The Narwhal celebrates wins at Digital Publishing Awards, National Magazine Awards

The Narwhal’s photojournalism has taken home three more awards, adding to a series of accolades in the Canadian media space in recent weeks.

Amber Bracken’s coverage of the RCMP’s raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, where Indigenous land defenders were arrested while opposing the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, received the gold award for best photo storytelling at the Digital Publishing Awards as well as the gold in the photo essay and photojournalism category at the National Magazine Awards.

Pat Kane’s piece, capturing the collaborative efforts of Dene wildlife officers, Elders and researchers to save the disappearing Bathurst caribou herd in the Northwest Territories, picked up a silver award from the Digital Publishing Awards for best photo storytelling.

“It’s overwhelming to work with such an all-star cast of colleagues whose work has been honoured again and again over the past few weeks,” The Narwhal’s managing editor Mike De Souza said. “At the same time, it’s refreshing when we see our peers from other media outlets recognizing the value of this work.”

De Souza praised the more than 4,500 members whose donations help fund The Narwhal’s award-winning reporting, which was also recognized with four wins — more than any other news outlet — at the Canadian Association of Journalists’ (CAJ) gala in May. Those CAJ wins included nods for our coverage of the Wet’suwet’en crisis and the Fairy Creek logging blockades as well as the emerging Indigenous journalist award for Stephanie Kwetásel’wet Wood. 

“The support of our members allows us to continue to produce hard-hitting and in-depth journalism,” he said. “The Narwhal’s members are funding work that is changing how other Canadian newsrooms report on the climate and biodiversity crises in both words and images.”

The Narwhal’s investigative feature on migrant farmworker conditions in southern Ontario, which recently took home the labour reporting award at the CAJs, was recognized with honourable mentions at both the Digital Publishing Awards and National Magazine Awards. Reporter Hilary Beaumont was shortlisted for investigative reporting at the National Magazine Awards, while photographer Christopher Katsarov Luna received honourable mentions in a pair of photojournalism categories.

Sarah Lawrynuik’s story for The Narwhal on how climate extremes are impacting Prairie farmers received an honourable mention in the short feature writing category at the National Magazine Awards.

The Narwhal’s co-founder and editor-in-chief Emma Gilchrist won gold in personal journalism at the National Magazine Awards for her deep-dive journey into her family history.

Ontario reporter Fatima Syed won gold at the Digital Publishing Awards as a contributor to The Local’s news coverage of vaccination efforts in the Toronto area. 

Ontario bureau chief Denise Balkissoon, who joined The Narwhal from Chatelaine, was part of a team that won silver for service journalism for an ex-agoraphobe’s guide to leaving the house.

The other nominees in the photojournalism categories at the Digital Publishing Awards and National Magazine Awards included The Globe and Mail, Air Canada enRoute, Maclean’s, Maisonneuve, Queen’s Alumni Review and Reader’s Digest Canada.

The Narwhal was also a finalist for the Canadian Journalism Foundation Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism in the small media category for work documenting the Wet’suwet’en crisis. Fellow independent outlet IndigiNews, where our B.C. bureau lead Lindsay Sample worked as an editor, won the award for its coverage of birth alerts.