Women Owning the Narrative (WOTN) is a Canada-focused storytelling and advocacy platform founded by Anita Erskine, MCM. It began as the capstone research and documentary project for her Master of Communications Management at McMaster University — but its roots run far deeper, grounded in her personal journey as a young African woman finding her voice in Canada.
The project pays homage to an exquisite collective of bold voices that Erskine followed with admiration from her early days as an international student at Trent University, where she studied Cultural Studies, to her formative years as a young professional at FLOW 93.5 — Canada’s first wholly Black-owned radio station. There, she learned firsthand how narratives could shape perception, power, and participation — and how easily those narratives could be distorted or denied to those who didn’t control them.
What began as an academic inquiry into representation has evolved into a powerful storytelling movement. WOTN is rooted in the belief that storytelling is not only about being heard — it’s about shaping how one is seen, valued, and remembered.
At the heart of the platform is a feature-length documentary that began as an eight-minute concept and expanded into a fifty-minute film due to the depth and emotional urgency of the material. It features compelling interviews with Canadian cultural icons including Jully Black, Trey Anthony, Dr. Rita Deverell, Tonya Williams, Joan Jenkinson, Ella Cooper, and Cherene Francis — women who have, in their own ways, disrupted, redefined, and reclaimed space in the media and cultural landscape.
WOTN pays homage to Canadian Black voices — an exquisite collective of bold, trailblazing women whose work and presence shaped Anita Erskine’s own journey, and more broadly, whose tireless pursuit of inclusion and unwavering advocacy for Black representation have laid the foundation for future generations to thrive, create, and lead without apology.