The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) is an Aboriginal

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. AMMSA was established in 1983 under the Alberta Societies Act and launched its first publication in March 1983 – simply titled ''AMMSA''. The name of this publication was later changed to ''Windspeaker'' in March 1986.

Publications

AMMSA abandoned producing paper products, making the decision to set up a news website. History AMMSA published a number of monthly publications listed below * ''Windspeaker'' – Featuring national content; publishing from March 1983 - 2016 AMMSA published the following provincial publications on a monthly basis: * ''Alberta Sweetgrass'' – News and events from Indigenous communities in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Published monthly from December 1993 - 2016 * ''Ontario Birchbark'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Published monthly from January 2000 -2016 * ''Raven's Eye'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

and the

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

Published monthly from March 1997 - 2016 * ''Saskatchewan Sage'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Published monthly from October 1996 - 2016 AMMSA digitized all of the published articles in its paper products dating back to 1983 and makes them available online as part of an archive of 20,000+ news and information articles. These archives have grown to more than 30,000 articles.

Radio

AMMSA also operates a radio network, Windspeaker Radio, for Indigenous listeners throughout Alberta. The network studios were originally in Lac La Biche, but are now based in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

. A new transmitter in Edmonton was licensed by the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

in 2008, and became the CFWE network's primary station when it launched in July 2009. On June 14, 2017, the CRTC granted AMMSA licenses to operate Type B Native FM radio stations aimed at urban Indigenous audiences in

at 89.3 MHz as the Raven CIWE-FM (which signed on in 2021), and in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

at 88.1 MHz as CJWE-FM (which began broadcasting in 2018). Both frequencies were previously licensed to

Aboriginal Voices Radio Network Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (rebranded as Voices Radio in 2014) was a Canadian radio network, which primarily broadcast music programming and other content of interest to aboriginal people. As of June 2015, the network operated stations in To ...

but were revoked in 2015 due to compliance issues.

References

First Nations mass media Magazine publishing companies of Canada Radio broadcasting companies of Canada Companies based in Edmonton Indigenous broadcasting in Canada {{portal, Companies