Decolonising the Urban Screen: An Argument and Approach for First Peoples-led Content Programs in Massive Media

Urban growth continues to colonise and have devastating impacts on unceded lands and sites significant to Traditional Owners. In the wake of urban expansion, millennia of cultural traditions and culturally significant stories are often concealed or erased as concrete is poured or as lights turn on. The continuing emergence of massive media in the urban environment presents an additional risk for cultural erasure as places turn into screen spaces. We provide an argument for massive media and their content to closely connect with the lands they inhabit by giving voice to First Peoples narratives, and for First Peoples to lead in content creation. To this end, we discuss The Digital Birthing Tree, a bespoke content program for a large integrated media façade on Wurundjeri Lands in present-day Australia. The analysis of our case results in six decolonising approaches that help practitioners engage with First Peoples-led content programs in culturally responsive ways. First Peoples leadership in massive media is urgent–not optional–enabling a unique opportunity to share millennia of traditions and knowledge, while responding critically to ongoing destruction and destabilisation of culture, lands and biodiversity.

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