Sovereign communication: Realising First Nations’ media and information literacy and sustainability in Australia

Consideration of First Nations’ sustainability highlights the necessity for an SDG-18 Communication for All. Communication networks and the transmission of knowledge and information among First Nations have been central to their cultural and language survival. In Australia, First Nations are higher than average consumers of mobile technologies and social media and have been active in the creation of media networks. The latter play an important role in circulating First Nations’ voices in the Australian media landscape as it has been well established that Australian news reporting has been harmful to First Nations. The production of stereotypical and racialising news media on First Nations has been coincident with settler colonisation in countries such as Australia. Misinformation about First Nations continues through deficit discourse and the framing of First Nations through statistics as deprived in comparison to non-Indigenous socio-economic standards. The sustainability of First Nations is inextricably connected to the accessibility, contestation and creation of communication platforms that centre First Nations’ information, perspectives and goals. An SDG-18 Communication for All would not only support the important role of First Nations to the global communications environment, it would create a policy framework and information literacy imperative to ensure First Nations’ sovereign communication.