Advisory Circle | Northern Journalism Training Initiative

Staff

Northern Journalism Training Initiative (a project of MakeWay Charitable Society) is staffed by individuals passionate about northern storytelling. Our Project Coordinator and Training Instructors will be delivering the 2025 NJTI training program in Hay River, NT.

Project Director

Kaila Jefferd-Moore

Kaila Jefferd-Moore is a Haida and Canadian, journalist, radio/podcast enthusiast, and media consultant living within Denendeh. Originally part of the Advisory Circle, she now works as the Project Director of NJTI. She grew up in Inuvik, and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) from the University of King’s College. It was here she began freelance reporting, and worked as Editor-in-Chief for The Dalhousie Gazette. Stints and bylines include local and national outlets such as Inuvik Drum (NNSL), CBC North, Maisonneuve, The Coast, THIS Magazine, Up Here, IndigiNews, and more.

Project Coordinator

Mary Buckland

Mary Buckland is a born-and-raised Yellowknifer who has worked in northern arts and culture programming both at home and abroad. Her academic background is in art history, visual arts, and, most recently, international arts management.

Steering Committee

Northern Journalism Training Initiative is guided by a volunteer steering committee, which is made up of northern media professionals. The steering committee is responsible for the overall leadership of the project and provides advice on the development and delivery of curriculum and programming.

Member

Dana Bowen

Although born and raised in Vancouver, Dana Bowen has spent most of the last decade living in Yellowknife. She graduated from Langara College in 2014 with a degree in journalism and has since worked for several publications from Northern News Services to Tusaayaksat Magazine and Up Here Magazine, while occasionally taking on jobs in photography and communications. Outside of work, Dana enjoys painting, dancing and writing historical fiction.

Member

Jenna Dulewich

Jenna Dulewich is a reporter with CBC. Originally from northern Manitoba, Jenna is a Swampy Cree - Ukrainian who started working as a journalist in Canada in 2014. Her career has taken her across several provinces and a territory with bylines in CBC, the Winnipeg Free Press, Great West newspapers and Post Media.

Jenna is passionate about northern grown storytellers in the media. In 2023, she founded and launched a community engagement project with CBC North organizing several community lunches in Yellowknife and surrounding communities and hosting journalism workshops for youth in the NT.

Member

Garrett Hinchey

Garrett Hinchey is a journalist and communicator born and raised in Yellowknife, currently working as a senior advisor at the Diavik Diamond Mine. Much of his career was spent at CBC North, where he began as an intern before serving in a number of roles, most recently as Senior Managing Editor. In 2022, Garrett published Reclaiming our Narrative, a policy paper through the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship that outlines the importance, challenges, and proposed pathways to increasing the number of Northern journalists and communicators. Outside of CBC, his work has been published at the Globe and Mail, ESPN.com, The Tyee, Up Here, and Up Here Business.

Chair

Tate Juniper

Tate is Sahtu Dene and a member of the Délı̨nę First Nation's Band and was born in Yellowknife. He has a diverse educational and professional background in finance, economics, the electrical trade, and video journalism. In 2021, Tate began a videography project, We Are The First, that was grounded in authentic representations and portrayals of Indigenous people.

He joined the Western Arctic Youth Collective as the Project’s Co-Director in the summer of 2023 and is humbled to help guide the programming and wellness work that they provide; the work that in his own words, saved his life. He loves drumming, playing hand games, travelling, and laughing and telling stories with friends and family.

Member

Dëneze Nakehk'o

Dëneze Nakehk'o is Dehcho and Denesuline Dene from Denendeh. He is a strong advocate for Indigenous knowledge systems, particularly Dene ways of knowing. As one of the founding members of Dene Nahjo, he works at encouraging and supporting connections/re-connections to land, language and culture. Dëneze is a public speaker that recognizes and actively confronts the impacts of colonization through Dene methods of decolonization. He has over a decade's worth of experience in northern media and communications as a journalist, broadcaster, podcaster and storyteller. Dëneze is originally from Liidlii Kue but now lives and works in Yellowknife.

