Tanya Talaga (b. 1970) is a Canadian journalist and author of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She worked as a journalist at the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'' for over twenty years, covering health, education, local issues, and investigations. She is also the owner of the media compan
Makwa Creative She is now a regular columnist with the
Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it fall ...
.
Her 2017 book ''
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City'' was met with acclaim, winning the 2018
RBC Taylor Prize
The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, was a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It was named for Charles P. B. Taylo ...
for non-fiction and the 2017
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best nonfiction book on Canadian political and social issues. It has been presented annually in Ottawa at the Writers� ...
.
[“Tanya Talaga wins $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen prize for Seven Fallen Feathers”]
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
, May 9, 2018. In 2024 she published ''The Knowing'' a retelling of Canadian History and residential schools through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter. Talaga is the first woman of Anishinaabe descent to be named a CBC Massey Lecturer. She holds honorary doctorates from
Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...
and from
Ryerson University
Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...
.
Early life and education
Talaga is of mixed heritage, describing her ancestry as being one-fourth Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) and half
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
. Her maternal grandmother is a member of
Fort William First Nation
Fort William First Nation () is an Ojibwa First Nation reserve in Ontario, Canada. The administrative headquarters for this band government is south of Thunder Bay. , the First Nation had a registered population of 1,798 people, of which thei ...
and her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, was a
residential school survivor.
She was raised in Toronto and spent summers with her mother's family in Raith, Ontario, a small community one hour northwest of Thunder Bay. When she was twenty years old, she learned that a sister had been given up for adoption and that three of her mother's siblings had also grown up in the foster care system. She notes that these experiences influenced her later work on the impacts of residential schools and intergenerational trauma.
Talaga studied history and political science at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
. She wrote and edited the university's student newspaper ''
The Varsity'' and volunteered on ''The Strand'', a publication of Victoria College.
Career
Talaga was hired by the ''Toronto Star'' in 1995 as an intern. She worked as a general city reporter for 14 years, covering several beats, before transferring in 2009 to the Queen's Park Bureau.
She also wrote as the indigenous issues columnist.
Her first book, ''
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City'', was released in 2017 to critical acclaim and shortlisted for numerous awards in both 2017 and 2018. The book examines the deaths of seven
First Nations
First nations are indigenous settlers or bands.
First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to:
Indigenous groups
*List of Indigenous peoples
*First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
youths in
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...
, Ontario,
[ and began when Talaga was assigned to write a story about why more First Nations people were not voting in the 2011 federal election, only to find that many people were reluctant to cooperate with her story because the deaths were not its focus.
Talaga delivered the 2018 ]Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures is an annual five-part series of lectures given in Canada by distinguished writers, thinkers, and scholars who explore important ideas and issues of contemporary interest. Created in 1961 in honour of Vincent Massey, a forme ...
, entitled ''All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward''. Based on her 2018 Massey Lectures, Talaga released her second book, '' All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward'', which shares the name with the lecture series. In 2020, it was one of five books shortlisted for the British Academy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding.
Talaga's first podcast, the seven episode ''Seven Truths'', which tells contemporary stories through the lens of the Anishinaabe Seven Grandfather Teachings, was released by Audible
Audible may refer to:
* Audible (service), an online audiobook store
* Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks
* ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player
* Audible finish or ru ...
on November 26, 2020.
Talaga also owns the production company Makwa Creative Inc. Her documentary film '' Spirit to Soar'' premiered at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...
, where it won the Audience Award in the mid-length film category.
Awards
Book awards
Awards for '' Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City:''
* RBC Taylor Prize
The RBC Taylor Prize (2000–2020), formerly known as the Charles Taylor Prize, was a Canadian literary award, presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It was named for Charles P. B. Taylo ...
(2018)
* Shaughnessy Cohen Prize (2018)
*Periodical Marketers of Canada, Indigenous Literature Award (2018)
* Finalist, B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction (2018)
* Nominee, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer.
Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner re ...
(2018)
*Finalist, Speaker's Book Award (2017)
Fellowships
* Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy (2017–2018)
Journalism awards
* National Newspaper Award
The National Newspaper Awards () are prizes awarded annually for the best work in Canadian newspapers.
Synopsis
The awards were first given in 1949 by the Toronto Press Club, which ran the awards until 1989. They are now given by an independent ...
for the Gone Series (2015)
* National Newspaper Award, yearlong project on the Rana Plaza
The Rana Plaza collapse (also referred to as the Savar building collapse) occurred on 24 April 2013, when the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed due to a structural failure. The search for survivors lasted for 19 days and en ...
building collapse. (2013)
* Michener Award
The Michener Award is one of the highest distinctions in Canadian journalism. The award was founded in 1970 by Roland Michener, who was Governor General of Canada
The governor general of Canada () is the federal representative of the . The m ...
in public service journalism, five-time nominee.
References
External links
Tanya Talaga official website
Systemic Racism against Indigenous People in Thunder Bay
– A podcast episode with Tanya Talaga commenting on the OIPRD Report, BROKEN TRUST: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service
{{DEFAULTSORT:Talaga, Tanya
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Canadian essayists
21st-century Canadian women writers
First Nations activists
Canadian women essayists
Canadian newspaper journalists
First Nations journalists
First Nations women writers
Toronto Star people
Ojibwe women writers
Ojibwe writers
Canadian people of Polish descent
Canadian investigative journalists
Canadian women journalists
21st-century First Nations writers
Canadian documentary film directors
Canadian women film directors
Film directors from Ontario
Writers from Ontario
Canadian women podcasters
Canadian women documentary filmmakers
Ojibwe activists
Canadian podcasters
Canadian Screen Award winning writers