AUSTIN — A programming note: Your favorite Native politics, policy, media, economics and sovereignty newsletter and blog Indigenous Wire has arrived in Austin, Texas for a few days of Native networking, representation, media navel gazing — and hopefully a second, or two, of fun.

We plan to sit in on several Indigenous-focused sessions and down the road share with you anything newsworthy — or gossip worthy — that we learn.

The panel we’re speaking on, called “Controlling the Narrative: Writers Forging a New Way,” is all about how a variety of different kinds of reporters and writers are finding resilient paths to succeed in storytelling and journalism, including on the Substack tech platform (we see you Kim Tallbear, Chris La Tray, Amy McQuire, Jenni Monet, Sherman Alexie, and the new “Pretendian Country Today” by Indianz.com [always serving the tea!], and others, too). A preview: We’ll gab live on Sunday at 4 CT about perennial pitfalls faced by Indigenous journalists and writers in the mainstream media, as well as problems ongoing at some “Indigenous-led” press — and why it might be an attractive time for other Native writers to take a chance on disrupting traditional journalism models by going independent.

The general description of our panel, which also features political and culture writer Charlotte Clymer, tech and VC reporter Eric Newcomer, and Southern cuisine food editor Hanna Raskin follows:

The media landscape is evolving rapidly. Exacerbated by the pandemic, which changed our perception of the conventional workplace and gave rise to the creator economy, writers are moving away from traditional publications and towards independent publishing on platforms such as Substack. This panel will bring together writers who made the bold decision to launch their own Substacks and dive into their experiences being independent.

It’s going to be fun. Again, please join us if you can. And subscribe if you haven’t by now figured out that we’re worth it — more paid subscribers means we can hire more reporters in time, and that means our content will only improve. You will become even more intrigued than you already are, we promise. Plus you’ll be part of a rapidly growing Native-focused journalism-based community that isn’t dependent on non-Indian tech millionaires or special interests. We’re 100% Native owned, and that’s important, we think.

Our posting schedule will be erratic over the next few days, as will our responses to your messages. But fear not, we never forget about you, dear Wiredians, and we tend to feel guilty when news piles up that no one else is reporting, or that others are glossing over, or reporting poorly. Connect the dots, tell the real stories, develop stronger Indian Country sourcing, we feel like shouting into the abyss. We also feel guilty when we don’t get right back to you, especially to our loyal subscribers, but just know that in this case, we have an okay excuse. We gotta hustle to make this work.

Also, if you have an iPhone, here’s a plug for you to check out the new Substack app. Yes, thanks to the magical genies of the Internet, you can now easily read Indigenous Wire directly in the new Substack app for iPhone (an Android-based app is coming soon, we’ve heard). Why is the app a good thing? With it, our posts and those of any others you subscribe to on the Substack platform will arrive straight to you via the dedicated Substack app inbox, which means our new posts won’t get lost or stuck in spam, and our longer posts won’t be cut off by your email program. Learn more about the app here. And download it wherever apps are downloaded. It’s a good thing, as Martha Stewart might say.

Okay, enough. This Indian is off to buy some cowboy boots.

Not.

But we’ll see y’all soon.