WINNIPEG – Jean LaRose, a member of the advisory board that developed the concept for Canada’s first Aboriginal television network, will be a featured guest speaker at the inaugural World Indigenous Television Broadcasting conference to be held in New Zealand in March.
The conference, WITBC ’08, will be hosted by New Zealand’s national indigenous broadcaster, Maori Television, and is the first ever gathering of indigenous television leaders from around the world.
A citizen of the Odanak First Nation, LaRose was appointed chief executive of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in 2002. Previously, he was the media relations officer and director of communications for the Assembly of First Nations, a position he held for eight years. He also held various posts within the federal government, primarily in the area of communications.
Other speakers include John Walter Jones, leader of Welsh-language channel S4C, and Patricia Turner, the chief executive of Australia’s first national indigenous television service, which was launched in Sydney in July.
It is intended that a World Indigenous Television Broadcasters network be established at the three-day conference.
For information about the conference: www.witbc.org.
