Indigenous voices in the news

On October 21, Canadian voters will head to the polls to decide who will represent their riding and their country in our 43rd federal election. The parties have just released their campaign slogans, and after the writ drops in September, we can expect election coverage to take over our TV screens and social media feeds.

Among that coverage, can we expect to hear about issues that will affect Indigenous people? That’s the question we pose to Karyn Pugliese on this week’s podcast. Pugliese has an award-winning career in political reporting, and was with APTN for seven years as its executive director of news and current affairs before becoming Canada’s most recent Nieman fellow at Harvard. Here, she walks us through how to report on elections with Indigenous people and policy in mind.

But the issues go far beyond that. Earlier this summer, the way Canada’s columnists and editorial boards responded to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls served as a reminder that it’s not just our elections coverage that needs more Indigenous voices.

On the second half of the podcast, Sheila North joins in to discuss how newsrooms can do a better job of covering Indigenous perspectives. North is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who has served as the grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. She has told the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls through the documentary 1200+ and as a Cree host of APTN’s Taken.

Download for free. New episodes every second Wednesday. Tweet your questions and comments to @IRPP or @jbugiel.

This podcast is part of The media and Canadian elections special feature.

Photo: Shutterstock by klarka0608

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