This dissertation considers the relation between culture and communication with respect to the development of aboriginal media in Canada. It introduces and elaborates a concept of cultural politics with which to interpret the history of contact between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. This concept is further applied to an analysis of Canadian cultural and communications policy and the intervention of native broadcasters in policy procedures and discourses. The dissertation undertakes a critical review of existing research on aboriginal media. It assesses the usefulness of interpretive tools drawn from poststructuralist philosophy, ethnography and postcolonial theory in understanding the relation between cultural politics and communication practices. These tools are then implemented in the presentation of a case study of Wawatay Native Communications Society, a regional native broadcasting organization based in Northwestern Ontario.

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