Kelsie Kilawna (she/her)
Cultural Editor, Senior Aunty, storyteller, Okanagan
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Kelsie Kilawna is a syilx and Secwepemc storyteller, journalist and editor. She provides culture-based editorial support that is rooted in her personal responsibility to hold up the Indigenous worldview as a way of creating equity and bridging understandings. She brings these to the world through the training she developed that supports other media outlets and journalists in “Decolonizing the Media.” Where she blends together both cultural knowledge and trauma-informed practices and ethics pertaining to media.
Business Aunty & Contributing storyteller
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Eden is a nehiyaw iskwew (a Cree woman), and a multidisciplinary artist from the Sweetgrass First Nation in Treaty 6 territory. She joins IndigiNews as Business Aunty and contributing storyteller, where she writes stories for the website and a newsletter each week to IndigiNews subscribers, while fundraising for and generally taking care of business at IndigiNews. She is an uninvited guest on the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqeum), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) people.
Kaila Jefferd-Moore (she/her)
Managing editor
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Kaila is a writer, thinker, and questioner of all kinds, who brings her journalism expertise to IndigiNews as Managing Editor. A culmination of her experiences and privileges, Kaila is Haida and Canadian, born within the Coast Salish territory of the Snuneymuxw in British Columbia, though raised in Inuuvik, Northwest Territories on Gwich’in and Inuvialuit lands. She currently lives in Ta’an Kwäch’än and Kwanlin Dün territory.
Editor & Contributing Storyteller
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Tesssa is a queer settler of Swedish (town of Smedjebacken), British and French ancestry, born and raised on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. As an editor at IndigiNews, she is honoured to support Indigenous storytellers as they claim their rightful place within the media landscape.
Cara McKenna
Contributing editor
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Cara is a storyteller and editor of Alberta Métis and Irish/settler descent. She has worked in newsrooms across the country, including the Globe and Mail, APTN National News and the Canadian Press. She is also the former editor of the Salish Sea Sentinel magazine. Along with editing at IndigiNews, Cara is currently working on completing her BFA in Creative Writing at UBC.
Aaron Hemens
Storyteller, Okanagan
Email | Twitter Aaron Hemens is a photographer, journalist and visitor in unceded syilx territory. He is Filipino on his mom’s side, and has both French and British roots on his dad’s.
As a settler, he is committed to learning and unlearning in his role as Okanagan Storyteller, and to accurately and respectfully tell stories of Indigenous peoples throughout the region.Aaron’s work is supported in part with funding from the Local Journalism Initiative in partnership with The Discourse and APTN.
Philip McLachlan
Storyteller, Education & Child Welfare
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Philip McLachlan is a queer settler of Scottish and English ancestry, born and raised on the unceded territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ and Quw’utsun Nations. His background includes working in small communities as a journalist for traditional media and freelancing for international wire agencies as a photojournalist. He is passionate about telling authentic stories in a way that honours Indigenous community members on their homelands.