KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Kukukwes.com, journalist Maureen Googoo’s news website for Atlantic Canada’s indigenous news, is two years old today.
Indigenous news is underreported in Nova Scotia, and to have an award winning Mi’kmaw journalist writing about these very complex and important topics is a wonderful thing.
Equally wonderful is the financial model underlying the website. There is no paywall. Maureen (and photographer Stephen Brake) rely on voluntary contributions.
Everybody should have access to news, but paywalls exclude people who can’t afford it. “For the price of a cup of coffee you can subscribe,” typically goes the enticement to join one online news service or another.
In Nova Scotia there are lots of people who can’t afford a cup of coffee per day, not even a cheap one. Many Mi’kmaq would be excluded from reading about important happenings like the annual Wabanaki Confederacy gathering held this year at Kejimkujik National Park if it weren’t for Maureen’s choice not to build a wall separating her readers from news.
“I‘ve always said as long as I can pay the bills, I’m going to keep doing this,” Maureen Googoo tells CBC’s Peggy MacDonald.
Thankfully, 75 or so monthly sustainers deem her work important enough to make a modest monthly donation. That’s good, but it isn’t good enough. Clearly more money is needed to sustain Maureen’s important work.
Consider giving Kukukwes.com a birthday present, here is how.
If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A pay wall is not an option for us, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on the kindness of occasional one-time donors and a small group of dedicated monthly sustainers.
