Aboriginal Multi-Media Society

The Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) is an Aboriginal publisher in 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 in March 1986.

Publications

AMMSA abandoned producing paper products, making the decision to set up a news website.

History

AMMSA published a number of monthly publications listed below

• Windspeaker – 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

Published monthly from December 1993 - 2016

• Ontario Birchbark - News and events from Indigenous communities in Ontario

Published monthly from January 2000 -2016

• Raven's Eye - News and events from Indigenous communities in British Columbia and the Yukon

Published monthly from March 1997 - 2016

• Saskatchewan Sage - News and events from Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan

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.

Radio

AMMSA operates networks of First Nations community radio stations in Alberta under the Windspeaker Radio banner: its flagship network CFWE broadcasts a mix of country music and community programming presented in Indigenous languages such as Cree and Dene.^[1] The network's studios were originally in Lac La Biche, but are now based in Edmonton. A new transmitter in Edmonton was licensed by the CRTC in 2008, and became the CFWE network's primary station when it launched in July 2009.^[2]

On June 14, 2017, the CRTC approved bids by the organization for the former Aboriginal Voices Radio Network frequencies in Calgary and Edmonton;^[3][4] CJWE-FM launched in 2018 with a similar format to the CFWE network,^[1] while CIWE-FM launched in Edmonton in 2021 with a free-form format.^[5][6]