts. This part of the analysis corresponds to consideration of geographical scales of justice outlined in the theoretical framework (Fraser, 2008).
The analysis is divided into two main dimensions which correspond with the frames previously identified. One dimension pertains to the appearance of indigenous peoples in relation to wider understandings of the impact of climate change throughout the world, and is therefore connected to the Issue Frame. Analytical emphasis is placed on discourses of nature and culture, which are identified through analysis of binary oppositions (Allan, 1999), instances when such oppositions do not appear and significant presuppositions (Fairclough, 1995). We also consider what types of knowledge, especially concerning nature, are represented in the reporting. The other dimension pertains to the appearance of indigenous peoples in relation to the Political Game Frame and their representation at the summit. Emphasis is placed on discourses of politics and culture, identified through connections to redistribution, recognition (of status/identity) and representation (Fraser, 2008).This is done through analysis of representations of social actions and naming practices (Van Leeuwen, 1995).
Mapping representations of indigenous peoples in different media contexts
Journalistic coverage of indigenous peoples and climate change during the Copenhagen summit was sparse. A keyword search revealed only six titles which made explicit reference to indigenous peoples in a sample of over 3200 headlines translated into English by researchers from 19 different countries. This trend in our broader research corresponded with Canadian and Swedish media coverage. Table 1 maps media representations of indigenous peoples from the research material according to a domestic/foreign distinction and by media outlet. In the table, ‘Foreign’ should be read as foreign in relation to the reporting medium.
Representations of indigenous peoples in geographical and journalistic contexts.
N = 419 Swedish and Canadian press articles.
The most noteworthy characteristic of Table 1 is the domination of blank fields. Indigenous peoples are not framed as significant players or as a significant theme in material collected during COP15. In Canada, only four stories in the Toronto Star linked indigenous peoples to climate change in general and/or the summit negotiations. The Globe and Mail did not publish a single news item on indigenous peoples during the summit; a significant absence for a newspaper that claims national scope. The low frequency of news items reflects a broader tendency in Canadian media to provide inadequate coverage of indigenous perspectives on issues and events that affect these communities (Alia, 1999). In the Swedish press three stories, included in a series about affected peoples and places around the world, reported on indigenous peoples. The series was featured in the popular newspaper Aftonbladet. The elite newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s most important arena for opinion pieces and political agenda-setting, did not feature any stories about indigenous peoples despite having published twice as many articles as Aftonbladet. Hence, in Canada and Sweden indigenous peoples were completely absent from elite newspaper coverage of the summit and broader climate change discourses during the summit.
Clashes and convergences in representations of indigenous peoples: Nature ↔ culture ↔ politics
In Canadian coverage, four stories in the Toronto Star represented indigenous perspectives on climate change and the negotiations underway in Copenhagen. These stories featured the voices of prominent indigenous leaders and activists, some speaking from demonstrations outside the Bella Centre in Copenhagen while others commented from their communities. The stories followed similar patterns, framing indigenous peoples and cultures as those most threatened by climatic changes and/or by emphasizing the actions many communities are taking to address this threat.
‘Rising waters slowly swallowing Tuktoyaktuk’ (Woods, 2009a) provides an account of how one Inuit community is coping with dramatic changes caused by rising temperatures and melting ice. These rapid developments have forced Tuktoyaktuk locals to move further inland and abandon traditional hunting grounds which have served the community for thousands of years. Written on the eve of the summit, the story conveys Tuktoyaktuk mayor Mevin Gruben’s discontent that no ‘hands-on people’ – those directly affected by climate change – were invited to join Canada’s official delegation in Copenhagen. The story frames mayor Gruben and members of the community as climate change victims but simultaneously – through Gruben’s speech acts – as those actively fighting to have their voices heard. In ‘Inuit seek financial aid’ (Woods, 2009c), this pattern continues with representation of Inuit leader Mary Simon demanding Inuit communities receive a portion of a global fund dedicated to helping countries adapt to global warming that have already begun to suffer. What is represented here, in terms of identity politics, is the desire for a redistribution of means. Both stories also emphasize victimization, with Inuit peoples represented as those forced to bear the burden of climate change in Canada.
