In hard times for media companies, these people are working to bolster Indigenous news coverage in Sask.

This is part two of a series on the health of print media in Saskatchewan. Click here for part one.

In a small radio studio located in a converted meeting room on the second floor of First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) in Regina, students put on headphones, adjust microphones and begin checking audio levels by discussing what they had for breakfast.

The students are part of a six-day introduction to journalism and broadcasting course through FNUC's Indigenous Communication Arts (INCA) program.

On this day, they're preparing to cover a powwow. The broadcast will featuring pre-recorded and live segments. 

Jaida Beaudin-Herney is one of the alumni helping the students. A graduate of the 2019 INCA class, Beaudin-Herney — who is Cree and Mi'kmaw from Membertou First Nation in Nova Scotia — helped create the journalism crash course. 

She said she's seen how the media has unfairly portrayed and even dehumanized Indigenous people.

"A lot of the time when we would see Indigenous news stories growing up, it was always being in the token of 'Look at this good Indian,' or 'Look at this bad Indian,'" Beaudin-Herney said.

"Our stories weren't getting told. And when our stories were getting told, we were always portrayed as this 'other.'"

Beaudin-Herney said media organizations need to make more space for Indigenous journalists.

"They like to say they have room for us, but then as soon as we show any signs of our past trauma that has happened to us, usually we're not met with open arms," she said.

Data compiled by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) in a 2023 diversity survey shows the number of Indigenous journalists across the country has fluctuated in the past few years.

In 2021, 6.4 per cent of employees within newsrooms across the country identified as Indigenous. That number dropped to 4.6 per cent in 2022, then rose to 5.2 per cent in 2023, with just over 6,000 journalists from 273 newsrooms taking part in the survey.

The latest Canadian census shows about five per cent of Canadians identify as Indigenous.

The CAJ report also shows the number of Indigenous journalists in leadership positions has dropped, to 2.4 per cent in 2023 from 4.2 per cent in 2021.