Veteran journalist joins INCA faculty
A veteran CBC journalist, policy expert and long-time mentor for INCA students is joining the faculty on a permanent basis.
Dr. Merelda Fiddler-Potter is a Métis journalist and documentary filmmaker, who spent almost two decades working for the CBC. She has also taught numerous Indigenous Communication Arts (INCA) courses and Summer Institutes during her career.
She has been appointed as an assistant professor of Indigenous Communication and Fine Arts, and Indigenous Business and Public Administration.
The new appointment at First Nations University of Canada will support continued program growth for INCA, which in recent years expanded course offerings, opened a new online streaming teaching studio, and launched a series of special projects to support Indigenous media storytelling.
Merelda has a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy, a Master of Arts in Canadian Plains Studies, and a Bachelor of Journalism and Communications. In 2019, she was awarded a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to explore the media’s role in helping Canadians learn the truth of our colonial policies, the impact it has on Indigenous peoples, and how the media can keep Indigenous issues high on the public agenda. The year after, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Scholarship.
Most recently, Merelda was an Executive-in-Residence and Faculty Lecturer at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. She also spent more than 15 years as a sessional lecturer at the First Nations University of Canada teaching in Indigenous Communication Arts, Indigenous Studies, and Indigenous Business and Public Administration. She was the Dallas W. Smythe Chair at the University of Regina’s School of Journalism from 2017-2018.
Merelda is passionate about Métis history and research and spent years researching her own family’s history from contact in Canada to present. She is also committed to creating space in all institutions for Indigenous peoples, consulting with a wide variety of organizations looking to learn about, create, and implement strategies to achieve meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
