Unpacking vulgar internet content on the ‘Aboriginal memes’ pages

This paper closely examines 14 offensive internet memes that appeared on racist social media pages set up to vilify Indigenous peoples. An internet meme combines a picture with a catchphrase that communicates short messages to viewers on the web. Since 2012, Internet users have created social media pages as spaces to distribute several messages informed by abhorrent derogatory stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. Whilst meme-creators focus excessively on Indigenous peoples in each meme, this paper examines how these internet memes are a vehicle to assert dual narratives of white colonial superiority and victimhood.