Humber College’s StoryLab and The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting have selected Jimmy Thomson as the recipient of the inaugural StoryLab Data Journalism Grant. The most substantial financial grant dedicated to Canadian data-driven journalism, the grant supports projects related to essential and underreported topics affecting Canadians.
Thomson’s project will explore how Indigenous guardians have maintained longstanding stewardship in their homelands. These guardians are on the land and water; on any given day, you will find them checking fishing fleets, conducting rescue operations, harvesting for cultural purposes, and monitoring the health and wellness of their traditional territories. When complete, the reporting will be published by The Narwhal.
Thomson says he wants “to tell the story of how this movement has grown, spreading up and down the coast from Haida Gwaii — where it became more visible a few decades ago — to deep within the inlets of the Central Coast. I will use patrol data, which the Kitasoo/Xai’xais have offered to provide, combined with interviews, video and photography, to explain the guardians’ growing role on the coast.”
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