Indigenous peoples maintain this role as victims in ‘Making climate change personal’ (Woods, 2009b), but they are once again positioned as those making urgent calls for action. Here a victim-witness role emerges (Peters, 2001: 714). The story details how indigenous leaders, such as Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a prominent Inuit activist and recent Nobel Peace Prize nominee, are pressuring nations to acknowledge that climate change is a human rights issue. In the words of Watt-Cloutier: It isn’t just about ice and snow. … It’s about people, and it’s not just about the furry animals that the people want to focus on saving. It’s about the sustainability of communities in the Arctic and other places that really rely upon the well-being of their environment to be able to continue to practise an ancient culture that is extremely respectful to all things around us. (Woods, 2009b)
This statement resonates with theoretical conceptions of traditional environmental knowledge (TEK), and with a related struggle over diverse understandings of nature. Climate change is viewed as a human rights issue since it deprives indigenous communities of their right to continue practising a sustainable way of life that has balanced elements of nature, culture and spirituality for centuries. The issue is furthermore politicized by Watt-Cloutier’s own framing of this as a question of human rights. The image of an Inuit demonstrator is positioned adjacent to this story with a caption that reads, ‘Inuit, who say their way of life is threatened by climate change, demonstrate in Copenhagen on Thursday’ (Woods, 2009b). This juxtaposition of text and visual reinforces the notion that experiencing the direct impact of climate change (witnessing as experience) has been a catalyst for action (witnessing as speech act) in many indigenous communities. The political representation of an indigenous leader contributes to an identity politics where indigenous voices are heard. Yet the headline frames the issue as personal (not political) and connects to the identity rather than to the status of indigenous peoples.
In this small sample of Toronto Star articles, the voices of domestic Inuit actors portray these people simultaneously as victims and heroes of the climate negotiations underway in Copenhagen. Inuit are represented as those directly affected by climate change, or as actors at the vanguard of efforts to curb emissions and mitigate the harmful impacts of global warming. In each instance an alleged intimacy or closeness to nature plays a role in the reporting, with changing landscapes and cultures consistently cited as the primary reason why indigenous groups have made repeated calls for action on climate change. It is noteworthy that while Canadian coverage mostly focuses on events in Copenhagen, stories featuring indigenous peoples tended to frame climate change as a domestic and/or global issue rather than as a political game playing out among nation-state actors at COP15. In Canadian coverage, indigenous peoples appear to be struggling to break out of these separate frames; struggling to make connections between nature and politics and thereby connect with mainstream media frames.
When indigenous peoples appeared in Nordic media coverage it was to identify them as communities directly affected by climate change. The Swedish popular newspaper Aftonbladet ran a series during COP15 that focused on affected peoples from around the world. ‘The World’s Chance’ consisted of long reportages from all continents, including conversations between affected people and responsible politicians. The series starts with an article about cartographers that includes the subheading: ‘The alarm of the cartographers: Something is happening out there and it is frightening’ (Andersson, 2009). The article contains several pictures that echo the headline’s apocalyptic implications but also add a scientific discourse (satellite photos, charts, graphs, etc.) to the mythical one. Fatal aspects are underlined throughout the seven articles that make up the series. Three articles explicitly deal with indigenous peoples.
‘Village collapsing into the sea’ (Kerpner, 2009) is about an Inuit village in Alaska which tells the story of 62-year-old Ardith Weyioanna who grew up in a dug-out with a roof window on the tundra. It is reported that Weyioanna once felt safe there and led a nomadic life of reindeer husbandry on good hunting grounds. However, now she feels she cannot trust nature anymore. If the sea continues to rise, Weyioanna’s village of Sishmaref will drown. Residents want to move the village in order to save it but have little or no financial support. The text is accompanied by a picture of a church yard featuring crosses and villagers going about their daily routine. The dominating image (spread out over two pages) is of a house falling into the sea with a caption that reads ‘Now the Eskimos [sic] are forced to move their houses – to a cost of over one million’(Kerpner, 2009). The caption reproduces an older, pejorative term generally eschewed by the people in question and in official language. Another caption reads ‘Do they want us to become extinct?’ Dramatic pictures of natural disasters are once again combined with scientific explanations; in this case a graph that explains coastal erosion.
Nomadism appears in the article both in the form of symbolically negotiating between indigenous and nation-state identities and as literally living a nomadic life (see also Knudsen, 2006). While TEK is not explicitly referenced, the indigenous group is identified as having a distinct kind of relationship with the natural world. Spirituality is implied by references to a family whose son Norman has all the characteristics of a late Norman after whom he was named. The spirit of the late Norman is thus assumed to be living on in the young Norman. In the article, a redistributive approach to identity politics is evoked, albeit with emphasis placed on how it has not been employed. It is pointed out that help with infrastructure is needed, but the identity version of the recognition approach dominates here since Inuit status is not recognized and they are not granted political representation.
