Five collective challenges facing Indigenous journalists in newsrooms - By Bridget Brennan

We’re tending to spend a tonne of our time trying to explain why a story is important and then explain why we should tackle it in the way that we’re going to tackle it.” Graham Lee Brewer is a reporter and investigative journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. [...] And I remember bringing it to my editor at the time and his response was, ‘Well, you know, that’s a really tricky area and it’s kind of a quagmire, I don’t know that we really want to try to step into that world.’ And I was like, ‘Just so I’m understanding you correctly, what you’re saying to me is that you think it’s too difficult to cover this government, so you don’t want to do it?’ I think in. [...] And so that weighs on you.” The impact of colonisation, assimilation policies, and the dispossession of our lands continues to have a profound and severe legacy for Indigenous societies.9 That means we deal with a huge amount of trauma in our reporting and investigative work. [...] As I said at the beginning of this paper, the work of these journalists is inspirational to me, and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to connect with fellow Indigenous journalists from across the globe. [...] To the wonderful people at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a huge thanks for all that you have built and for reinvigorating my love of journalism and this trade – no small ask! I am especially indebted to the wonderful Caithlin Mercer for sparking such interesting conversations and for fostering a lovely, warm environment for fellows.