Review of Producing Sovereignty: The Rise of Indigenous Media in Canada by Karrmen Crey

Producing Sovereignty could not have come at a more important time in the history of media in Canada.As both mainstream and Indigenous alternative media outlets struggle for survival, author Karrmen Crey reminds us how powerful Indigenous voices can be when they are shared authentically and unfiltered.Crey's look at the intersection between sovereignty, media, and policy demonstrates how critical it is to have Indigenous voices sharing Indigenous experiences in spaces where the general public can watch, listen, and learn.Crey takes the reader on journey through some of the most important moments in the 1990s to 2000s, as Indigenous-led media and Indigenous voices were thrust into both the mainstream and alternative media spheres.Today, as we see the loss and/or shrinking of so many Indigenous film companies, newspapers, and alternative media publications, Crey's book perfectly illustrates what is lost when the spaces to share this content struggle and eventually cease to exist.Karrmen Crey is Sto:lo and a member of the Cheam Band.As an Associate Professor in Simon Fraser University's School of Communication, Crey understands firsthand how important Indigenous spaces in media are to success in public spaces.Her work on narrative shaping through media spaces is key to understanding the connection between Indigenous voices sharing Indigenous realities and how these change the mainstream narrative about what Indigenous peoples need and why we should all support these sovereignty movements.Producing Sovereignty, which is based on her work on Indigenous-led and created media, is the first of its kind to really connect these sovereignty movements to the Indigenous-led media and storytelling in Canada.It also provides an important starting point for the next even larger conversation about the role newer digital platforms are now having these same movements and efforts to become sovereign nations within Canada.In Producing Sovereignty, Crey tries to demonstrate the connection between Indigenous sovereignty movements and relations with the federal government to the rise of Indigenous media institutions in Canada.However, Crey does not limit this to a study of mainstream broadcasters and an examination of the role of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).She also includes the role documentary film and storytelling through the arts contributes to these movements.The inclusion of these arts-based spaces incorporates an important intersection between authentic Indigenous stories, culture, and mainstream Canadian media spaces where both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people were for the first time exposed to Indigenous peoples, leaders, and others working toward sovereignty and change.These spaces also provided critical platforms for explaining the issues in Indigenous communities through Indigenous peoples facing these challenges first hand and in real time.Crey's unique approach to production studies is perhaps the most interesting new development in media, production, and historical/ethnographic studies.Crey uses this lens to examine specific case studies in each chapter.Her method provides an opportunity to look more closely at what was happening in Canada at the time when these Indigenous sovereignty movements of the 1990s were landing on the national political stage.Crey's then use case studies