Visual Communication in Native American COVID-19 Campaigns Public
Bailowitz, Margot (Spring 2021)
Published
Abstract
This study examines visual communication created by and for Native American individuals, official governments, and organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a person-centered, ethnographic and humanistic anthropological approach, I, a white non-Native ally, highlight the voices of seven Native artists through dialogue from semi-structured interviews. The art considered by these individuals includes memes and cartoons, paintings and illustrations, murals, and handmade facemasks. With the framework of these artist insights, I provide a visual analysis of selected COVID-19 communications. Part one provides context regarding historical and contemporary Indigenous health and disparities as well as the importance of visual sovereignty and representation of Indigenous narratives. Part two focuses on the lived experiences of seven Indigenous artists who have created visual work related to COVID-19. Ethnographic interviews were conducted to investigate the following questions: How can Native artists contribute to larger public health communication campaigns through their own work? How do individual artist agency and visual sovereignty interact in the context of COVID-19 artwork? How do these artists build on Jolene Rickard’s concept of visual sovereignty as “a kind of ongoing resistance to dispossession” in the context of COVID-19 (Rickard 2020)? What role does social media play in spreading visual COVID-19 communication? What elements make this visual material most compelling and effective? Thematic analyses of interviews and selected images reveal the importance of social media in visual public health communication to Native nations and peoples, the value in community-created visual Indigenous representation, and important elements for effectiveness of such communication. Future directions include location-based and community-specific systematic studies in which effectiveness of Tribal communication can be evaluated.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Chapter I – Introduction………………………………………………………...pg 1
- Reason for the Study
- Researcher Positionality and Ethics
Chapter II – Background and Literature Review……………………………pg 9
- Tribal Health Systems
- Native Health Disparities
- The Social Determinants of Health
- Culturally Relevant Public Health Communication
- Dissemination through Social Media
- Visual Sovereignty
Chapter III – Methods……………………………………………..................pg 49
- Interview Methodology
- Social Media Analysis Methodology
Chapter IV – Artist Biographies and Interviews……………………………pg 55
- Arlo Iron Cloud
- Blanche Isfeld-Chief
- Chad Yellowjohn
- Danielle SeeWalker
- Gregg Deal
- Marty Two Bulls
- Steph Littlebird Fogel
Chapter V – Findings and Analysis………………………………................pg 78
- Themes from Interviews
- Image Analysis
Chapter VI – Discussions and Conclusions…………………………………..pg 112
References
Appendices
- Images by Creator
- Images by Tribal Governments / Organizations
- Sample Semi-Structured Interview Questions
About this Honors Thesis
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Visual Communication in Native American COVID-19 Campaigns () | 2021-04-13 16:10:31 -0400 |
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