Tanya Talaga facts for kids

Tanya Talaga is a Canadian journalist and writer. She is part Anishinaabe (an Indigenous group) and part Polish. For over 20 years, she worked as a journalist for the Toronto Star newspaper. She wrote about many topics, like health, education, and important investigations. She also owns a media company called Makwa Creative. Today, she writes regularly for the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Her book, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City, came out in 2017. It won important awards, like the RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction. In 2024, she published The Knowing. This book shares Canadian history and the story of residential schools from an Indigenous point of view. It starts with the life of her great-great grandmother, Annie Carpenter. Tanya Talaga was the first Anishinaabe woman to give the CBC Massey Lectures. She has special degrees from Lakehead University and Ryerson University.

Early Life and Learning

Tanya Talaga has a mixed background. She says she is one-fourth Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) and half Polish. Her grandmother is from Fort William First Nation. Her great-grandmother, Liz Gauthier, survived a residential school. Tanya grew up in Toronto. She spent her summers with her mother's family in Raith, Ontario. This is a small town near Thunder Bay.

When she was 20, she learned that a sister had been adopted. She also found out that three of her mother's siblings grew up in foster care. These experiences later helped her understand the effects of residential schools. They also showed her how past hurts can affect families for generations.

Tanya studied history and political science at the University of Toronto. She wrote and edited the university's student newspaper, The Varsity. She also volunteered for The Strand, another student publication.

Her Work as a Journalist and Author

Tanya Talaga started working at the Toronto Star in 1995 as an intern. For 14 years, she was a general city reporter. She covered many different news areas. In 2009, she moved to the Queen's Park Bureau. She also wrote a column about Indigenous issues.

Seven Fallen Feathers Book

Her first book, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City, was released in 2017. Many people praised it, and it was nominated for several awards. The book looks at the deaths of seven First Nations young people in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Tanya started writing about this after she was asked to cover why fewer First Nations people voted in the 2011 federal election. She found that many people did not want to talk to her because the deaths were not the main focus of her story.

Massey Lectures and All Our Relations

Tanya Talaga gave the 2018 Massey Lectures. These talks were called All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward. Her second book, All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward, is based on these lectures. It shares the same name. In 2020, this book was one of five chosen for the British Academy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize. This prize is for books that help people understand different cultures.

Podcasts and Films

Tanya Talaga's first podcast was called Seven Truths. It had seven episodes. The podcast shared modern stories through the ideas of the Anishinaabe Seven Grandfather Teachings. Audible released it on November 26, 2020.

Tanya also owns a company called Makwa Creative Inc. Her documentary film Spirit to Soar was shown for the first time at the 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It won an award there for the best mid-length film.

Awards and Recognition

Tanya Talaga has won many awards for her writing and journalism.

Book Awards

Awards for Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City:

• RBC Taylor Prize (2018)
• Shaughnessy Cohen Prize (2018)
• Periodical Marketers of Canada, Indigenous Literature Award (2018)
• Finalist, B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction (2018)
• Nominee, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction (2018)
• Finalist, Speaker's Book Award (2017)

Fellowships

• Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy (2017–2018)

Journalism Awards

• National Newspaper Award for the Gone Series (2015)
• National Newspaper Award, for a year-long project on the Rana Plaza building collapse (2013)
• Michener Award in public service journalism, nominated five times