About Windspeaker

Windspeaker

Windspeaker is Canada's long-running Indigenous news publication, published by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) and now operating as the digital outlet windspeaker.com. Launched in March 1983 — originally under the AMMSA name, renamed Windspeaker in March 1986 — it has chronicled more than four decades of Indigenous life, politics, and culture in Canada, from land claims and constitutional battles to arts, sports, and community achievements. Based in Edmonton, Alberta, it is one of the country's most enduring Indigenous media institutions — and its digitized archive of more than 30,000 articles constitutes one of the most important documentary records of contemporary Indigenous life in Canada.

Overview

Windspeaker serves Indigenous readers across Canada — First Nations, Métis, and Inuit audiences — with news and features on the issues that shape Indigenous life: treaty rights, land claims, governance, education, health, justice, economic development, arts, and culture. For much of its history it published as a monthly print newspaper with national content, supplemented by provincial sister publications; in 2016, AMMSA made the decision to abandon paper products and move to a news website, and Windspeaker continues today as a digital publication with the same mission it has carried since 1983. The society has digitized its entire print archive — more than 30,000 news and information articles dating back to 1983 — making four decades of Indigenous journalism freely available online.

History

The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society was established in 1983 under Alberta's Societies Act, launching its first publication in March of that year under the simple title AMMSA. In March 1986, the publication was renamed Windspeaker — a name evoking the Indigenous tradition of the speaker who carries the community's voice. The timing placed the paper's founding at a pivotal moment for Indigenous politics in Canada: the Constitution Act of 1982 had just recognized Aboriginal and treaty rights, and the years that followed would bring the constitutional conferences, the Meech Lake and Charlottetown debates, and the growing assertiveness of Indigenous political organizations.

Windspeaker grew into a family of publications. Alongside the flagship — featuring national content and publishing monthly from March 1983 until 2016 — AMMSA produced provincial monthlies: Alberta Sweetgrass, covering news and events from Indigenous communities in Alberta (December 1993 to 2016); Saskatchewan Sage, for Saskatchewan (October 1996 to 2016); Raven's Eye, for British Columbia and the Yukon (March 1997 to 2016); and Ontario Birchbark, for Ontario (January 2000 to 2016). Together, the papers formed the most comprehensive Indigenous print news network in the country, with each title rooted in its province's communities while the flagship carried national stories.

In 2016, AMMSA made the landmark decision to abandon its paper products and establish a news website. The move reflected the same pressures reshaping all of print media — rising costs, declining print advertising — but it also opened new possibilities: the website could publish daily rather than monthly, reach readers far beyond the papers' distribution networks, and preserve the entire archive in searchable digital form. For a publication whose print editions had circulated primarily within Indigenous communities and among dedicated subscribers, the website represented a dramatic expansion of potential audience: anyone with an internet connection could now read Windspeaker. AMMSA digitized all of its published articles dating back to 1983, building an online archive of more than 30,000 news and information articles — an unparalleled record of modern Indigenous history in Canada, freely accessible to researchers, educators, and community members.

AMMSA's media operations extend beyond print and digital. The society operates networks of First Nations community radio stations in Alberta under the Windspeaker Radio banner: its flagship network CFWE broadcasts a mix of country music and community programming presented in Indigenous languages such as Cree and Dene. The network's studios were originally in Lac La Biche but are now based in Edmonton; a new Edmonton transmitter licensed by the CRTC in 2008 became the network's primary station when it launched in July 2009. On June 14, 2017, the CRTC approved the organization's bids for the former Aboriginal Voices Radio Network frequencies in Calgary and Edmonton; CJWE-FM launched in 2018 with a format similar to the CFWE network, while CIWE-FM launched in Edmonton in 2021 with a free-form format.

Content

Windspeaker's content covers the full spectrum of Indigenous news: federal and provincial Indigenous policy, treaty negotiations and land claims, court decisions affecting Aboriginal rights, governance developments in First Nations and Métis organizations, education, health, justice issues including missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, economic development, and the arts — from powwow coverage to profiles of Indigenous artists, writers, and filmmakers. Sports coverage, a staple of the print era, celebrated Indigenous athletic achievement.

The publication's journalism has always been grounded in community: its reporters cover the assemblies, the courtrooms, and the community halls where Indigenous life happens, and its pages have provided a forum for Indigenous voices — leaders, elders, youth, and artists — to speak directly to their own communities and to the broader Canadian public.

Coverage and Audience

Windspeaker is a national publication, covering Indigenous issues from coast to coast to coast, with particular depth in Western Canada reflecting its Alberta roots and its former provincial editions. Its audience is Indigenous Canada: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit readers, along with the non-Indigenous policymakers, educators, journalists, and citizens who follow Indigenous affairs. The digitized archive — 30,000+ articles spanning 1983 to the present — extends that audience to researchers and students, making Windspeaker an essential primary source for the study of contemporary Indigenous history.

Role in Indigenous Media

Windspeaker belongs to the first generation of Indigenous-controlled media in Canada — publications founded by Indigenous organizations, staffed by Indigenous journalists, and accountable to Indigenous communities, rather than covering Indigenous people from the outside. Before papers like Windspeaker, Indigenous communities were primarily covered by non-Indigenous media, often through stereotypes and crisis reporting; the Indigenous press offered something radically different: journalism in which Indigenous people were the subjects, the sources, and the audience. Its four decades of continuous publication, through the print era and into the digital age, make it one of the enduring institutions of Indigenous journalism in the country. The archive alone is a historic achievement: a community's decision to preserve its own journalistic record, ensuring that the Indigenous perspective on the events of the past forty years — from constitutional battles to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission — remains accessible on Indigenous terms.

Ownership

Windspeaker is published by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA), an Indigenous non-profit publisher established in 1983 under the Alberta Societies Act and based in Edmonton, Alberta. AMMSA also operates the Windspeaker Radio networks in Alberta. The society's Indigenous governance and non-profit structure reflect its mission: media by and for Indigenous communities, sustained as a community service rather than a commercial enterprise.

Digital Presence

Windspeaker operates as the digital news site windspeaker.com, publishing Indigenous news and features online. The website hosts both current journalism and the extraordinary digitized archive — more than 30,000 articles dating back to 1983, searchable and freely available, a resource without parallel for anyone seeking to understand modern Indigenous Canada. The society's radio operations complement the digital publication, with the CFWE, CJWE-FM, and CIWE-FM networks serving First Nations communities in Alberta. Together, the website and the radio networks make AMMSA a multi-platform Indigenous media organization for the digital age.