Content Warning: For our Indigenous Cuzzins, this Open Letter contains content around racism that perpetuates harm against Indigenous Peoples. Please read this letter with care for your spirits and wellbeing. Canadian Media
Dear Canadian Press and CBC,
Normally at IndigiNews when other media outlets in the industry are misbehaving on Indigenous lands Kelsie Kilawna, Cultural Editor and Senior Aunty will privately email them to offer wisdom around the problematic behaviour and offer solutions. It’s what we call a ‘calling in,’ rather than a ‘calling out.’ However, in the recent case of CBC Edmonton publishing a racist story with an equally egregious headline, we decided to use an Open Letter to address it.
Simply because, Canadian Press and CBC, you all know better.
For years, there have been loud and public conversations around how media has endorsed and perpetuated the violence against Indigenous people. Mainstream media has engaged in propaganda that has been used to normalize the genocide that this country capitalizes on.
This headline serves as another reminder that major players in the journalism industry have not been listening, nor have they grown. It reminds us that our humanity is not valued as Indigenous people. This piece is beyond ignorance – it is racism.
With this article, the CP, and all other platforms that have republished it, have endorsed white supremacy, catered to white fragility, and co-signed our genocide. Each outlet that has picked up this Canadian Press story, republishing it and sharing it on their social media is complicit, including CBC Edmonton.
Because you are directly impacting the safety of our children by amplifying the message that we are always at fault for our own deaths – even when murdered – as both Indigenous women and industry colleagues, it is our responsibility to hold you accountable for the danger you put our people in.
You did this with Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, and numerous others, and as Indigenous mothers, Aunties, and kin we stand here in solidarity with our people to say enough is enough.
The Aunty Council at IndigiNews is calling for an immediate retraction and public apology. You don’t owe IndigiNews anything but you do owe it to our Indigenous kin — who are also an audience you claim to serve as public journalistic institutions. Your ignorance is a part of our ongoing genocide and we are calling it out here and now.
With the fire of Indigenous love,
IndigiNews Aunty Council
