I was on the phone with my Mom this week and after our usual check-ins—you know, the motherly inquiry into if I am eating and sleeping enough—she began giving me updates on what is going on in India with Covid. “Yes, I know, Mom,” I found myself cutting her off almost coldly as she told me the recent death count. My news feed via Social Media and Television has bombarded me everyday with painful stories about the effects of Covid felt all over the world, India being one of the deadliest at the moment. I just didn’t want to hear it anymore.
For my Mom, however, this was not another devastating story heard on the News. It was a very real experience some of her family is going through in her home country right now. She tells me about the fears from her sister-in-law from a village in Punjab and a friend in one of the major cities and suddenly the news doesn’t just seem like news anymore. I immediately feel guilty and begin to wonder about the people, their families and loved ones, and my heart hurts.
This experience made me start to wonder about how news is shared. News is often meant to be objective, information presented as facts. However, when we share and see the news as subjective experiences that allow us to feel for or with the person experiencing, the news become stories. As part of my research for this course, I decided to apply my reflection about media outlets and storytelling towards Indigenous news and experiences. I decided to look into Indigenous News channels online and see what I would find. I wanted to know if there were Indigenous networks telling their news from their perspectives. A quick Google search brought me to the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). This is a Canadian network that has been around for almost 30 years! I will admit, I am embarrassed that I had not heard of it before. Going through the website, I see so many different shows and documentaries, and then I see a section called News. Upon click, I am taken to a new website: https://www.aptnnews.ca/
The APTN National News tells stories about current issues and news connected to Indigenous People and the stories are primarily told by reporters and journalists that are themselves Indigenous and/or have ties to Indigenous communities. When I click on British Columbia, the province I live in, I see news about First Nations people who were attacked by forestry workers on Vancouver Island, Indigenous Nurses Day stories, Indigenous language programs offered in BC, and more. APTN News also has an Instagram page: @aptnnews that shares the tagline, “our stories told our way”. I know that news is supposed to be unbiased and strictly facts but when you are dealing with an experience that someone is going through, you really do need that person to tell their own story or people with some relating knowledge, understanding or sensitivity to tell give it justice. This is especially important when we realize the current consequences of Canadian history written by colonizers and settlers. I wish I had found this source sooner but am thankful to now know it exists.
APTN. (2021). Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. https://www.aptn.ca/