The second article features a large picture of cracked soil where there was once a water reserve at the foot of Mount Illimani in Bolivia (Jönsson, 2009). However, the concern expressed here is not only about water but also the mountain. A subheading reads ‘Our mountain is dying’ and Lucia Quispe of the Aymara people, a group indigenous to the Andean region, explains how locals who live close to the mountain talk to and depend on it. When changes appeared in farming and the usual rain did not come, the first impression was that they had made the wrong offerings to Pachamama or Mother Earth: ‘They thought that the Gods took revenge by not granting them water. It was only when a water engineer came to the village that the villagers learned that the region was affected by something called global warming’ (Jönsson, 2009). Like the Inuit story, this article draws attention to relationships between indigenous peoples and their natural surroundings. Readers learn that all knowledge is passed between ancestors and that the cycle people have followed for thousands of years is no longer working. TEK is not mentioned explicitly, but it is clearly what is indicated. Readers learn about indigenous knowledge, and eventually discover it is wrong when local beliefs are ‘corrected’ by a water engineer. When spiritual beliefs about offerings are disqualified, a local dependency on their natural surroundings gets dragged down with them. The text is ambiguous in its take on nature. Nature is connected to spirituality, which is presented as a binary opposition to science. Science, in turn, is connected to nature. Two competing views on nature are thus displayed and while the spiritual view associated with indigenous peoples is deemed likable, the presupposition is that spirituality is inaccurate when compared to western science (exemplified here by the water engineer’s ‘correction’). A redistribution approach is not evoked in this article, nor is a representation approach when it comes to identity politics. This lack of political representation is not presented as a problem and its employment is not represented as a solution. Instead, much like in the previous article, it is pointed out that help with infrastructure is needed. Lucia Quispe personifies a group of indigenous people who are portrayed as victims of other people’s pollution. For instance, it is stressed that they themselves do not pollute in any significant way. Recognition of identities, not status, constitutes the dominant identity politics approach, with consistent emphasis placed on cultural traits like traditional ways of living, traditional clothing and the aforementioned spiritual connections with nature.
The last article in Aftonbladet’s series focuses on domestic conditions, specifically for indigenous people in northern Sweden. ‘The ice does not hold anymore: How climate change is affecting Sweden’ (Lindberg, 2009) begins with a picture of reindeers that died because the ice did not hold as it used to. The reindeers belong to Sami people and the article shows pictures of a Sami reindeer keeper and Swedish cartographers who are constantly redrawing the map of northern Sweden because of melting glaciers. The portrayal of the suffering and death of animals emphasizes a doomsday scenario common in climate change reporting. However, a key difference between Aftonbladet’s articles and these broader narratives lies in the indigenous presence in this account. Doomsday material generally portrays melting ice caps and suffering polar bears (Boykoff and Goodman, 2009; Doyle, 2007) while ignoring indigenous populations that live in these regions. While previous articles reported that help with infrastructure was necessary, this one went further and represented specific Sami opinions on what infrastructure would be best and where it should be implemented. The Sami leet is mentioned in a small fact box. Hence there is political representation in the article, even if it is not the focus. Concurrently recognition of TEK is not implied in the case of the Swedish Sami as it was in the previous articles. Instead technological and traditional knowledge intersect in pictures of the Sami with modern and traditional reindeer keeping equipment and in visualizations that represent Sami alongside Swedish cartographers. The headline does not position the Sami but Sweden as affected, whereas in the text the Sami represent how climate change is affecting ‘Sweden’. The Sami are framed as Swedes at home in their northern environment not as Swedes negotiating in Copenhagen. Like other articles in the series, this one balances semi-religious attributes with semi-scientific graphs and reports. Hence in conclusion, we shall consider what this coexistence might imply, in terms of the separation or integration of different types of knowledge and of how it relates to different identity politics approaches.
Conclusions
In coverage of the Copenhagen summit, indigenous peoples appear on the margins of Swedish and Canadian media. They therefore constitute an anomaly in relation to other citizens and the notion of political citizenship, connecting to the cultural in what can be conceptualized as cultural citizenship (Stevenson, 2003). However, what is represented as socially peripheral ends up as symbolically centred (Babcock, 1978; Hall, 1997) in the few instances where indigenous peoples are featured in news coverage. This is true of popular news discourse, which devotes in-depth reportage and prominent news images to indigenous peoples on a few occasions, while in elite news indigenous peoples are completely absent.
We have concluded elsewhere that Swedish and Canadian journalists tended to frame the Copenhagen summit as a political game between nation-states with domestic perspectives on the negotiations taking centre stage (Roosvall, 2010; Tegelberg, 2010). The Issue Frame was less prominent during the time of the summit. In the few cases where indigenous peoples appear in this material, it is mainly within this less prominent Issue Frame. While journalists frame climate change as an issue for indigenous communities, these groups are seldom portrayed as actors in their own right with political agency at COP15. Instead indigenous peoples are framed in the role of intermediaries, witnessing climate change and conveying messages of urgency, spirituality and de-nationalization. These three variants of the intermediary role can be characterized as follows.
