Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Connie Walker has spent over two decades shedding light on often overlooked Indigenous stories. A Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist, her work has exposed the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools. A powerful storyteller, Walker’s presentations help audiences better understand their role in reconciliation and provide valuable tips for meaningful inclusion in the workplace.
A member of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Walker is the host of the acclaimed podcast Stolen from Gimlet Media and Spotify Studios. Its second season, “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s”, is considered one of the most comprehensive investigations into a single residential school. It exposed systemic abuse that permeated St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan for decades and preserved the testimonies of survivors through a modern-day oral history project.
In 2023, “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award, becoming the first podcast to win both awards in the same year. It also won an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and an honourable mention from the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. The series was also named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and Vulture and featured in The New York Times, Vogue, and Rolling Stone.
Prior to joining Gimlet Media in 2020, Walker spent nearly two decades as a CBC reporter and host. She created and led the public broadcaster’s Indigenous Unit in 2013 and was part of the team of reporters whose work exposed the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous women. They were recognized as a finalist of the Michener Award and awarded the RTDNA’s Adrienne Clarkson Award. In 2016, Walker launched the award-winning podcast Missing & Murdered, which exposed audiences to the systemic issues at the root of violence facing Indigenous women and girls.
Walker is a sought-after keynote speaker on the power of storytelling to create empathy and understanding, the importance of meaningful representation, and trauma-informed practices. She has presented to diverse audiences including Seattle Arts & Lectures, Tribeca Film Festival, Swarthmore College, Victoria Island University, Toronto-Dominion Bank, City of Toronto, TMX Group, and Fogler Rubinoff LLP.
