About Maureen Googoo
Maureen Googoo
Maureen Googoo is a proud Mi’kmaq and an award-winning journalist.
A member of the Shubenacadie Band, Maureen was born in Truro, Nova Scotia and raised in her home community of Indian Brook First Nation, a place she still calls home.
Education
Maureen graduated from Hants East Rural High located in Milford Station, N.S., in June 1987. She then attended Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in May 1992. Maureen was accepted into the two-year journalism program for university graduates at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. She graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism in June 1994.
In 2006, Maureen was awarded a full tuition scholarship to attend Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. She graduated with a Master of Science in Journalism (Digital Media Concentration) in May 2007.
Career
Maureen has devoted the better part of her 24-year career in journalism covering Aboriginal issues mostly in Atlantic Canada.
Just days after graduating from high school, Maureen landed her first journalism job in the summer of 1987 as a reporter for the Micmac News, a monthly newspaper published in Nova Scotia. Everyday during that summer, she cycled around her community with her backpack that held her notebook, a 35 mm SLR camera and a tape recorder looking for interesting stories to cover for the newspaper. At the end of the summer, she received two awards from the Native Communications Society of Nova Scotia: Best Photography and Best Overall Reporter.
In 1990, Maureen took a year off from studies at Saint Mary’s University to accept a rare one-year paid internship at CBC Radio in Halifax. While there, she worked as an editorial assistant in the newsroom and as a production assistant for two current affairs shows: The Saturday Morning Show and Maritime Magazine. Maureen returned to university for her final year of studies in the fall of 1991.
Throughout the years, Maureen has worked for other news media outlets such as the Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax and CBC Radio in Halifax, Sydney, Toronto and La Ronge, Sask.
In early 2000, Maureen joined the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and was part of the original news team that launched the first ever television news show solely dedicated to news coverage of Aboriginal issues across Canada. Maureen opened and established the Halifax News Bureau for APTN in the spring of 2000 and ran it for more than six years.
During her time with APTN, Maureen covered news stories such as:
- Assembly of First Nations election for National Chief in 2000
- Innu children from Sheshatshiu, N.L. addicted to sniffing gasoline fumes who were sent to treatment centres in St. John’s and Alberta.
- 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Que.
- Conflicts between Mi’kmaq fishermen and Department of Fisheries conservation officers in Burnt Church, N.B. in 2000-2001.
- North American Indigenous Games held in Winnipeg, Man. in 2002.
- First degree murder trial of former American Indian Movement member Arlo Looking-Cloud for the 1975 shooting death of Anna Mae Aquash from Indian Brook First Nation, N.S. The trial was held in Rapid City, South Dakota in 2004.
- Trial of 35 Mi’kmaq loggers from Nova Scotia charged with harvesting timber on crown land with a permit, which included coverage of the loggers’ appeal hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2005.
- Continuing coverage of survivors of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School seeking compensation from the Roman Catholic Church and the Canadian government for the abuse they suffered while attending the school.
Awards and Nominations
In 2001, Maureen was nominated for a Blizzard award with the Manitoba Motion Pictures Association for her coverage of Innu children in Sheshatshiu addicted to sniffing gasoline fumes.
In 2004, Maureen was part of the news team at APTN that received an award from the Native American Journalists Association for a two-hour television special that aired in September 2003 on the 4th anniversary of the landmark 1999 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in the Donald Marshall, Jr. fishing rights case.
In May 2009, Maureen received the Adrienne Clarkson Diversity Award from the Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA Canada) for a documentary she produced for CBC Radio in 2008 on two groups in Nova Scotia who are seeking legal recognition as Aboriginal people.
Achievements
Maureen has achieved a lot of “firsts” throughout her journalism career and is considered to be a trailblazer in her field:
- She became the first Mi’kmaq person to work for a mainstream media news outlet in Nova Scotia when she accepted a one-year paid internship with CBC Radio in Halifax in 1990.
- In 1993, Maureen became the first Aboriginal person to ever be hired at the Chronicle-Herald newspaper in Halifax, N.S. in its entire publishing history.
- In 1994, Maureen became the first Mi’kmaq to earn an undergraduate degree in journalism when she graduated from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ont.
- Up until 2000, Maureen was the only Mi’kmaq journalist working for a mainstream media outlet in Atlantic Canada.
- Maureen is the first Aboriginal person from Canada to earn a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City.
- Maureen is the first and only person from her home community of Indian Brook First Nation, N.S. to earn a graduate degree from an Ivy League University.
- In 2009, Maureen became the only Mi’kmaq journalist to win a journalism award from the Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA Canada).
- In 2010, Maureen became the first Mi’kmaq to teach at the University of King’s College’s School of Journalism in Halifax, N.S.
While Maureen no longer uses a bicycle to travel to interviews, she still lugs around a backpack that holds her notebook, camera and recorder.
