A Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist, Connie Walker has spent over two decades shedding light on often overlooked Indigenous stories. Her work has exposed the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools and shed light on unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
In recognition of her ground-breaking work, Connie was named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024. In an article for TIME, Julian Brave Noisecat wrote:
“It’s her relentless commitment to exposing hidden truths — which she pursues with the dogged drive of an investigator, the compassion of a relative, and the vulnerability of an artist — that makes her voice so powerful.”
Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s
In 2023, Connie won both a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award for the second season of her podcast, Stolen called “Surviving St. Michael’s” — it was the first podcast to win both awards in the same year. It follows Connie’s journey as she unearths how her family’s story fits into one of Canada’s darkest chapters: the residential school system.
Last May, Connie discovered a story about her late father that she’d never heard before. He was working as an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the late 1970s. One night, he pulled over a suspected drunk driver and came face-to-face with a ghost from his past — a residential school priest. What happened that night set in motion an investigation that would send Connie deep into her own past, trying to uncover the secrets of her family and the legacy of trauma passed down through the generations.
Stolen also won an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and an honourable mention from the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. The series was also named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Vulture and featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Rolling Stone.
Truth Before Reconciliation
Prior to her podcast, Connie spent nearly two decades as a CBC reporter and host, where she created and led the public broadcaster’s Indigenous Unit in 2013. She was part of the team of reporters whose work exposed the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous women. In 2016, Connie launched the award-winning podcast Missing & Murdered, which exposed the systemic issues at the root of violence facing Indigenous women and girls.
Today, in addition to her investigative podcast work with Gimlet Media and Spotify Studios, Connie is a sought-after keynote speaker on the power of storytelling to create empathy and understanding, the importance of meaningful representation, and trauma-informed practices. She helps audiences make the connections required to better understand the truth and impact of our colonial history, and why uncovering the truth is crucial before we can even begin talking about meaningful reconciliation.
Contact us to learn more about Connie and how you can book one of TIME’s 100 most influential people to appear at your next event.
Watch Connie’s powerful presentation as part of the acclaimed event series, The Walrus Talks, exploring the media’s failure in covering Indigenous women’s stories from 2019.
