Members to vote online and in-person; candidate forum set for Aug. 25 following NAJA Membership Luncheon
The Native American Journalists Association will hold an election Aug. 20-27 to determine incoming board members. There are three board vacancies for 3-year terms, which will begin in September 2022.
Candidates will be available to answer questions from membership during a candidate forum on Thursday, Aug. 25 from 12-2 p.m., local time following the NAJA Membership Luncheon and Business Meeting during the 2022 National Native Media Conference. NAJA Election Committee Chair Pauly Denetclaw will moderate the Q&A.
Online Voting
Eligible NAJA members voting online will receive an email with a unique link to their online ballot. Members may only cast one vote per person.
In-Person Voting
In-person voting will take place on Aug. 27, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., local time during the conference near the registration desk in the second floor Atrium at the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Phoenix. An informal candidate forum will follow the NAJA Membership Meeting and Business Luncheon on Thursday, Aug. 25 from 12-2 p.m.
Election Guidelines
The terms of the election are determined by the Native American Journalists Association bylaws, and can be found under Article VII, and the Board Guidelines Manual found on www.naja.com.
2022 Board Candidate Slate
Angel Moore
My community is the Peguis First Nation, Manitoba, my mom is Cree and my father was non-Indigenous. Raised by my mom and grandmother in Winnipeg, MB and my community where my family still lives. Peguis is my true home and I visit as often as I can.
I am video journalist with APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) the world’s first Indigenous network, operated by Indigenous People for Indigenous People. Covering the Atlantic Region including Labrador, based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax) NS reporting Indigenous stories such as Treaty Rights, Aboriginal Title, and everything else.
Winner of the 2020 Atlantic Journalism Award for best breaking news story.
Nominated for the Canadian Journalism Awards 2022 breaking news story.
I film, edit, and produce my stories for television, take photos for social media and write articles for the web.
My path to journalism was long. I attended the University of Manitoba, in 2008, to study science to follow my passion and become a physician. My pre-med experiences at a major hospital led me to feel medicine was a band aid to the health inequalities resulting from poverty and racism. My experience led me in 2012 to study International Development and Sustainability and Society at Dalhousie University, completing a double major Arts degree. My education felt colonial, I was not happy.
For my love of writing I completed a journalism degree in 2018 at the University of King’s College, to tell Indigenous stories. I felt academia and mainstream media was colonial, racist, and stereotyped Indigenous Peoples. Storytelling is in our blood.
Elders in my community, sharing their knowledge, inspired me to become a storyteller. The consequential trauma of residential schools, relocation, loss of language and culture, devastated my family. Today we are on the path of healing. As a young adult, I struggled with mental health and addictions, with the support of my family I recovered, now I walk the Red Road. I believed it is more important than ever to tell our stories. I love my job at APTN and I have developed friendships with the people in my territory. I am committed telling our stories our way.
Shondiin Silversmith
Shondiin Silversmith is an award-winning Native journalist based on the Navajo Nation. Silversmith has covered Indigenous communities for more than 10 years, and covers Arizona’s 22 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations, as well as national and international Indigenous issues. Her digital, print and audio stories have been published by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic, Navajo Times, The GroundTruth Project and PRX’s “The World.” Silversmith earned her master’s degree in journalism and mass communication in Boston before moving back to Arizona to continue reporting stories on Indigenous communities. She is a member of the Native American Journalist Association and has made it a priority in her career to advocate, pitch and develop stories surrounding Indigenous communities in the newsrooms she works in.
Christine Trudeau
Christine Trudeau, a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, is the Managing Editor for the Indigenous Investigative Collective (IIC) project Covering Covid-19 in Indian Country and is a current fellow with the Muckrock Transparency Corps cohort. She has served on the Native American Journalists Association’s Board of Directors since 2019. Trudeau got her start in journalism as a student member of NAJA, attending the Native Voices Student Program at Phoenix, Arizona’s National Native Media Conference in 2013. While finishing her undergraduate degree at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM, she began stringing news for NPR, National Native News, and Native Peoples Magazine. After receiving her BFA in 2014, Trudeau took an internship at NPR’s national headquarters in Washington DC as Diversity Intern running NPR’s Source of the Week database, website, social media, and weekly newsletter. In 2015, Trudeau began attending Columbia Journalism School and received her M.S. in 2016. Trudeau went to Alaska in 2017, reporting at KYUK public radio in Southwest Alaska’s Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Wildlife Refuge. Based in Bethel, Trudeau covered tribal affairs, local municipalities, climate change, and education for the 56 tribal communities. In 2018, Trudeau became an Investigative Fellow with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. That same year, she worked with National Native News through a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network on a five-part audio series on Indigenous voting rights in North Dakota. In 2020, Trudeau covered the impacts of Covid-19 on Indian Country for National Native News again through a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. From 2021-2022, Trudeau was the Contributing Editor for High Country News’ Indigenous Affairs Desk, managing their Catena grant-funded coverage of natural resources. In her work with the Indigenous Investigative Collective, Trudeau has collaborated with Native journalists and news organizations across the country to bring investigative coverage in Indigenous Affairs to the fore, with the help of Muckrock, since 2021. In that time she has worked on building workshop training in data and document investigative skills. Starting in August, for the 2022/2023 academic year, Trudeau will be a visiting adjunct faculty member at the University of Montana School of Journalism, teaching classes in diversity in media, a native news honors project, as well as beat, intermediate, and investigative reporting.