Alvin Fiddler, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief

Nominated for a Governor General’s Award as co-author of the bestselling memoir Up Ghost River, Alexandra Shimo’s investigative reporting shines much-needed light on the third-world poverty and despair in First Nations communities that few Canadians are aware of and even fewer have experienced. Embedded in a remote community along the James Bay coast while researching Invisible North the author succumbed to the anguish she experienced after four months in Kashechewan First Nation, ground zero for the First Nation experience. Wracked with guilt and anger over the appalling hardship and suffering she experienced, her long road to recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder is a metaphor for Canada’s path to reconciliation with First Nations.