Indigenous peoples have always been a part of the virtual community since the internet's inception. The internet's first day was a revolution for sharing new and old ideas, and it helped to bridge the gap between many cultures. Not only has the internet facilitated the formation of friendships, but it has also enabled the same types of colonial practices that Indigenous people have faced in the real world.

Cyber colonialism is a real threat to the free flow of ideas from a specific cultural perspective, in part due to the complexities of indigenous communities obtaining virtual dominion or challenging Top Level Country Domains assigned to recognized members (eg .ca .us .au .nz etc:.). Since the dawn of the internet, colonial governments have staked claims to the virtual domain, using occupied lands as leverage to sell still illegally occupied virtual real estate.

This virtual real estate could be anything from Canada's National Defense websites to small-town Canadian businesses. All of which have a vested interest in suppressing the virtual existence of real-world indigenous populations whose lands they also occupy.

This virtual and real-world encroachment, on the other hand, allows for a one-sided view of the actual story of the people living on these lands, allowing for inherently skewed debate while retaining the arbitrary discretion to digitally archive our cultural data on Canadian and foreign technology.

Additional Information

• https://www.eff.org/issues/icann
• https://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/37730629.pdf
• https://www.taiuru.maori.nz/indigenous-domains/introduction
• https://www.computerworld.com/article/3567413/overhaul-of-nz-domain-name-system-proposed.html
• https://books.google.ca/books?id=zHCiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60