Reporting on indigenous peoples and climate change delivers a message of urgency. This is especially clear in Aftonbladet’s ‘The World’s Chance’ series. Reports from communities affected by climate change around the world create a sense of urgency by combining the voices of affected indigenous peoples with dramatic images of effects. In the Toronto Star, indigenous actors witness climate change first hand and stress there is a pressing need to find solutions. Community representatives are framed as climate change victims, those most affected by climate change and, often simultaneously, as climate change heroes with knowledge that can help humankind address this unprecedented challenge. The hero role comes with the practice of witnessing as a speech act. Thus indigenous peoples are not only victim-witnesses but also hero-witnesses.
These techniques of framing connect to the role indigenous peoples play as intermediaries of spirituality. In material from the popular press in Canada and Sweden, spiritual connections between indigenous communities and their natural surroundings are emphasized. In the Swedish press this is especially clear in reports about ‘foreign’ indigenous peoples. Concurrently images of indigenous victim-heroes are frequently juxtaposed with scientific graphs and perspectives. The co-presence of these differing perspectives mirror Hulme’s calls for further communication and collaboration between those with ‘scientific and indigenous ways of understanding the natural world and climate change’ (Hulme, 2009: 81–82). However it is also apparent that a gap remains in how different groups understand climate change. This is illustrated by binary oppositions between spirituality and science in some articles where indigenous knowledge or TEK is downplayed or problematized. These framing techniques have the adverse affect of creating a distance between indigenous knowledge and wider understandings of climate change.
The victim-hero and victim-witness aspects fade in the coverage when it comes to the role of indigenous peoples as intermediaries of de-nationalization (Sassen, 1999). It is however mainly in relation to nationhood that indigenous peoples can be concluded to be victims of misframing, following Fraser’s (2008) conceptualization. Readers encounter indigenous peoples struggling to be seen and heard at COP15, however such reports are scarce in the popular press and non-existent in elite journalism. This is a problem for indigenous peoples both in terms of media representation and real-politics at meetings governed by the nation-state. It also draws attention to a broader representational challenge that all intra-national and transnational groups struggle with in international negotiations processes. Indigenous peoples break these boundaries on occasions where they appear as intermediaries of de-nationalization, rare non-nation-state actors in coverage that is otherwise dominated by the voices of national and international actors. Aftonbladet encouraged this type of transnational communication, attempting to facilitate political representation (in a mediatized way) by arranging conversations between affected people and politicians during COP15. This position as intermediaries of de-nationalization however is far less explicit than those that associate indigenous peoples with urgency and spirituality. In the context of the national–transnational continuum it is also noteworthy that all four stories in the Canadian coverage are about domestic indigenous groups, and that the Swedish coverage of domestic indigenous peoples differs from the coverage of foreign indigenous peoples in that the domestic indigenous group is the only group represented in connection to concrete redistribution claims, and with reference to political representation. This focus on domestic indigenous peoples is a form of domestication of the climate change issue, common in summit reporting over all (Eide et al., 2010) and connected to the nation-state logic.
Finally, it is intriguing that in Aftonbladet political representation is only recognized in relation to the Sami, who are not represented with TEK. Political representation and TEK are thus not explicitly opposed in the texts, but seem instead to be exclusive categories. Is the old western opposition between religion and politics (Christi, 2001) stronger than the opposition of different takes on nature in (Swedish) mainstream media reporting and might this be one of the obstacles for serious representation of indigenous presence and actions at the summits? In that case the spirituality that brings indigenous peoples to the fore in the relatively scarce Issue Frame is also what de-legitimizes them as political actors in the more prominent Political Game Frame. These are tendencies that must be investigated further.
This study reveals a close connection between geographical and moral scales of justice in the misframing of indigenous peoples. They are framed as peripheral in terms of politics and geography. At the same time, indigenous peoples are framed as central to understanding climate change as an urgent issue. This position is unique and ambiguous. Quantitatively, they are virtually absent from dominant media discourses and political processes. And yet, the few Canadian and Swedish news items that represent indigenous peoples do so by framing them as crucial intermediaries or messengers, victims and heroes simultaneously; it is they who bear witness to an issue with transnational implications that cannot be resolved at the national or international levels alone. The question that remains is whether mainstream media and international political processes can adapt to address transnational dimensions of climate change before time runs out.
Footnotes
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.