Star’s Tanya Talaga to deliver Massey Lectures
Toronto Star investigative journalist and national bestselling author Tanya Talaga will deliver the prestigious 2018 CBC Massey Lectures on Indigenous youth suicide — an issue very close to her heart.
Titled “All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward,” her five lectures, which will be recorded live across the country this fall, will be based on her research and reporting as the 2017-18 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy on issues of Indigenous youth suicide in communities in Canada and beyond.
“The lectures will begin this year in Thunder Bay and I believe this is a first for the Masseys,” said Talaga.
“It was extremely important to me to start where my mother’s family came from,” Talaga said.
Her book Seven Fallen Feathers, about the lives and deaths of seven Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay, was the winner of this year’s RBC Taylor Prize. “My grandmother is a member of Fort William First Nation and all my grandmothers before her came from north of Lake Superior,” said Talaga, a 20-year veteran of the Star. “I will deliver these lectures motivated by the resiliency and strength of our youth in northern Ontario and fuelled by the need to open up the ears of Canadians so our children are treated equitably and given every chance to succeed.”
Named in honour of former Governor General of Canada Vincent Massey, the lectures were launched by the CBC in 1961 and have grown to be an important Canadian institution where contemporary thinkers explore crucial issues of our time. Previous lecturers include civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., writer Margaret Atwood and Stephen Lewis, a former politician, broadcaster and diplomat.
The 2018 Massey Lectures are a collaboration between the CBC, House of Anansi Press, Massey College at the University of Toronto, the Toronto Star and the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy. The fellowship is made possible by the Atkinson Foundation, the Honderich Family and the Toronto Star.
“The loss of Indigenous youth to suicide is a crisis in Canada and the world over. We thank Tanya and the organizers of the Massey Lectures for recognizing the need for a national discussion on this tragedy,” said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler.
“This is a significant opportunity for all Canadians to explore this issue and learn about our shared history, and I am confident that these lectures will be well-received and promote dialogue and understanding.”
The book version of Talaga’s lectures will be published by House of Anansi Press.