What else?

I went to a CJF journalism talk about covering Indigenous communities on Nov. 3 and learned some invaluable things from the five panelists including Lenny Carpenter, Duncan McCue and Karyn Pugliese.

Did you know that one of the 94 recommendations from the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Report into the history and legacy of Canada’s residential schools is call to action No. 86, which specifically addresses journalists.

That one recommends Canadian journalism schools offer mandatory Indigenous curricula to educate students on the history of Aboriginal people. I was thankful we were getting a mini lesson and having a reconciliation that evening at Ryerson’s school of journalism.

It was inspiring to hear from Carpenter about Journalists for Human Rights’ Indigenous Reporters Program, which has trained many emerging journalists in their northern Ontario communities to improve the quality and quantity of Indigenous voices in mainstream media. You can click here to read more about the pilot program.

There’s also a great guide by McCue called Reporting in Indigenous Communities that every journalist should read before venturing out to cover stories about Canada’s  1.4 million Indigenous people.