Fort William First Nation journalist hosts CBC Thunder Bay special on National Indigenous Peoples Day

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Fort William journalist Jolene Banning hosted a CBC Thunder Bay two-and-a-half-hour special on National Indigenous Peoples Day after one of her Stories from Anemki Wajiw columns was recognized with a national award.

“It was a lot of fun — it was a lot of stories about Mino Bimaadiziwin – living the good life,” says Banning, producer with Makwa Creative and nationally syndicated columnist with CBC. “It was a really nice theme for National Indigenous Peoples Day and we touched on stories of living the good life but also about Pride. It’s also Pride month so we had a balance of stories of Mino Bimaadiziwin and of Pride, but all of it from an Indigenous lens.”

Banning says the radio special featured segments on Shannon and Ryan Gustafson, a spring hide tanning camp, Indigenous humour with comedian Don Kelly, Quill Christie-Peters’ Indigenous Youth Residency Program, and Rez Pride.

“[The Gustafsons] are an artist couple that live right near me on Fort William First Nation and they went from creating beautiful works of art to now creating meaningful pieces of art [about] traditional knowledge and history like tikinagans and the split-toe moccasins,” Banning says. “The artwork they create is very special because they are doing work to keep our history alive and thriving and encouraging people to pick up our ways.”

Banning says the spring hide tanning camp segment was a replay from one of her CBC Thunder Bay Stories from Anemki Wajiw columns.

“Don Kelly is an Anishinabe comedian originally from the Ojibways of Onigaming First Nation in Treaty #3 and I wanted to talk to him and include him on the show because humour is an important part of our lives, humour is what’s seen us as Anishinabe people through a lot of hard times,” Banning says. “So I thought it was important for people to hear how humour is such an important tool in our lives.”

Banning says it was also important to highlight how Christie-Peters is working with Indigenous youth on how colonialism affects Indigenous people.

“We also talked about Rez Pride,” Banning says. “I thought it was important to include a story from Joshua Leclair, (a Biigtigong Nishnaabeg citizen) who was bringing Rez Pride to his reserve. He brought Rez Pride to his reserve when he was forced into lock-down and isolation because of COVID-19.”

Banning’s CBC Thunder Bay Stories from Anemki Wajiw column Out on the Land for a Spring Goose Hunt was recognized with a RTDNA Canada Best Canadian Local News Award national award for Excellence in Sound (Audio) on June 11 after originally being recognized with a RTDNA Canada Central Region award on May 26.

“It’s a great award,” Banning says. “I’m very proud that I won it.”

Banning says her goal as a journalist is to tell good stories about Anishinabe people.

“We are so much more than our trauma,” Banning says. “It is important that Anishinabe and other First Nations journalists are telling the truth, and that’s where I’m at with my stories. I do centre my stories around Indigenous knowledge, they always include traditional Indigenous knowledge and our culture and our history because that’s what is going to see us through.”

Fiona Conway, president at RTDNA Canada, says the RTDNA Canada 2022 award winners represent the best of the best in journalism and storytelling from across Canada.

“Journalism is not easy, and it’s been especially challenging in the last two years,” Conway says. “The work we have seen is impressive and important to our communities. Every nominee and winner should be so proud of their accomplishments.”