Ms. Brenda Chambers, President, Brenco Media Inc. and host of Venturing Forth, APTN

Brenda Chambers has promoted First Nations, Métis and Inuit media and communications initiatives for 20 years through her varied roles as independent producer, broadcasting, trainer, lobbyist and mentor. Born in Whitehorse, Brenda is Tlingit and a member of the Champagne-Aishihik First Nation in the Yukon. She studied audio-visual production at Grant MacEwan College and then returned to create a show for Northern Native Broadcasting. In 1986, she began working on Nedaa, NNB’s flagship magazine program and continued her education through a program in documentary production from Ryerson University. In 1991, while working as Executive Director for NNBY, Brenda created programs for the newly formed Television Northern Canada.

Ms. Chambers joined the group that approached the CRTC and Heritage Canada to create a southern Aboriginal network, later known as APTN. In 1999, she created Venturing Forth, a program now in its sixth season that focuses on Aboriginal business, language, culture and youth. In 2001, she was instrumental in creating and delivering the Aboriginal Film and Television certificate program at Capilano College. Ms. Chambers is a former board member of APTN, recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2003, the Global Indigenous Entrepreneur Award from the World Summit of Indigenous Entrepreneurs in 2003 and an Aboriginal Media Arts Award for Venturing Forth. Brenda Chambers lives in Kelowna, BC.

Brenda wants to build the broadcasting business for other Aboriginal people. She is an instructor with the Aboriginal Communications Program at Capilano College in North Vancouver and is working to develop a two-year diploma program there. She is organizing a Canadian Aboriginal Producers Association to foster relationships with the Canadian broadcast industry. Almost all the contractors she hires to work on her films are Aboriginal. Her company has started a formal mentoring program, hiring students from the Capilano College Program and fast tracking them with hands-on experience that would take years to gain.

Brenda is a co-founder of the Yukon Aboriginal Business Association, past chair of the Yukon Indian Arts and Crafts Society, the Yukon Arts Centre Corporation and the Yukon Human Rights Commission as well as a past member of the Yukon Women’s Advisory Council and past board member of Vision TV.

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