A few months ago, as wildfires spread through homelands across the country, kelsie kilawna, Senior Specialist, Cultural Collaboration and Storytelling, identified a need in her community and the
communities of her neighbours: a tool to help respond to journalists and the media, who were knocking on doors and asking questions, oftentimes ignoring protocol and privacy.
Drawing from her own experience, journalism background, and consultation with communities, kelsie quickly put together a media resource toolkit as a resource with the purpose of giving communities agency and power over how – and if – their stories should be told through the media. The toolkit also includes a guide for reporters on how to approach writing these stories in a trauma-informed way.
#NarrativeBack: A Resource for Indigenous Communities in the Face of Climate-Related Disasters is co-published by MakeWay and IndigiNews. Read a full Q&A with kelsie, the author of the toolkit, on the IndigiNews website.
The Story Behind this Kit
I was born and raised in a family of storytellers. Through my teachings I learned that being syilx meant I was responsible to contribute to the wellbeing of all of life as directed by captikw’l (oral storytelling laws that govern syilx people.)
As a Senior Specialist of Storytelling and Cultural Collaborations at MakeWay and a contributing Aunty for IndigiNews, where my roots in storytelling took hold, I am honoured to take part in the creation of this media kit.
As syilx people we take every opportunity as a moment for reflection and transformation, in times of love, joy, grief, and fear, we remain disciplined by our teachings that tell us how to respond to the times.
In response to the wildfire that has moved through the homelands of many sqilx’w (Indigenous Peoples, as one with their land,) IndigiNews Media and MakeWay partner up to bring you this media kit. We are taking this moment to remind people how to come together in a good way to talk about hard things.
Trauma-informed reporting is simply being culturally aware. Indigenous Peoples have always cared for spirit and mental health as part of holistic wellness. While colonial entities such as media can cause harm by not having the understanding of the importance of spiritual wellness during times of grief as sqilx’w storytellers at IndigiNews we knew we had to create something that would support.
Note: kelsie writes her name in lowercase, based on the syilx teaching that not any one thing is more important than the other.
