{"id":6878,"date":"2017-07-17T13:19:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T17:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=6878"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:59:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:59:35","slug":"stories-north","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/stories-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories North"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Stories North\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton journalism student Sandrine Murray stood beside a garage and storage facility in Carcross, a tiny Yukon community about an hour south of Whitehorse, talking to a local man named Johnny Johns. She was there for the demolition of the garage; Johns, a supervisor of the environmental cleanup, was telling her about his experiences at the residential school that used to stand on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to hear about this part of Canada\u2019s past in the classroom,\u201d says Murray, \u201cand something else altogether when somebody shares their story firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murray is in the Yukon for a month-long experiential learning program called Stories North<\/a>, which is immersing 15 Carleton students in lives of the territory\u2019s Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents as a direct response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/a>\u2019s call for journalism schools to help build student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Journalism students take photos at Pine Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Murray, who is heading into her fourth year of the undergraduate journalism program, put together a photo and text piece about Johns for the Stories North website. Her time in the Yukon has already changed how she approaches assignments as a budding journalist, she says. \u201cEvery person has a voice, and it\u2019s my responsibility to reflect that voice, to the best of my abilities, in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not just history,\u201d adds fellow participant Rachel Levy-McLaughlin, a Master of Journalism student.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“We\u2019re talking about things people are dealing with every day. The best way to understand an issue is to see things in context.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThis trip,\u201d she continues, \u201cwill impact the way I tell not only sensitive stories, but all stories. There\u2019s a lot of nuance missing from journalism, which tends to present things as black and white, especially when dealing with Indigenous issues. We need to a do a much better job of providing context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The context of reconciliation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stories North was created by Carleton Journalism Prof. Kanina Holmes<\/a>, who worked for both CBC radio and CBC television out of Whitehorse on two separate occasions between 1995 and 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Yukon is easy to romanticize,\u201d she wrote in a course outline. \u201cIts mountains and vistas inspire awe\u2026. It produces platitudes that retain some truth and authenticity. Those stereotypes can also blur our vision, like condensation on a set of eye glasses. The territory is much more complex than popular literature and portrayals convey\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to gaining a broader and more nuanced understanding of this part of Canada, both past and present, Stories North also seeks guidance on one of the most pressing issues facing the country: how can we collectively explain, hold ourselves to account and shift away from the inequities and injustices and ignorance around Indigenous peoples?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kanina Holmes at Bennett Lake. Photo by Kait Labbate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Holmes, who called upon her contacts in the Yukon to help map out an itinerary for Stories North, supported the program with a $15,000 grant she won with a Teaching Achievement Award<\/a> and a successful FutureFunder campaign<\/a> that raised an additional $12,570. Carleton\u2019s Discovery Centre and the Education Development Centre also contributed funding to support the students and experiential curriculum development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, the Yukon has a magnetic pull,\u201d Holmes says over the phone from Whitehorse, three weeks into the trip. \u201cIt has to do with the land and the profundity of perspective. It has to do with the size of the mountains, which make your stresses feel small. And it\u2019s because of the people you meet here, a collection of vibrant and strong communities unlike any I\u2019ve seen anywhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n

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“The Indigenous communities in the Yukon, in particular, have developed some amazing ways to promote cultural resilience and pride.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Expanding the debate around reconciliation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stories North was designed to address three primary goals: teaching the importance of listening and respect, especially as it applies to cross-cultural learning and working with Indigenous peoples; expanding students\u2019 conceptualizations of the Yukon, its histories, its communities, its terrains and, most important, the interconnections flowing among these elements; and cultivating students\u2019 abilities to engage in and expand debates around reconciliation by embracing discomfort, accepting responsibility and finding constructive, culturally sensitive, equitable and creative narratives that include the potential for reciprocity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis course is an experiment in experiential learning,\u201d wrote Holmes. \u201cWe will develop our knowledge and understanding of the Yukon and its First Peoples through firsthand accounts. We will work within the contexts we are learning about and take time to reflect on what is being shared, generating critical reflections about our own histories and perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Experiential learning in action as students participate in a photo workshop. Photo by Kait Labbate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will also apply these insights to the craft of journalism, recognizing its missteps, constraints and potential to be something we may have never yet considered. Experiential education often focuses on future employability. While I certainly hope that this course produces better qualified journalists, the intent is more expansive: creating better citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these lofty ambitions, at its core Stories North is relatively simple. \u201cIt\u2019s about bringing people together,\u201d says Holmes, \u201cso they start to know each other and start talking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stories North:
\nExperiential learning outside the classroom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Students arrived in Whitehorse on June 20 and jumped right into a series of active learning sessions, including walk-n-talk mobile lectures, a blanket exercise conducted by a member of the Kwanlin D\u00fcn First Nation, attending National Aboriginal Day celebrations, participating in a public panel on Indigenous representation in Yukon co-organized by Journalists for Human Rights, a residential schools workshop led by local Indigenous leaders, and a canoe trip down the Yukon River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Producing quick-turn-around content for the web, such as a photo essays and podcasts, and working on more intensive multimedia pieces, students also covered Canada Day<\/a> in the territory and the Atlin Arts and Music Festival<\/a>, 175 kilometres from Whitehorse in northern B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students learn from Yukon Conservaton Data Centre’s Bruce Bennett.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had very little time in the classroom,\u201d Holmes says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I had hoped for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the main reasons I wanted to do this course is that traditional ways of lecturing are increasingly ineffective. Unfortunately, many students seem to feel they can tune out when they step into a lecture hall. We\u2019re competing with a lot of digital noise. This type of course puts more emphasis on students participating and being active learners \u2014 and grappling with concepts around reconciliation requires deep learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond its overarching goals, Stories North is helping students develop their journalistic skills, from approaching strangers for interviews to working long days to report on challenging and complex stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re having fun on the job, too. In Atlin, Levy-McLaughlin\u2019s highlight was a 20-minute podcast interview with musicians Joel Plaskett and Ben Caplan inside Wolf Pack Force<\/a>, a shag-carpeted 1985 van the students are using as their mobile recording studio.<\/p>\n\n\n

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This type of course, says Holmes, could become a model for new offerings in journalism and other disciplines. \u201cThere\u2019s potential to apply this model in so many exciting directions,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything that has happened over the past three weeks tells me that there\u2019s a need and desire for programs like this \u2014 and that we could and should do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving students away from home makes a difference, especially when they\u2019re in their early 20s, which is such a formative time. They\u2019re pushed outside their comfort zones. These types of trips can change people\u2019s lives. And we don\u2019t always have to travel as far as the Yukon to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s immersive journalism and immersive learning,\u201d adds Holmes, \u201cbut much of what has happened, I could categorize as magic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton journalism student Sandrine Murray stood beside a garage and storage facility in Carcross, a tiny Yukon community about an hour south of Whitehorse, talking to a local man named Johnny Johns. She was there for the demolition of the garage; Johns, a supervisor of the environmental cleanup, was telling her about his experiences at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25],"cu_story_tag":[1927],"class_list":["post-6878","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-indigenous"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/6878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/6878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97650,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/6878\/revisions\/97650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=6878"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=6878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}