My Life So Far
The village of Alert Bay, on Canada's Pacific coast, is a study in paradox for the teens growing up there. They have a rich aboriginal culture, but live in grinding poverty.
2009 / Lindsay Michael / Neil Sandell / Teresa Goff / Global Perspectives, CBC, Canada
The village of Alert Bay, on Canada's Pacific coast, is a study in paradox for the teens growing up there. They have a rich aboriginal culture, but live in grinding poverty.
They are surrounded by natural beauty but there's nothing for them to do. They have strong family relationships but many can't wait to grow up and leave. In 2008, Teresa Goff and Neil Sandell of the CBC were invited to Alert Bay to help young people create a portrait of life there. The producers gave five people, ages 11-17, recording equipment, some coaching, and made a simple request: Tell us about where you live. Tell us about your life.
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Lindsay Michael has been working in public radio for six years. Her work has been awarded a New York Festivals' Gold Medal, a national RTNDA award and has been twice featured at the International Feature Conference. After joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she explored many fields in radio, from music programming to news reporting. In 2006 Lindsay created the network documentary series Subcultures and began work at Outfront in 2007. Lindsay has been selected to represent the CBC at the 2010-2011 European Broadcasting Union Master School on Radio Features.
Neil Sandell (He/Him) worked as a current affairs producer at CBC Radio for many years, and was a senior producer on Outfront, a pioneering program that helped ordinary people turn their life stories into documentaries.
Teresa Goff is a freelance writer and radio producer based in Vancouver, British Columbia.