20 years & many more to come

Page 19

A lot has changed in the 20 years since Windspeaker published its first issue. Back then, in March 1983, the paper was published as AMMSA (Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta), and came out every week, covering the news and events affecting Aboriginal people in Northern Alberta. The name change to Windspeaker came later, coinciding with the paper's third anniversary. AMMSA also celebrated its third anniversary by moving into a new home, a building it had purchased, a first for a Native communications organization in Canada.

Publication of the paper relied heavily on funding from the federal government, through the Native Communications Program, but the AMMSA board and management were not comfortable with the dependence, and embarked on a five-year plan to make the enterprise self-sufficient. The society was in year three of the plan when, in 1990, the government eliminated the Native Communications Program and with it, funding for Native newspapers across Canada. One of the few publications with a plan in place and working to become financially self-reliant, Windspeaker had an advantage over other papers, many of which didn't survive the funding cuts. Windspeaker changed its publication schedule to every second week, and streamlined operations in order to survive. The paper did more than survive; it thrived, and celebrated its 10th anniversary by becoming the country's first national Native newspaper.

"Had we not been on that independence track, we wouldn't have survived. And many of the others didn't," said Noel McNaughton, president of the AMMSA board, who has been with the organization for most of its 20-year existence.

With a number of Aboriginal papers falling by the wayside, an opportunity was created for AMMSA and Windspeaker to fill the void, an opportunity the organization jumped at.

"One of my philosophies has always been that when something negative happens, you have to look for something positive," said Bert Crowfoot, AMMSA CEO and publisher. "And I guess on the down side, nine papers ceased publishing, but I guess the opportunity is that there was a void across Canada. So Windspeaker went national to try to fill that void. Windspeaker used to cover a lot of community events, and when Windspeaker went national, we didn't cover those events. So the communities started saying, 'Well, wait a minute. You used to come out and cover this kind of stuff.' So as a result, there's an opportunity for a provincial newspaper to cover those events."

By the end of 1993, Alberta Sweetgrass, a monthly paper serving Alberta, began publishing. It was joined by Saskatchewan Sage in October 1996, Raven's Eye in May 1997, covering British Columbia's Aboriginal community, and by Ontario Birchbark in January 2002.

It all started humbly enough two decades ago, with the first issue of AMMSA, a paper created not as part of some altruistic mission to be a voice for Aboriginal people, but as a way to create employment.

At the time, Crowfoot was working with the Alberta Native Communications Society as managing editor of the Native People newspaper. He'd worked with the society a few years earlier, when he'd learned the ins and outs of the publishing business. Shortly after he returned to the paper in late 1982, the society lost its funding, and the staff lost their jobs.

"When they pulled the plug, the staff and I got together and we wrote a proposal, and I submitted it, and it was accepted," Crowfoot said. "We were given the go ahead March 11. So we had all our existing staff, and we put out a newspaper in a week.

"A lot of people say, well . . . what was your dream. Well, I really didn't have one. I just needed a job. We all needed jobs. So we got everybody back doing what they'd always done. And that was 20 years ago."

While Windspeaker and its sister publications are a sign of AMMSA's success over two decades, that doesn't mean that the road has been free of bumps along the way. McNaughton was there whenAMMSA went through its growing pains, and witnessed first-hand Windspeaker's transition from fledgling regional weekly to a well-established and well-respected National forum on Aboriginal issues.

"The first year or two, I think we went through an editor every six months. We had staff rebellions. You know, we'd come in for a board meeting and all the staff would be wanting to talk to the board and they were all going to quit, and everybody was mad at everybody and what not. But that just happens. We slowly sorted things out," he said.

Now, 20 years later, Noel McNaughton is proud of what Windspeaker has become, and what it means to Canada's Aboriginal people.

"One of the things Windspeaker has done, and the other papers as well, is that we have been a voice . . . a balanced, non-political voice reporting on Aboriginal affairs in Canada. The mainstream press doesn't really have reporters who are, I'll say 'in' on the First Nations culture. And a lot of the other ones are influenced politically, either directly or through subtle pressure, from chiefs and band members to report in certain ways. And we have always resisted that," he said. "We will not have anybody from a political organization on the board, or any board member or anybody else telling the staff, 'Write this kind of story or that kind of story.'

"We've had high quality reporting, it's balanced, it's not reporting on, you know, 'the First Nations people are always right and everybody else is always wrong,' that sort of thing. We're looking to report the truth to people, and give them information that will be useful to them, and I think we've done that. And I think that's our biggest strength, is that it's been an objective, balanced organization in all of our papers, including Windspeaker, so that people have come to trust it. Even people, you know, politicians and so forth, that aren't always wild about the stories we do, they trust our reporting. And that is the most important thing I think there s in a news organization or a communications organization."

Those thoughts are echoed by Bert Crowfoot, who gives a lot of credit to the board for allowing that editorial freedom and integrity, and to board member Chester Cunningham for bringing a hands-off philosophy to the board.

"I guess one of the things that affects a lot of Aboriginal media organizations, or most media organizations, is there is a lot of political control from the outside. I remember in the late 70s (with the Alberta Native Communications Society), some reporter that had written not a good story about someone, there was a chance they might, I guess their employment was always in jeopardy when we had an annual meeting. There was always that control from the outside, " he said.

"When Chester Cunningham came on stream, he set the tone for the board, and it's still that way today. Our board stays out of the day-to-day. It deals with policy, it deals with the overall direction that the organization is going. And they let the managers manage.

"One of the things that I'm most proud of . . . is that our reporters and editors have the freedom to cover things the way they should be covered . . . we don't have to worry about how we cover it, because our board will stand behind it. And as a result of that, we're one of the few Native media organization that get into the stories and cover them the way they should be covered," Bert Crowfoot said.

That approach to covering the news has earned Windspeaker respect, even from those that are often the subject of some close scrutiny within the pages of the paper.

"I met with the Minister of Indian Affairs in Calgary and . . . he said, 'Well, I have to tell you, I really respect your publication, because maybe we've been hit hard by some of the stories, but you know something, we know it's going to be fair. We know that you're not vindictive . . you cover it fairly, and you're objective, and that's all we can ask.' So they really respect it. And to me, tht was a really good compliment to our organization, that they know we're not going to back down from the stories. We're going to cover them the way they should be covered."

While anniversaries are typically a time to look back and reflect on the past, Windspeaker and AMMSA are also commemorating the milestone by looking to the future. AMMSA management and staff are celebrating the anniversary in new, larger offices, which will accommodate anything the future holds for the organization.

Windspeaker is also marking the anniversary with a new look. According to managing editor Debora Steel, the new Windspeaker will have more of a magazine-style look, in keeping with the publication's gradual shift over the years towards longer, more in-depth features. The new format will have everything our readers have come to expect from Windspeaker, as well as some new features to draw "new eyes" to the publication.

The revamped Windspeaker will also bring back some old favorites-Buffalo Spirit and the classroom edition (now Canadian classroom-as regular features.

As for the distant future, the possibilities seem endless, and could include expanding the chain with more newspapers, increasing the broadcast area for CFWE, the Native Perspective, AMMSA's radio station, working to encourage and train more Aboriginal journalists, and even a possible move into television production.

Whatever the future holds for Windspeaker, and the entire AMMSA organization, any new or expanded ventures will have a greater chance at success because of the solid base they have to grow from, Crowfoot said.

"We've got really good people working here, and you're only as good as your people. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you don't have good people working with you, then you're not going to achieve your goals.

"We've got a solid board. Most of them have been here for 10, 12, 15 years. That's the foundation that this organization is built upon. I've been here for 20 years. Our manger