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Connie Walker

Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-Winning Indigenous Journalist

Connie-Walker-Headshot Apr 2024
Walrus Talks: The Media's Failures in Covering Indigenous Women's Stories
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What was the moment when you realised you needed to share Indigenous stories?
Accepting the Peabody for Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's
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What's the next project on deck for you?
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CBC—Stolen: Season 2 Features Story about Host Connie Walker's Father
Connie
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Connie-Walker-Headshot Apr 2024
Walrus Talks: The Media's Failures in Covering Indigenous Women's Stories
Walker Thumb 1
What was the moment when you realised you needed to share Indigenous stories?
Accepting the Peabody for Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's
Walker Thumb 2
What's the next project on deck for you?
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CBC—Stolen: Season 2 Features Story about Host Connie Walker's Father

Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Connie Walker has spent over two decades shedding light on often overlooked Indigenous stories. A Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist, her work has exposed the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools. A powerful storyteller, Walker’s presentations help audiences better understand their role in reconciliation and provide valuable tips for meaningful inclusion in the workplace.

A member of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Walker is the host of the acclaimed podcast Stolen from Gimlet Media and Spotify Studios. Its second season, “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s”, is considered one of the most comprehensive investigations into a single residential school. It exposed systemic abuse that permeated St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan for decades and preserved the testimonies of survivors through a modern-day oral history project.

In 2023, “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award, becoming the first podcast to win both awards in the same year. It 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.

Prior to joining Gimlet Media in 2020, Walker spent nearly two decades as a CBC reporter and host. She created and led the public broadcaster’s Indigenous Unit in 2013 and was part of the team of reporters whose work exposed the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous women. They were recognized as a finalist of the Michener Award and awarded the RTDNA’s Adrienne Clarkson Award. In 2016, Walker launched the award-winning podcast Missing & Murdered, which exposed audiences to the systemic issues at the root of violence facing Indigenous women and girls.

Walker 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 has presented to diverse audiences including Seattle Arts & Lectures, Tribeca Film Festival, Swarthmore College, Vancouver Island University, Toronto-Dominion Bank, City of Toronto, TMX Group, and Fogler Rubinoff LLP.

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

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Client reviews

  • When Connie finished her presentation, you could hear a pin drop in the room. Guests commented that her talk was both informative and poignant. It took us all on a journey of understanding a part of history that’s so difficult to talk about because it hurts: the abuse and discrimination that Indigenous people, particularly women, were subjected to until not very long ago. I think it also shed a bit of light on how far we’ve come and how much further we still need to go to make things right.

  • Thanks so much for spending time with us yesterday and for sharing your work. I’ve heard responses about how moved the 280+ colleagues who joined were and I just wanted to share a few with you…

    • “Yesterday’s session is, without a doubt, one of the most impactful and meaningful learning opportunities I’ve taken part in.”
    • “I was so impressed as I wiped away my own tears after hearing the stories.”
    • “Quite literally all day yesterday people approached me to tell me how much they were impacted by Connie and her work and presentation.”
  • I just wanted to send a quick note to thank you again. My students LOVED hearing from you. We spent another 30 minutes talking as a class after the event. They have so many questions and insights about your work and were really moved by your talk. Thank you again for speaking with them. Your work continues to be a consistent reference among my students in class.

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