For us, community-based media, what it looks like for us is, again, an Indigenous-led newsroom by Indigenous journalists—nuance and context you can’t find anywhere else, even in mainstream media. 

“Just because a story is new to you, it’s not new to the community.”

And one example is we have a political reporter here in DC and she went to a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing. And the New York Times, a White House correspondent—or maybe just The Hill correspondent—went up to her and said, “Oh, I read all your stories, because sometimes I don’t know what I’m listening to, I got to get context for stories.” 

And I was like, “Wow, that is incredible to know that even these legacy media, they don’t know, right?” And so that’s where we come in and fill the gaps, [which is a] story for another time. And just because for mainstream [journalists]— or even for the newsroom trainings I do for the Indigenous Journalists Association—I always tell these newsrooms that just because a story is new to you, it’s not new to the community. 

And I think that’s why we push Indigenous journalists to be in these newsrooms is because they know the issues that are important to their communities. And that can push the needle forward instead of explaining the story over and over again.”