Ricochet Media’s managing editor, Andrea Houston last down with Crystal Greene, a rising star Indigenous investigative reporter and currently our reporting fellow, to give you all a look behind the scenes of Crystal’s latest feature on Morgan’s Warriors, a Winnipeg-based group set out to protect and support vulnerable women.

You recently moved back home to Winnipeg, and one of the first things you did was work on a feature on the families in Winnipeg demanding justice for their missing and murdered family members. What was that like?

AIt’s been so nice to come home, and especially knowing that I don’t have to get back on an airplane and be gone for months at a time. It was exhausting traveling back and forth between Winnipeg and Halifax. 

Reporting on stories of community members in Winnipeg is something I always imagined myself doing after graduating from journalism school at University of King’s College. It is a dream come true to get the privilege of working as a journalist after struggling for so long as a freelancer in a competitive field that is sadly shrinking due to funding challenges. 

Your feature focused on the families of the Indigenous women murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki. The families have been through so much, and their nightmare is far from over. What was it like for you to spend time with them?

This has been a story that is very close to my heart. Each time I came home to visit Winnipeg, I took the time to attend #Searchthelandfill marches and demonstrations. When I did, I would notice familiar faces from social media, but because I’ve been away for five years, I knew that it would take some time to get to know people that I haven’t met before. So I just showed up to Camp Morgan a few times. I brought them some pizza the first time I visited. I wasn’t reporting on this story yet, but it’s just something that people do whenever there’s an Indigenous gathering, you share food. Months later, when it came time to do the reporting, I was actually a bit nervous to ask Melissa Robinson and others for an interview, but in the end I had nothing to be nervous about. Morgan Harris’s family and friends were quite used to talking to the media and so the interviews at camp went well. 

What have been some of the challenges in covering this story by mainstream media, and why was it important for you to cover it differently?

Mainstream media has kept the focus on Jeremy Skibick, which was something that I didn’t want to do. I wanted to uplift the voices of the families in a respectful way that was not pushy. Some people didn’t respond to my interview requests and that is understandable. People will trust journalists whose work they are familiar with, and I hope to gain the public’s trust to be able to share more stories like this.

This is a story that is so close to you as an Indigenous woman from Winnipeg. What did it mean for you to tell this story?

It’s an honour to be able to help my people and share their stories. Because even with the existance of outlets like APTN and CBC Indigenous, there’s still not enough of us to fully tell our stories, especially given the high number of Indigenous people living in Winnipeg and around Manitoba. It’s our perspectives that will help shatter stereotypes that have, in part, been reinforced by mainstream media. There is so much more work to be done to encourage and train more Indigenous journalists. If you look at most journalism programs in universities and colleges, there is often an absence of Indigenous people. This needs to change. Schools need to start practicing the TRC call to action #86. There’s no excuse to not include a mandatory course within the curriculum, along the lines of “Reporting in Indigenous communities.” 

What’s next for Morgan’s Warriors?

Not long after forming a community foot patrol, Morgan’s Warriors have also been called to support families with vigils and four-day fires for their loved ones gone home to the spirit world. One vigil happened the other day for Tammy Bateman, a woman who was killed by Winnipeg Police when they drove their cruiser through a park path to the riverbank. Bateman was from the Roseau River Anishinaabe Nation. She was visiting friends at an encampment beside the river when the police drove their car through a footpath and hit her with their vehicle. The sacred fire for Bateman was lit yesterday at the vigil. From what I can see, the Harris family and Morgan’s Warriors have raised a lot of awareness and support, and they’re increasingly seen as active helpers in the community, and that’s really comforting for people.

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