Vice-Chair

Sara Minogue

Sara Minogue is a senior digital producer with CBC North based in Yellowknife. She moved to Iqaluit to work for Nunatsiaq News in 2004, and then west to Yellowknife in 2013. Originally from rural Saskatchewan, Sara holds a degree in English Literature from the University of British Columbia. She's worked as a reporter in print, television and radio for over 15 years, including freelance gigs with the Globe and Mail, the Walrus, the Canadian Press and Deutsche Welle radio.

Member

Kate Wedzin

Originally from Behchoko, Kate Wedzin, now lives in Yellowknife. She was raised in numerous foster homes in the NT and BC as a young girl and is now a strong and passionate advocate for Indigenous reconciliation through storytelling and sharing knowledge to overcome adversity. She believes storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool for healing and personal growth, and that through NJTI there is a space for ourselves and participants to process emotions, deepen our connections with others and find a greater sense of community and belonging.

Kate has been employed with the Government of the Northwest Territories since 2020 and is a Human Resource Assistant in the Department of Finance. She loves to go for walks, read and write, try new recipes, and bake.

Elders Advisory Committee

Northern Journalism Training Initiative is guided by an elders advisory committee, which is made up of northern media professionals with a long history of supporting and delivering community stories. The elders advisory committee provides advice on the development and delivery of curriculum and programming.

Member

Paul Andrew

Paul Andrew was born in the Mackenzie Mountains and grew up in Fort Norman, now called Tulı́t'a. He is a resident of Yellowknife and is well known for his work in culture, and residential school education and healing. He was first taken to residential school at the age of eight and spent a total of seven years in residential school. He became chief of Tulita at the age of 22 and is now retired from a 30-year career with the CBC. He has received numerous awards, including the Order of the NWT and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award.

Member

Louie Goose

Louie Goose began his journalism career at 19 years old, working on-air for the CBC periodically, leading to a full-time job in which he was assigned to collect old-time legends and life stories from elders across all communities in the CBC North broadcast region. Louie went on to work for CBC Current Affairs in Halifax, N.S., and on the acclaimed CBC radio program As It Happens in Toronto, O.N. In 1980 Louie moved back to the delta as manager of operations in Inuvik for CBC North. When CKLB was preparing to open, Louie was involved in the preparation of equipment and local on-air talent. Louie has also worked as the executive director of the Inuvialuit Communications Society, where he oversaw the production of Tusaayaksat. He also served as deputy chief of the Aklavik Community Corporation for two years.

Since the age of 10, Louie has also been a musician, and starting in 1996 he pursued a full-time career in music for seven years. He has influenced and championed Beaufort Delta music and musicians, and speaks proudly of his strong connection to his Inuit heritage. Louie was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for his lifelong contributions to Indigenous arts and culture at the 2012 Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards.

Member

Marie Wilson

Marie Wilson served for six and a half years as a Commissioner of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada following a 30-year career as an award-winning journalist, trainer, senior executive manager, independent contractor, and consultant in journalism, program evaluation, and project management. She has been a professor at two Canadian universities, and a high school teacher in Africa.

In journalism, Wilson worked in print, radio, and television as a regional and national reporter. She was the founding host of the North’s first weekly television information program, Focus North. As the first Regional Director based in the North for the CBC, she changed the name from CBC Northern Services to CBC North, and launched the North’s first daily TV news service against the backdrop of four time zones and 10 languages (English, French and eight Indigenous languages). She recruited and developed Indigenous staff, established the CBC North Awards to acknowledge staff excellence, and devoted programming to support and promote literacy, including Indigenous languages. Beyond the CBC, she served as an associate board member of what would become APTN.

For several years Wilson served as member and Chair of the CBC Training Advisory Committee, providing training both within the CBC and outside the country. Wilson holds post-graduate degrees in French and journalism, and certificates in project management and program evaluation.