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Tanya Talaga started her journalism career working at Toronto star after working on the University of Toronto newspaper Varsity. She was eager to prove herself in the field, especially being the only Indigenous journalist in the room and covered various topics from crime to health care.

Her grandmother, attended St. Michael’s Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. While her father is Polish-Canadian her mother's side is Anishinaabe. She often visits her mother’s community, Fort Williams First Nation, near Thunder Bay, both in her childhood during the summers and for inspiration and valuable interviews throughout her projects.

In 2009, Talaga moved to the Queen’s Park bureau wheres she could focus on writing pieces that she was passionate about, for example young Indigenous suicide rates. After that she wrote her first book, Seven Fallen feathers about the failure of justice systems, racism and education. Her second book followed: All our relations: Finding the path forward. She then went on to work at the Globe and mail where she has her own column and in 2018 and created Makwa Creative: “produces podcasts, TV shows and documentaries”(Cyca).

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Fort Williams First Nations Pow Wow (2019)

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Fort Williams First Nations Pow Wow (2019)

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style and technique

enjoys writing opinion articles (her articles are all under the “opinion” column at Globe and Mail

inspired by latest Indigenous news (a common theme strung throughout her articles)

The preview of articles provide a pattern for those who seek to discover her style and technique. One is able to recognise that her articles are all under the “opinion” category and, by reading the titles, about the indigenous community, whether it is promotional or to receive additional recognition for a certain cause.

centered about the idea of community (as seen in Seven Fallen Feathers)

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previous positions

began in university (UofT), writing for Varsity, a student-run newspaper

indigenous columnist at Toronto Star (1955), eager to prove herself in the field, especially being the only Indigenous journalist in the room (Cyca, 2021)

current positions

indigenous columnist at Globe and Mail

author of: Seven Fallen Feathers, All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward

head of Makwa Creative Inc. (production company “focused on amplifying Indigenous voices through documentary films, TV and podcasts” (Nipissing University, 2022). )

runs the Spirit to Soar Fund → supports First Nations youth programs in northern Ontario

holds honorary doctorates from: Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, the Toronto Metropolitan University, Victoria University in the University of Toronto, and Ontario Tech University

future plans

working on a book (back in 2021) to confront the question of: why did we ignore the unmarked graves from residential schools?

working on a three book collection w/ HarperCollins Canada on Canadian Residential Schools, taking into account survivor stories (originally intended to be published in 2023)

accomplishments

“[Talaga’s] books are falling off the shelf” (Nipissing University, 2022)

nominated six times for Michener Award in public service journalism

part of teams that won two National Newspaper Awards for Project of the Year

2017–2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy

2018 CBC Massey Lecturer (first Anishinaabe woman to do so)

Spirit to Soar (first film, Makwa Creative Inc.): won an Audience Award at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival

Seven Fallen Feathers (first book) → national bestseller:

won the RBC Taylor Prize, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, and the First Nation Communities Read Award: Young Adult/Adult

finalist for: Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize, the BC National Award for Nonfiction.

impacted the Canadian audience, but especially ones with indigenous backgrounds: it was nice to see themselves represented

All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward (second book) → also national bestseller

finalist for: the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize, and the British Academy’s Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding

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Talaga's First Novel: Seven Fallen Feathers

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Talaga's First Novel: Seven Fallen Feathers