The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) is an Aboriginal

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

dedicated to serving the needs of Aboriginal people throughout Canada. AMMSA was established in 1983 under the Alberta Societies Act and launched its first publication in March 1983 – simply titled ''AMMSA''. The name of this publication was later changed to ''

Windspeaker The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) is an Aboriginal publisher in Canada dedicated to serving the needs of Aboriginal people throughout Canada. AMMSA was established in 1983 under the Alberta Societies Act and launched its first publicati ...

'' in March 1986.

Mission

The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society is an independent Indigenous communications organization committed to facilitating the exchange of information reflecting Indigenous culture to a growing and diverse audience. AMMSA is dedicated to providing objective, mature and balanced coverage of news, information and entertainment relevant to Indigenous issues and peoples while maintaining profound respect for the values, principles and traditions of Indigenous people.

Publications

Not an organization to shy away from embracing technology, AMMSA abandoned the limitations of producing paper products, making the decision to increase its outreach to readers through a new website at Windspeaker.com More news with no subscription costs for readers. History AMMSA published a number of monthly publications listed below * ''

'' – Featuring national content; publishing from March 1983 - 2016 AMMSA published the following provincial publications on a monthly basis: * ''Alberta Sweetgrass'' – News and events from Indigenous communities in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Published monthly from December 1993 - 2016 * ''Ontario Birchbark'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Published monthly from January 2000 -2016 * ''Raven's Eye'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and the

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

Published monthly from March 1997 - 2016 * ''Saskatchewan Sage'' - News and events from Indigenous communities in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

Published monthly from October 1996 - 2016 AMMSA digitized all of the published articles in its paper products dating back to 1983 and makes them available online as part of an archive of 20,000+ news and information articles. These archives have grown to more than 30,000 articles. Available at AMMSA.com

Radio

AMMSA also operates a radio network, Windspeaker Radio , for Indigenous listeners throughout Alberta. The network studios were originally in Lac La Biche, but are now based in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. A new transmitter in Edmonton was licensed by the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

in 2008, and became the CFWE network's primary station when it launched in July 2009. On June 14, 2017, the CRTC granted AMMSA licenses to operate Type B Native FM radio stations aimed at urban Indigenous audiences in

at 89.3 MHz as the Raven CIWE-FM (which signed on in 2021), and in Calgary at 88.1 MHz as

CJWE-FM CJWE-FM (88.1 FM) is a radio station in Calgary, Alberta. Owned by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, it broadcasts programming targeting southern Alberta's First Nations communities, including mainstream country music, and specialty shows fe ...

(which began broadcasting in 2018). Both frequencies were previously licensed to

Aboriginal Voices Radio Network Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (rebranded as Voices Radio in 2014) was a Canadian radio network, which primarily broadcast music programming and other content of interest to aboriginal people. As of June 2015, the network operated stations in To ...

but were revoked in 2015 due to compliance issues.

References

External links

AMMSA

AMMSA History
First Nations mass media Magazine publishing companies of Canada Radio broadcasting companies of Canada Companies based in Edmonton Indigenous broadcasting in Canada {{Canada-media-company-stub