Karyn Pugliese (Pabàmàdiz) is a Canadian broadcast journalist and communications specialist, of Algonquin descent. She is member of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation in Ontario.^[1] She is a Nieman Fellow, Class of 2020, Harvard University^[2] and has been recognized by the Canadian Association of Journalists with a Charles Bury Award for her leadership supporting journalists and fighting for media rights.^[3] In 2018 the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presented Pugliese with the organization's annual Gordon Sinclair Award for distinguished achievement in journalism at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards.^[4][5] In 2019 Pugliese received the Hyman Solomon Award for Public Policy Journalism ^[6] and was the co-recipient with journalist Justin Brake for the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) 2019 Elias Boudinot Free Press Award.^[7] She was chosen for the twenty-fifth Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.^[8] She won a National Newspaper Award for a series of columns written for the National Observer in 2021,^[9] where she was editor-in-chief. She is a frequent commentator on Rosemary Barton Live and the podcast Canadaland.^[10]

Pugliese is best known for her work as a journalist/executive director of news and current affairs at the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network,^[11] and as the host of ichannel's #FAQMP.^[12] Pugliese was also the Managing Editor of CBC's Investigative unit, overseeing television programming for the Fifth Estate and Marketplace.^[13] She also worked at Vision TV and as a Communications Director for the Assembly of First Nations.^[14] Pugliese is president of the Canadian Association of Journalists (2018-2020) and previously sat on the CAJ Ethics Committee. Pugliese has acted as a co-chair for the Night for Rights Gala, an event which raises approximately $140,000 annually for rights-based journalism programming, and is organized by Journalist for Human Rights, JHR. Pugliese is an ambassador for Journalist for Human Rights,^[15] and works with them to train young indigenous journalists.^[16] She frequently speaks in support of the organization.^[17] She is also a board member for Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE).

In May 2023, she was appointed editor in chief of Canadaland after Jesse Brown announced that he was stepping down from the role. She also hosts the podcast canadaLANDBACK. ^[18]

Early life

Pugliese was born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, but frequently visited Pikwàkanagàn in her youth. Most of her close family lived off-reserve in Ottawa.^[19]

Pugliese dropped out of high school three times, eventually enrolling in an alternative high school where she earned her diploma. Although she was a bright student, Pugliese had no intention of attending university, and wanted to be a bartender, until a high school teacher coaxed her into applying to Carleton University's journalism program. She enrolled and graduated with a combined honours in Journalism and History in 1998.^[20]

Pugliese was in journalism school during the years of the Kanehsatake resistance, Ipperwash Crisis and standoff at Gustefsen Lake. She was so distressed by the way media covered these events, out of context and stereotyping Indigenous people "as angry warriors threatening an otherwise peaceful Canada," that when she attended her graduation ceremony at Pikwakanagan she was embarrassed to admit she'd studied journalism and told her people she was thinking about becoming historian instead.^[21] After graduating Pugliese worked short-term contracts at CBC Radio Ottawa's Morning Show, Sounds Like Canada and CTV television, Ottawa. As a single mother of a young child, Pugliese found it difficult to balance motherhood with the instability of a journalism career. For a time she left journalism and worked as a technical writer in the federal government.^[22][23] Around this time she returned to Carleton University to complete an M.A. in history. Her thesis 'So, where are you from?' Glimpsing the history of Ottawa-Gatineau's urban Indian communities is a history of the off-reserve community she grew up in.^[20]

Pugliese returned to journalism in 2000, after a professor put her in touch with the APTN. Pugliese became the APTN's first Parliamentary Correspondent. She credits the APTN's daycare policy and flexible hours for her ability to re-enter journalism and build a career.^[24] She says APTN was a place where she could "write the truth about my people," turning her back toward a career in journalism.^[21]

Her son Zackery Liberty is now an adult and a guitarist with the indie rock group Farewell Davidson.^[25]

Career

References

External links

• Carleton University Theses