‘Creating context’: Indigenous journalism students rewriting historical articles

WATCH: Students at the First Nations University are taking a second look at yesterday’s news – stories written long ago with a colonial bias.

Journalism students at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) are taking a second look at yesterday’s news – specifically stories written long ago with a colonial bias.

The results of the INCA 392 class project were on full display Monday. Posters exhibited the age-old articles – this time presenting the importance of history, context and representing multiple perspectives in a story.

Some stories featured in the project go back as far as 1880 – with its colonial perspective and language on full display.

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To be clear, the new stories are not removing facts but rather adding them – along with some much-needed context.

“I think it’s not about necessarily re-writing history and changing history – it’s about including contexts that weren’t included in this history,” explained Tyrone Perreault, a fourth-year student who took part in the project.

“You’re not changing history necessarily in terms of changing timelines, you’re just creating a context that’s more relevant and more open to everybody’s perspective.”

However, not all historical news stories spoke about Indigenous people in a negative way.

Nicholas Flood Davin, who founded the Regina Leader-Post newspaper, wrote an article in 1886, defending Indigenous people at a time when colonization was spreading westward.

-With files from Gareth Dillistone