Broadcaster has found her home

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Carol Adams got snagged at a very early age.

Not by some handsome young guy wearing long braids and feathers at a powwow. It happened during a tour of a radio station when she was just 15 that Adams first got passionately hooked on the media, the art and craft of being a storyteller. And she has never looked back.

Twenty years later, at the youthful age of 36, Adams will be entering the new millennium as a well-respected veteran of Canadian radio, television and film. As the first Native broadcaster to work in mainstream television in Canada, Adams has made history as a reporter, news anchor, writer, producer and host.

Adams has now found a way to tie all the cultural strands of her life together as the producer/host of First Voices, a First Nations program airing weekly on the CKUA Radio Network out of Calgary.

On air since May 98, First Voices was Adams' first introduction into First Nations-specific programming. Professionally, it has become her first love, a powerful and important part of what she calls her responsibility to tell the stories of her own people.

"I have been given many gifts; one of them is being able to speak," said Adams. "And when you are given a gift you should use it. I've always been a reporter by nature and inclination. My mother tells me that I started talking when I was 10 months old so she wasn't surprised when I chose communications as a career choice."

Things went quickly for Adams, who was on the air on CKCK Radio in Regina at the age of 16. She attended SAIT to study broadcasting in the early 80s, produced a morning talk show at CKRM Radio, Regina at 19 and, in 1983, became the first Native broadcaster in mainstream television in Canada on CKCK-TV.

Hired by CBC as an anchor/host/reporter, she worked in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Fredericton and Calgary. Named co-host of "This Country" when CBC Newsworld went on the air in 1989, she became the first Aboriginal person to anchor a national Canadian newscast.

Adams soon found out that a high profile media job was not without pitfalls.

"It's kind of ironic that I got my start in Regina, a city that was not generally perceived to be user-friendly by Native people. Some of the people I was working with seemed to be disturbed by the fact that I was a young woman, First Nations, and seen to be only hired as a token. . . I went into CBC as a national anchor but it was not the best place for me to be. . . somebody would write a newscast for me, somebody would do my hair, put my make-up on, buy my clothes, hire a fashion consultant to come shopping with me so that I would have the right look. They would do all that and then say, 'Well, here's your script, read it.' Not much of a challenge. . . Being an anchor was really boring. Being a reporter is really fun. Sitting at a desk is OK for some people. It's not OK with me."

It was a death in the family that finally brought Adams back to her roots in Western Canada. Born to Cree and Chipewyan parents, originating from Sandy Bay in northern Saskatchewan, she wanted to be closer to her family and decided to settle down in Calgary, freelancing for CBC.

Adams picked up an acting role in the CBC television movie, Borders, followed by a role in North of 60, continuing her acting career until she and her husband Alex Lindberg (a Chipewyan from Fort Resolution, N.W.T.) started their family in 1995. Today Carol is the proud mom of two-year-old twins Nahanni and Daniel, three-year-old Jackson and eight-year-old Alexa.

She started freelancing at CKUA and got back into media working full time as news correspondent for CKUA's Calgary bureau. Between 1996 and 1999, Adams became the producer/host for Sunday Magazine and then producer/host for First Voices.

"When I started doing First Voices in May '98, I finally realized that this is where I should be. When I was 20, a friend at CBC told me that I have a responsibility to our Native people. I didn't know what he was talking about. Fifteen years later I realized what hewas saying and I'm glad other people are saying it to me now, that I have to tell the stories of our people. I was a baby taken in the Sixties Scoop and now I see that my time growing up away from the culture was necessary. It has allowed me to walk in both worlds. I respect them both and I know it is possible to bring them together as well," Adams said.

"I learned about my Cree side 11 years ago, my Chipewyan only last Easter. It's been interesting piecing my cultural past together, finding out that I come from healthy traditional people. It has made such a positive difference, is such a source of strength and pride. I see myself as a role model and since having my children have realized how important it is to be a role model for your community, to pass down what you know both personally and professionally."

In a year and a half of producing First Voices, Adams' personal favorite was an interview with Tomson Highway, taken during his publicity tour for his book, Kiss of the Fur Queen.

"Tomson is so interesting and he talked a lot. Some of the stuff many of our people have gone through is so painful, and for him to be able to acknowledge it, deal with it, slam it on the head and then say, 'there, I'm leaving it behind,' that is basically what he did with that book, a powerful inspirational work."

Adams was recently approached by the new Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

"It's exciting for us that the new network is going on the air, a great opportunity for people in the media as well as the viewers. I was asked to submit ideas to a program liaison person. They liked my ideas and asked me to put together a pilot and develop it into a product telling stories about who we are."

Adams' pilot is titled Called By The Drum, a 13-part series telling the stories of First Nations people of the Plains who are working to keep the culture strong, passing down their teachings and the understanding and pride that comes with being a First Nations person.