Tyee’s Northern BC Reporter Shares Her Journalism Approach in Next ‘Three Things’ Chat

Earlier this year, reporter Amanda Follett Hosgood packed a bag stuffed with snacks and warm clothes and hitched a ride to the Morice West Forest Service Road in northern B.C. Tensions were boiling over several land defender camps set up along the road, also the proposed route of a natural gas pipeline, and RCMP were threatening to move in.

Few media were allowed on the remote road, with police arbitrarily detaining access over several days. The route itself was snow-covered and travel through the camps was limited. Still, Follett Hosgood managed to gain access through the land defenders and was present to witness several arrests at Unist’ot’en camp. Her reports for The Tyee were read and shared by tens of thousands.

Follett Hosgood will be the next guest on “Three Things,” our behind-the-scenes interview series where we ask people in The Tyee network about what’s on their mind and look for connections between their stories, work and what’s happening in the world.

This conversation will touch on themes of home, discomfort and the future. Follett Hosgood will also share thoughts on how she approaches reporting in her community in Smithers, B.C. on Wet’suwet’en territory. She describes benefiting from those who have patiently taught her about the culture and local concerns in nearly 15 years of living there. She knows there’s an uncomfortable irony to writing about Indigenous land claims as a settler on Indigenous land.

The Wet’suwet’en conflict and now the Black Lives Matter movement have shown us the myriad significant challenges that Black, Indigenous and People of Colour face due to white supremacy, and movement leaders and educators have been generous in sharing knowledge throughout. How do all of us, as allies in this fight, move beyond the fear of discomfort or getting it wrong that can lead to unhelpful inaction? And how do reporters work to do no harm?

Follett Hosgood will chat with me about these questions on Wednesday, June 17 at 1 p.m. PST. We don’t pretend to have the answers but want to take this opportunity to add to the many conversations about allyship that are happening in this moment.

A bit more about Follett Hosgood. She was raised in suburban Toronto and completed her journalism degree at Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to a small Alberta town in the Canadian Rockies. There she learned to rock climb, snowboard and wait tables with varying degrees of success. Eventually she cycled back to wanting to share and write stories and began working at the local community newspaper. In 2006, she visited Smithers and never left, falling in love with northern B.C.’s lifestyle, landscapes and especially community.

Since then, she’s bought land, built a house, got married and become a mom — more or less in that order. She gardens and works tirelessly to perfect the dairy-free latte. She is a dogless dog person adjusting to being woken up at 5 a.m. by a kitten attacking her face and has a willful five-year-old who is going to conquer the world.

Join us for a lively and personal interview hosted by yours truly on Wednesday, June 17 at 1 p.m. PST. Register here for the webinar or follow us on Facebook and YouTube where the livestream will be broadcast.