2024-2027 National Indigenous Strategy

CBC opens its Northern Service.

The first Inuit and Dene broadcasters are hired by CBC, and Indigenous language services begin for the North..

Our Native Land begins airing on CBC Radio. The first national radio program focused on Indigenous issues and cultures, Our Native Land chronicled the rejuvenation of Indigenous literature, art, culture and political activism on Saturday afternoons until 1985. Hosts included Johnny Yesno, Bernelda Wheeler, Albert Angus and Brian Maracle, who were part of the all-Indigenous production team.

CBC Northern Services in Quebec begins broadcasting short Cree-language segments during its Inuktitut-language programming. Inuk broadcaster, the late Elijah Menarik, is believed to be the first person to use the Cree-language on the airwaves of CBC. He learned his Cree on Fort George Island, Que., after running away from a residential school there and living with a Cree family for two years.

Bernelda Wheeler becomes one of the hosts of CBC Radio's Our Native Land. She works on the program until 1982, wearing various hats as a producer, investigative journalist, writer and becoming known as "the First Lady of Indigenous Broadcasting".

Anik 1, 2 & 3 satellites launch. Canada becomes the first country in the world to use satellites for domestic communications. CBC/Radio-Canada radio transmission expands throughout the North. Largest northern centres also begin to receive television signals from southern CBC/Radio-Canada transmissions.

Myra Cree becomes the first woman in the history of Radio-Canada to host the evening news.

Indigenous broadcasters are hired and trained by CBC for daily radio and television coverage of the Berger Royal Commission Inquiry into a Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline. Joe Tobie, Louie Blondin, Jim Sittichinli and Abe Okpik, produced by Whit Fraser, become Indigenous language broadcast pioneers.

Tarqravut — Inuktitut for Our North — a weekly Inuktitut-language program produced in Montreal and later Ottawa is launched by CBC. The program runs until 1988, when it is replaced by Aqsarniit.

CBC Northern Services opens an Inuktitut-language radio station in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

The CBC Northern Services program unit based in Montreal is expanded to serve James Bay Cree and Inuit communities in Northern Quebec.

CBC Northern Services begins seasonal English and Indigenous language television production in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

A transmitter-sharing agreement is signed by CBC Northern Services and Inuit organization Taqramiut Nipingat to support a network of correspondents in the 14 Inuit communities of Quebec.

Gloria Kitty-Pérusse, the first Cree woman employee, is hired by CBC Northern Quebec Service as a permanent announcer-operator.

CBC Northern Quebec Service publishes a repertoire of First Nations and Inuit songs collected from Northern Quebec on cassette, 33 rpm vinyl disk, and 7-inch tape.

Focus North, the first weekly television pan-northern current affairs program, is launched by CBC Northern Services and serves Yukon, Northwest Territories, and northern Quebec.

Maamuitaau, a weekly television magazine program in Cree, debuts on CBC Northern Quebec Sevice for the first time on November 10, 1982.

CBC Northern Service & CBC Network co-produce northern Canada's first ever live television election program, from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in English with Indigenous language inserts.

William Tagoona and Alec Gordon are the first two persons hired by CBC Northern Services to start an Inuktitut language radio bureau in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik.

To enhance the pan-northern program Focus North's coverage of the Yukon, northern British Columbia and Alaska, CBC Northern Services opens a television production bureau in Whitehorse.

Boréal Hebdo a weekly radio show in French about the lives of Indigenous people and the people living in Northern Quebec debuts on CBC. On September 6, 2015, it becomes a daily show called Soirée Boréale.

CBC Northern Services moves its regional headquarters from Ottawa to Yellowknife. First northern-based director for the region officially changes regional name to CBC North. Andrew Cowan is Northern Services' first Regional Director, Austin Curly is the Assistant Regional Director, Fran Cutler is Radio Programming Director and Whit Fraser is news reporter.

Launching northern Canada's first-ever daily television news programs, CBC North introduces Northbeat in English, co-hosted by Paul Andrew (Dene) and George Tuccaro (Cree), and Igalaaq in Inuktitut, hosted by Rassi Nashalik (Inuk).

True North Concert from Rankin Inlet, hosted by CBC North, becomes the first one nationally televised to showcase northern cultures, languages and performers to all of Canada.

Arctic Winter Games is broadcast on network television for the first time by CBC North, bringing unique Arctic traditional sports and cultural performances to all of Canada.

The Prairie Aboriginal Content Unit (Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta) is created by CBC to develop Indigenous storytelling content for both radio and television.

New Voices the CBC Radio's strategy which enabled thousands of new voices and points of view to be aired on programs such as Outfront, Global Village, and Legends, focuses on safeguarding endangered Indigenous languages through voice recordings.

A one-day conference, Aboriginal Matters, in Regina, brings together more than 20 CBC Indigenous journalists and senior News management to share successes and challenges in covering Indigenous issues.

CBC Radio commissions The Journey (Pimooteewin), the first opera in the Cree language, a collaboration between Tomson Highway and Melissa Hui.

8th Fire: Aboriginal Peoples, Canada & the Way Forward premieres on CBC. Hosted by Winnipeg-based journalist Wab Kinew, the four part documentary explores Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations in Canada.

Radio-Canada International (RCI) relaunches as a digital-only platform with a new section of this site, Autochtones, l'autre histoire.

CBC Aboriginal changes its name to CBC Indigenous.

CBC begins its Indigenous Languages archives project to digitize over 75,000 hours of original language audio content from CBC North.

Missing & Murdered, a new CBC podcast and web series hosted by CBC News investigative reporter Connie Walker is launched. The first season looks at the unsolved cold case of Alberta Williams, a young Indigenous woman who was murdered in northern British Columbia. The second season joins a family as they search for their sister Cleo Semaganis Nicotine.

Espaces autochtones, a web and mobile portal dedicated to Indigenous matters, is launched by Radio-Canada.

Radio-Canada launches ICI Grand Nord.

Radio-Canada establishes the Bureau autochtone mobile (BAM), a project committed to hiring Indigenous journalists that ensures voices from Indigenous communities are heard on all platforms.

CBC Indigenous launches Beyond 94, which measures Canada's progress in addressing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action. A team effort between the Indigenous Unit, CBC Saskatchewan, CBC Manitoba and CBC North.

Radio-Canada broadcasts ADISQ's inaugural Indigenous artist of the year award at the annual televised gala.

Radio-Canada launches Laissez-nous raconter : L'histoire crochie, a podcast that explores words whose meanings have been twisted by centuries of colonization. CBC's English adaptation Telling Our Twisted Histories is released in 2021.

CBC live broadcasts the gold medal hockey game in Inuktitut and Eastern Cree at the Tokyo Olympics.

Radio-Canada launches its first Indigenous radio program Kuei! Kwe! on ICI PREMIÈRE with host Melissa Mollen Dupuis.

CBC/Radio-Canada signs first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with APTN to foster greater collaboration, sharing of resources, and coproductions.

Radio-Canada releases Pour toi Flora, the first fictional drama written, directed and produced by Indigenous creators for a major French-language network, which went on to win multiple awards.

Radio-Canada airs its television special Le Grand Solstice where music of all kinds, central to the cultures of Indigenous Peoples, is celebrated.

CBC wins 12 awards at the Indigenous Journalists Association conference held in Winnipeg.

CBC, Radio-Canada and APTN launch Bones of Crows by Indigenous filmmaker Marie Clements, a first ever miniseries produced in English, French and Cree.

Radio-Canada's Bureau autochtone mobile (BAM) changes its name to Résonance.

CBC/Radio-Canada launches first-ever National Indigenous Strategy.