Connie Walker from the Okanese First Nation was in Regina to deliver a keynote for a media conference hosted by the First Nations University of Canada earlier this year. (Photo by Kerry Benjoe).

By By Belinda Nelson

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Advocating for truth, sharing Indigenous stories and navigating a fast-changing media industry are all in a day’s work for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Walker.

She and her investigative team at Gimlet Media not only won a Pulitzer for Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s they also received a Peabody Award for excellence in storytelling.

Walker shared her journey with fellow journalists and students at the Indigenous Peoples, Media and Democracy conference, hosted at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) in May.

“Journalism is essential to democracy,” she told EFN Media following her keynote. “Having journalists help the public be better informed and understand the truth, is crucial.”

The conference doubled as a homecoming for the Okanese First Nation member.

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“It’s been nice to come home…and get a chance to visit family,” said Walker.

She also caught up with faculty and students of FNUniv’s Indigenous Communication Arts (INCA) program.

Connie Walker a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist talks about the importance of telling Indigenous stories while in Regina in May. (Photo by Kerry Benjoe)

“I love the INCA program,” said Walker who was part of it in 1999. “It’s such a supportive base. I feel (coordinator) Shannon (Avison) really goes above and beyond for her students.”

The INCA Summer Institute, which is a dubbed a crash-course in journalism did play a small role in her auspicious media career.

After the institute, Walker completed an internship at CBC in Toronto and while there she landed a lead role in CBC’s Street Cents.

She stayed at CBC and rose through the ranks and in 2013, she helped establish an Indigenous Unit.

However, it wasn’t until Walker became a senior reporter for CBC’s Investigative Unit, that she found her way to podcasting first with CBC then with Gimlet Media.

Through it all, she’s maintained a strong sense of mission.

Journalism is essential to democracy, (journalists) help the public be better informed and understand the truth, (which) is crucial,” said Walker. “I think in this age that we’re in, there’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of unreliable sources.”

Her advice to the next generation of INCA graduates is to try everything.

“I think it’s good practice to do all different kinds of stories,” she said.

“One of the great things about being a journalist, especially in the context of daily news, in any context really, we don’t have to be the experts,” said Walker. “We get to ask the questions.”

She encourages new journalists to spend time in daily news before jumping into investigative journalism.

“I’m mostly interested in doing in-depth investigative stories, but I think I wouldn’t have been able to do this work without my experience in daily news,” said Walker.

Daily reporters are assigned a story in the morning and are expected to have it ready to publish or broadcast by the end of the workday and the story must also be factual.

In contrast, investigative journalism projects can take months and even years to move from research to publication, she said.

Walker’s ability to adapt to industry shifts also helped her career.

“Digital media really provided the proof the industry needed to show that people are interested in Indigenous stories,” she said. “There is an audience…who cares about Indigenous voices.”

Although Walker honed her journalism skills in mainstream media, these days she makes the decisions for her podcast Stolen.

“It’s really important for me to follow my own natural curiosity, things that I feel are important, and things that I am interested in,” she said. “If I care about them, I can help my audience also care.”

In April, Time Magazine listed her as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024.

The Stolen podcast was not renewed by Spotify at the end of last year.

Most recently Walker posted on social media, she was hosting CBC’s The Current this week and her podcast Surviving St. Michaels would be airing.