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Candace Maracle: Hi, everyone.
My name is Candace Maracle and

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I'm a former graduate of Ryerson
University School of Journalism.

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I got my masters about five
years ago. And since then I've

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had the opportunity to produce
for CBC Radio and As It Happens

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and The Current, and I've also
reported for APTN's national

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news. But some of the work that
I do that I find the most

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rewarding is my work in
documentary filmmaking. I've had

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two feature documentaries, and
they've both done really, really

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well for themselves in the film
festival circuit. And I get

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invited to universities to do
screenings and director's talks

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all the time in front of
students like you. My first

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documentary was called the
Creator's Game, and it was

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actually my master's thesis. It
centered around a headline

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making issue in 2010, about a
men's lacrosse team called the

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Iroquois Nationals. And they
were a team that traveled on

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their nation zone, issued
passports, their Haudenosaunee

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passports. And actually at the
time, they were denied travel,

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so they were forced to forfeit
the world lacrosse

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championships. Now at the time,
I found that mainstream media

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had done such an inadequate job
of covering it, that it

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infuriated me. Here's why. The
Iroquois people as they're known

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by the French, or the
Haudenosaunee as we refer to

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ourselves, and there's also my
nation have never relinquished

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our sovereignty, which basically
means that we don't consider

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ourselves Canadian or American,
but Haudenosaunee. And we also

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reserve the right to travel on
our nation's own documentation.

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Here's my Haudenosaunee passport
that actually used to travel to

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Switzerland and to Prague with
the team. Our right to mobility

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is enshrined in the United
Nations Declaration on the

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Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
That sounds like a mouthful, and

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we'll get more into that a
little bit later on. We're also

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the creators of Canada's
national sport, lacross.

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Tadodaho Sid Hill: I think there
were some court decisions where

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some of the east coast,east
coast natives there went to

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court and trying to go within
the land rights, action, some of

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the land, and the judge says,
Well, you speak your language?

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Can you sing your songs? Do you
do your ceremonies? I says,

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well,  no, no, no. He says well,
then you are just you're just a

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descendant of these people. And
you're no longer a people.

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Candace Maracle: Therefore, it's
both an issue of nationhood and

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the pride to represent ourselves
on the global scale, but it's

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also our right to do so.
Mainstream media at the time had

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reduced these issues, our issue
of nationhood and sovereignty,

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to tobacco, casinos, and
taxation. Now, this does less to

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inform the Canadian public, but
rather triggers hostility and

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rage. You know, those little
comments that are left at the

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end of articles, posted
anonymously, those racial

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tirades that are rife with
stereotypes. Well, they kind of

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hurt. Lack of context in
mainstream media is probably the

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biggest issue that I have when
they cover our stories. When

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there's no backstory, it really
hinders the Canadian public's

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ability to understand the issue
in any comprehensive manner. And

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to paraphrase a quote that I
read earlier, the

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decontextualized Indian then
becomes a problem Indian, the

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Indian who misappropriate, the
funding the homeless, Indian,

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the drunk Indian, I mean, the
list goes on and on. All of this

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makes it easier for the Canadian
public to jump to quick

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assumptions and to reach
generalizations about us. But

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here's our opportunity to do
better. Journalism is an act of

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character. It can be both
exploitive, or it can be

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insightful, and that onus rests
on our shoulders. We need to

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challenge these assumptions and
these prejudices. Call to Action

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86 of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission said

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journalism schools and media
schools do better to educate

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their students on Aboriginal
history, the legacy of

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residential schools, Aboriginal
treaty rights, the United

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Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples,

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but also the frayed relations
between Aboriginal peoples with

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the crown because of a history
of broken promises. That's why

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this course is so important to
me, not just professionally, but

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also personally. You see, all
four of my grandparents attended

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the residential schools, and
that's directly impacted my life

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today, this many years later.
It's the reason why my mom was

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too ashamed to teach my sister
on Iron native tongue, even

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though she's spoken, and it's
why that I'm forced to learn an

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endangered language, of which
there are only 4000 speakers,

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now as an adult, and it's also
why my mom will never be here to

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hear me speak it. I know it's
not an easy task and that

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Indigenous issues are really
complex. But I'm hoping that I

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can help in some way by sharing
with you what I know about

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reporting in Indigenous
communities.