A Scoping Review of Published Literature on the Linguistic Representation of Indigenous Peoples

Published research involving Indigenous Peoples is largely deficit-based, which can perpetuate stereotypes against Indigenous Peoples. We conducted a scoping review to understand what is currently known about the linguistic representation of Indigenous Peoples. We included peer-reviewed articles from all disciplines published between 2000 and 2024 on language use and discourse in the context of framing, bias, and/or stereotyping of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Of 1672 articles, 80 were reviewed and analyzed by mode of language, field of study, and time. A subset of the articles (n = 60) underwent a reflexive thematic analysis, from which we identified seven themes. We found that linguistic representations of Indigenous Peoples were disproportionately negative and involved deficit- rather than strengths-based discourse. Greater attention to linguistic representations of Indigenous Peoples is needed within healthcare and education, and future research should include language in historical documents and academia.