Social media is a highly valuable site for Indigenous people to express their identities and to engage with other Indigenous people, events, conversations, and debates. While the role of social media for Indigenous peoples is highly valued for public articulations of identity, it is not without peril. Drawing on the authors’ recent mixed-methods research in Australian Indigenous communities, this paper presents an insight into Indigenous peoples’ experiences of cultivating individual and collective identities on social media platforms. The findings suggest that Indigenous peoples are well aware of the intricacies of navigating a digital environment that exhibits persistent colonial attempts at the subjugation of Indigenous identities. We conclude that, while social media remains perilous, Indigenous people are harnessing online platforms for their own ends, for the reinforcement of selfhood, for identifying and being identified and, as a vehicle for humour and subversion.

With an increasing online presence among Indigenous Australians, it is worth examining the ways in which online communication technology allows the persistence of racism and White privilege in these spaces. I draw on my experience of conducting research in online heavy metal spaces to highlight technological affordances which allow heightened visibility and permanence of racism and White privilege. That is, language in these spaces tends to construct White bodies as superior and positions non-White bodies as other. I conclude that the affordances of heightened visibility and permanence in these online heavy metal spaces present new challenges for approaches to the fight against racism in everyday Australia.

Professor Tristan Kennedy examines and reflects upon the role and potential value of formal and informal mentorship for Indigenous ECRs. He highlights the collegiality and collaboration of Indigenous mentorship, but points to the current scarcity of senior Indigenous scholars which can make it more challenging to find an Indigenous mentor to help develop that next part of a career. Professor Kennedy explores the pitfalls of institutional mentorship programs which are developed by and feature non-Indigenous people, with worthwhile insights for program developers who want to support the career trajectories of Indigenous ECRs. His steadfast rebuttal of Indigenous deficiency is refreshing and should be a guide for non-Indigenous readers concerned with Indigenous career development.

12. United Front: Indigenous Peoples’ Resistance in the Online Metal Scene was published in Indigenous Peoples Rise Up on page 185.

Indigenous Peoples’ lived reality of gender is explicitly tied to the ongoing colonial project in Australia. This chapter considers the everyday world as problematic, and in doing so examines the lived experiences of Indigenous Peoples’ gender expression and identities and the politics of colonial gender norms. The chapter proposes an approach that challenges Western constructs and centers the standpoint of the agent in everyday life. Drawing on contemporary Indigenous gender studies and sociology literature, this chapter offers an innovative approach to decolonizing Indigenous bodies. Working from this premise, the authors recognize Indigenous Peoples as sovereign agents in the everyday.

The current pandemic reignites painful memories of Indigenous peoples’ encounters with infectiousdisease brought by colonization and the resultant legacy of devastation. We are not strangers to theimpacts on economic, governance, education, welfare, and cultural fronts. Despite the magnitude ofthis challenge, Indigenous academics are rising to the call in innovative ways – proving once again the creativity, strength, and resilience of Indigenous peoples.