ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes key similarities in the framing devices utilized by Indigenous fisheries advocates in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Through case comparison, this chapter sheds light on the multiple and strategic functions of framing for Indigenous fishing rights activists while paying particular attention to how framing is used to affect change in the hegemonic foundations of the policies and institutions that continue to regulate Indigenous natural resources. Indigenous actors across the cases draw from preexisting oppositional identities rooted in their histories of resistance, while also making calls for Pan-Indigenous solidarity. In addition, they emphasize the inherent connection of Indigenous identities to the natural world while simultaneously drawing from mainstream discourses. These similarities indicate that Indigenous fishing rights activists frame their claims in multiple ways and that their framing targets diverse audiences and serves an array of strategic purposes. The chapter closes with a discussion of how Indigenous fishing rights activists’ strategic framing contributes to the decolonization of discriminatory fisheries policies in each of the three cases.
