Tanya Talaga named new Atkinson Fellow

Star reporter will explore rates of youth suicide in Indigenous communities

Tanya Talaga, an award-winning investigative journalist who specializes in Indigenous affairs, is the recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy for 2017 to 2018.

Talaga, a Star reporter and twotime National Newspaper Award winner, will be exploring youth suicide in Indigenous communities.

“It’s heartbreaking. It has ripple effects. Many that don’t get reported, many that the public don’t often see but they’re there and they’re felt by everyone in the community,” said Talaga, who has travelled to Indigenous communities reporting on the effects of youth suicide.

The Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy was created in 1988 and funds Canadian journalists to work exclusively on an impactful series of indepth articles on a critical public policy issues to be published in the Star.

Recipients of the fellowship receive a stipend of $75,000 and up to $25,000 for research expenses.

“We are just thrilled with both our winner and the topic she has chosen to pursue at this time in our country’s history,” said John Honderich, an Atkinson Foundation board member and the chair of the board of Torstar Corp, in an email. “Knowing Tanya, it would be difficult to imagine a better journalist to pursue this important work.”

In her proposal, Talaga asked why the rates of suicide among Indigenous youth vary so wildly from community to community.

“Every single year, one third of all deaths of Indigenous youth are due to suicide,” she wrote in her proposal. “Suicide is a new behaviour in Indigenous people. There is no record of any suicide epidemics existing prior to the establishment of 130 residential schools across Canada.”

The first residential schools opened in the 1800s and the last one closed in

“We need to draw on their strengths and bring them forward to make these kids proud of who they are.” TANYA TALAGA IN HER PROPOSAL

1996, scooping up 150,000 Indigenous children.

The intergenerational trauma from that continues to this day amongst the Indigenous community, she said.

Talaga said stories about why Indigenous youth are dying by suicide are written about — like poverty and alcoholism — “but there are positives in communities as well and we need to draw on their strengths and bring them forward to make these kids proud of who they are and stop the hurt.” Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, who supported Talaga’s nomination for the fellowship, said in a media release, “Tanya’s research promises to shine muchneeded light on a tragedy that is rarely reported in depth, and rarely acted upon with meaning. We thank the Atkinson Foundation for supporting her research, and we look forward to assisting in any way possible.”

Talaga said she will begin her fellowship in October.

“I’m hopeful there will be talks on a new way to deliver health transfer payments to Indigenous communities,” she said. “Dialogue has to begin on that.”