Walking the Walk
In “How Connie Walker Got Us Listening” (March/April), Michelle Cyca gives a compelling account of Walker’s journey through serial industry layoffs despite the podcaster’s excellence as a journalist. Walker not only got audiences across North America listening but moved us closer to what it means to contend with the truths of colonialism, genocide, and the ongoing impacts of residential schools. Having started out as a journalist at the CBC before Walker and Duncan McCue, I can attest to how few Indigenous journalists there were at the organization. I can also attest to how the CBC resisted telling Indigenous stories with the investigative depth and breadth that Walker has shown are not only possible but vital. Not too ironically, when I left the CBC, they asked me if I knew any other Indigenous journalists, and I gave them McCue’s name and number. There are now more Indigenous journalists in the industry than when I was at the CBC, and like Walker, many of them are waiting for a chance to do transformative journalism. Let’s hope news organizations support them and have innovative journalists like Walker to help the next generation blaze new pathways.
