MEET THE INDIGENOUS MEDIA COLLABORATIVE – II (2022)

In the second year of the Indigenous Media Collaborative, JHR’s Solutions Journalism project has brought together a group of freelance Indigenous storytellers to tackle stories about climate change and the environment from a solutions journalism perspective. 

Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty, Dannielle Morrisseau, Odette Auger, Matteo Cimellaro, and Jenessa Joy Klukas will explore responses to the existential threat facing us all, supported by collaborative editor Cara McKenna.

Katlia (Catherine) Lafferty

Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty is a northern Dene novelist specializing in intellectual property law with a focus on literary copyright to mitigate cultural appropriation and Indigenous victimization in storytelling narratives. 

Her memoir Northern Wildflower was published in 2018 and her 2020 fictional novel Land-Water-Sky/Ndè-Tı-Yat’a was nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award. 

Katłįà has been a bi-weekly columnist for her hometown newspaper Northern News Services since she was sixteen years old. Her freelance work has since been published nationally and internationally.  

Her northern homeland and matrilineal lineage informs her storytelling. Much of her work is dedicated to the pursuit of providing educational awareness and advocacy on the issues that impact Indigenous peoples most. 

Matteo Cimellaro

Matteo Cimellaro is a Cree/settler writer and journalist. His work focuses on policing and prisons, Indigenous sovereignty, environmentalism, and the arts. He lives and works in Ottawa on unceded Algonquin territory.  

Dannielle Morrisseau

Dannielle Morrisseau is a Metis-Cree Nation woman from Treaty 2 Territory. Dannielle graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2021 with a degree in Human Rights and works as a Community Engagement Coordinator with the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation. 

Odette Auger

Odette Auger is Sagamok Anishnawbek through her mother, and lives on Klahoose, Homalco and Tla’amin territories in the Salish Sea. 

As a journalist she is drawn to sharing stories that are of broad relevance, often communicated best  through specific stories and voices. She is constantly encouraged by the commitment of people doing the research, working in the field, and believes we live in a time in which much hard work and collaboration needs to be done. 

Odette’s work is informed by a background in public administration and governance, youth programming, education and visual arts. Bylines include: Watershed Sentinel, Windspeaker, La Converse, The Tyee, Asparagus Magazine, IndigiNews and APTN.

Jenessa Joy Klukas

Jenessa Joy Klukas is an Indigenous woman of Xaxli’p and Métis descent. She grew up on the land of the Haisla Nation in Kitimat. You can find her work published in The Tyee and IndigiNews. Klukas has a bachelor of fine arts in writing from the University of Victoria. When she is not working, she writes screenplays and memoir. 

Cara McKenna (Editor)

Cara McKenna is a journalist and editor who is originally from Treaty 6 territory and is of Alberta Métis and Irish/settler descent. She has worked in newsrooms across the country including the Globe and Mail, the Canadian Press and APTN National News. She is also the former editor of the Salish Sea Sentinel magazine. As an editor, she is honoured to handle other writers’ copy and loves to support great storytelling. She currently lives on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh lands.