Learning to Resist: The Skins Workshops and Epistemic Resistance in Indigenous Media Education

Abstract

This article examines Indigenous media education as a form of epistemic resistance to data colonialism by studying the Skins Workshops, an Indigenous- led game design program. By analyzing the curriculum and the games produced in Hawaiian contexts, the author shows how a pedagogical approach that centers Indigenous protocols, Knowledge Keepers, and community accountability creates conditions for epistemological sovereignty. The workshops counter epistemic violence by cultivating
participants’ ability to create digital products using Indigenous knowledge systems instead of platform logics.