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Meet Angela Sterritt: SFU Library’s 2023 Non-Fiction Writer in Residence

Indigenous Voices, Arts + Culture, 2023, Uphold Truth and Reconciliation, Make a Difference for B.C.

This event celebrated SFU Library’s 2023 Non-Fiction Writer in Residence, Angela Sterritt, with an evening of conversation with journalist and writer Michelle Cyca, presented by SFU Library and SFU Public Square.

About the Non-Fiction Writer in Residence

The SFU Library Non-Fiction Writer in Residence program emphasizes the power of non-fiction writing to share knowledge beyond academia, enhancing the SFU community's capacity to tell compelling research and scholarship stories.

Angela Sterritt was the Non-Fiction Writer in Residence for January-April 2023.

Mon, 16 Jan 2023

In-person event

This event was held at the SFU Vancouver campus, in the Segal Building

About the speakers

Author | Angela Sterritt

Angela Sterritt is an award-winning investigative journalist and author from the Gitanmaax community of the Gitxsan Nation on her dad’s side and from Bell Island Newfoundland on her maternal side. Sterritt has worked as a television, radio, and digital journalist for more than a decade. She is currently the host of the CBC original podcast Land Back, to be released in November 2022.

Her book Unbroken, a work that is part memoir and part investigation into the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women will be published on May 30, 2023, by Greystone Books.

In 2021, Sterritt won an Academy award (Canadian Screen Award) for best reporter of the year in Canada for her coverage of an Indigenous man and his then 12-year-old granddaughter who were arrested while trying to open a bank account at BMO. Sterritt also won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for the same reporting. In 2020, Sterritt was named in Vancouver Magazine’s Power 50 list of the city’s most influential people.

In 2020, she was nominated for best local reporter by the Canadian Screen Awards for her reporting on Indigenous babies apprehended by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. In 2019, Sterritt’s documentary on the complexity of Indigenous support for and challenges against the TransMountain Pipeline expansion project won an RTDNA award for best long feature.

In 2017, Sterritt accepted the Investigative Award of the Year from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression for coverage of missing and murdered Indigenous women. She was awarded a prestigious William Southam Journalism Fellowship at Massey College in Toronto and was the first known First Nations person in Canada ever to receive the award in the school’s 60-year history

As a motivational speaker, Sterritt talks about breaking stereotypes and creating change and relationships in Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. In 2020, she gave a Ted Talk about smashing stereotypes of Indigenous people.

Michelle Cyca

Michelle Cyca is a freelance journalist and contributing editor to Maclean's. Her features, essays and literary criticism can be found in The Walrus, Chatelaine, Canadian Business, Quill & Quire, IndigiNews, and The Tyee, among other publications. She participated in the Banff Centre's Literary Journalism Residency in 2022, and was the co-publisher of SAD Mag from 2013 until 2018. Michelle is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory, and lives in Vancouver with her family.

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Event partner

Accessibility

The Segal Graduate School of Business is located at 500 Granville St, and is a brief walk from both the Granville and Waterfront skytrain stations, along with numerous bus stops. Limited bike racks are available out front, with others closeby. Nearby paid parking is available at 443 Seymour St. Public parking is available at many locations near the Segal Building. Street parking is free after 10 p.m. The closest parking lot is at 400 West Cordova Street.

All floors and washrooms within SFU Segal are wheelchair accessible. The Segal building has all-gender washrooms on the main floor, SB 1540& SB 1640