MMIWG and the Media: Getting it Right — Indigenous Media Talks

Описание: From Helen Betty Osborne to the MMIWG inquiry’s finding of genocide, the media coverage itself has often dominated public discourse around the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. However, the media has also been instrumental in bringing these important stories to the fore. Families of MMIWG have driven a conversation demanding media do better. What does it look like when the media gets it right?

With: Michèle Audette, Sheila North, Karyn Pugliese and moderator Brandi Morin

About our panelists:
Born of a Quebec father and an Innu mother, Michèle Taïna Audette, a mother of five children, became involved very early in her life in the fight to end discrimination against Indigenous women. At the age of 27, she became president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association. She then held the position of Associate deputy minister for the Secrétariat à la condition féminine du Québec. From 2012 to 2014, she was President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada. In 2016, she was appointed Commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Sheila North is the former Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), and former Chief Communications Officer for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. She ran for the position of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in 2018 on a platform of reforms. Sheila is a former CTV journalist and documentarist, and was nominated for a Gemini Award as a CBC journalist. As a film maker, Sheila released a documentary, 1200+, about missing and murdered Indigenous women girls (MMIWG) featured on CTV in 2019. And, as a Cree host, she has been voicing episodes of Taken, a series about MMIW, for APTN and CBC.

Karyn Pugliese, aka Pabàmàdiz, is best known for her award-winning work as a Parliament Hill reporter and as the Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network). She joined Ryerson's faculty in 2020 while completing a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. She is a board member of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, a Journalists for Human Rights Ambassador and co-chair of the Canadian Association of Journalists’ advocacy committee.

Moderator Brandi Morin is an award-winning French/Cree/Iroquois journalist from Treaty 6, AB. For the last 10 years Brandi has specialized in sharing Indigenous stories, some of which helped spark change and reconciliation in Canada’s political, cultural and social environments. She has written extensively about the stories of MMIWG, for publications including the New York Times, Al Jazeera, and this powerful account of her own experience in the Guardian.