Matteo Cimellaro
Journalist | Ottawa |
English
About Matteo Cimellaro
Matteo Cimellaro is a Cree/settler writer and journalist who currently covers urban Indigenous communities in and around Ottawa thanks to a grant from the Local Journalism Initiative and the Government of Canada.
Honours & Awards
Finalist for the JHR / CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award for 2022 and 2023
Digital Publishing Awards' Best Topical Reporting: Climate Change 2024 nominee
Winner of the 2024 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards Justice category
What is UNDRIP and what will it mean for Canada?
The federal government has enshrined many of the rights of UNDRIP into law. But it still has to figure out how to implement the new legislation.
‘We need to wake up’: Algonquin leaders sound alarm over planned nuclear waste facility near Ottawa River
Four Algonquin chiefs spoke out on Tuesday, calling out the government and its private-sector contractor over what they say are inadequate consultations over a planned nuclear waste storage facility.
Bringing education back to the land
Throughout colonization, attending school has meant a loss of language, cultural practices and connection to the land. But what if school could also mean a return to the language, culture and territory that has been stripped away?
New environmental law moved the needle, but how it protects ‘sacrifice zones’ is unclear
Reforms to Canada’s leading environmental law are finally here, but it's only the beginning for front-line communities.
Indigenous organizations show ‘limited interest’ in Ottawa’s clean fuel fund, documents show
A fund designed to kick-start clean fuel projects has received “limited interest” from Indigenous organizations, a Canada’s National Observer access to information request has found.
‘Revolving door of teachers’ hurts everyone at First Nation schools
The labour crisis no one talks about is in First Nation schools.
For Cat Lake students, graduation is a small miracle
“It's just not an education story — it's a social story,” Chief Russell Wesley told Canada's National Observer.
Clean energy project at old mine could provide battery storage for Ontario’s grid
A technology that generates power by pumping and recirculating water between two reservoirs may soon be in place at an abandoned Ontario iron ore mine.
New federal money for wildland firefighter training bolsters First Nations’ community efforts
The funding, earmarked in Budget 2022, promises $28 million over five years to train 1,000 new community-based firefighters. The pilot involves nine Indigenous organizations and communities.
‘The money’s not there’: First Nations schools in Ontario stretched thin by limited resources, piecemeal funding
Longtime grassroots staff, who serve First Nations students from the North because it is meaningful, are stretched thin from years of underfunding and under-resourcing.