Newshounds
In January, the Dehcho Heritage Centre and the Gwich'in Tribal Council Department of Culture and Heritage opened an exhibition called Dehcho: River Journeys.
In one exhibit, Newsroom, visitors are introduced to three journalists who travelled to northern communities from 1975-77, covering the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry led by Justice Thomas Berger.
Now, the Kathryn Wake Fund is collaborating with the Dehcho Divisional Education Council on a competition that invites northern students to develop their own journalistic skills by writing and photographing a story about an issue of importance in the north. To assist students, we have built a website where the three journalists tell their stories and offer tips on interviewing, writing and photography.
1. Photo Stories. Tessa Macintosh is an award-winning northern photographer who began her career at the Native Press. She offers tips for taking photographs that can be combined with the subject's own words to create a photo story.
2. News Stories. Peter Gorrie began his career writing for the (then) News of the North in Yellowknife. He went on to cover environmental issues for the Toronto Star. In his interview he offers tips for writing a news story.
3. Interviews. Whit Fraser led the CBC news team that covered the Berger Inquiry in six Indigenous languages. He later hosted the CBC's national television newscast. He describes how to develop questions that stimulate an engaging dialogue.
Our competition invites students to apply the lessons of these veteran journalists to create their own newspaper article. The story can be told from any one of the formats described above: a photo story, a news story or an interview. (Interviews should be transcribed for publication.)
The competition is open to students in schools across the Northwest Territories. Students may work individually, in teams, or as a class. Prizes of $500 and $250 will be awarded to the top two entries in each category.
There's no need to format your work as a newspaper page, we'll have a professional do that. For the competition, we’re interested in the stories you tell.
The deadline for entries is December 15, 2023.
Send your text and photos to us at: