All My Relations Podcast

Mid-August every year is usually when Matika and Adrienne head out to New Mexico to get #SantaFancy, visit artist friends, and partake in all of the joy of Santa Fe Indian Market--the largest Native art market in the US. Like everything, Art Market was canceled in person this year, leaving us worried about and missing our artsy relatives. So we decided to launch a mini-series on Native art and artists!The goal of this series of episodes is two fold. In a world of cultural appropriation and “Native inspired” junk showing up on Instagram ads and in stores, we wanted you to get to know actual Indigenous artists. Folks who have been in the game for a long time, navigating the complicated and careful lines of culture, tradition, innovation, and art. We want you to hear their voices and their stories, know their work and their passion, and learn why its so important to support Native artists directly. Secondly, the pandemic has hit us all in a lot of different and difficult ways. But when the Native art world is so dependent on in person relationships, this time has meant that things have had to dramatically shift and change in a very short period of time. Many of our artist friends rely on art markets and shows for the majority of their income each year, and all of those have been cancelled. We wanted to bring these two pieces together, and introduce you to some of our artist friends, as well as check in and hear how their work and lives are moving forward in this new and challenging time. On this first episode, meet three awesome full time artists--Jewelers and metal smiths Pat Pruitt (Laguna Pueblo and Apache) and Waddie Crazyhorse (Cochiti Pueblo), and painter J. Nicole Hatfield (Comanche).Follow and support the artists!Pat Pruitt: https://www.instagram.com/patpruittmetalsmith/, http://www.patpruitt.com/Waddie Crazyhorse: https://www.instagram.com/crazyhorseclassics/, http://www.waddiecrazyhorse.com/J. Nicole Hatfield: https://www.instagram.com/jnicolehatfieldart/, https://www.jnicolehatfield.com/Adrienne’s Catapult story on Kristen Dorsey: https://catapult.co/stories/kristen-dorsey-native-jewelry-designer-fighting-stereotypes-art-adrienne-keeneSanta Fe Indian Market/SWAIA virtual market: https://swaia.org/indian-market/2020-exhibitors/We Are The Seed Market (Native run market, postponed for 2020):http://www.wearetheseeds.org/about-seeds.htmlAs always, thank you to Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

In this engaging discussion, Kim Smith, a Diné community organizer and activist, shares her profound insights on the connection between land healing and personal well-being. She recounts her over 1200-mile journey to the sacred mountains, emphasizing community-led restoration efforts. Kim highlights the impact of extractive industries on health within Navajo communities, advocating for environmental justice. Through her initiatives, she illustrates the power of storytelling and collective action in reclaiming ancestral ties and nurturing a sustainable future.

Join us for a discussion with Well For Culture founders Thosh Collins (WhaZhaZi, Haudenosaunee and O’otham) and Chelsea Luger (Anishinaabe & Lakota) as we discuss Whole Family Wellness. We cover an indigenous approach to prenatal, baby, postpartum, fatherhood, and a whole family approach to wellness. They study and implement lifestyle teachings of indigenous ancestors, while incorporating new information to contribute to ancient and ongoing chains of knowledge. Indigenous culture has always been dynamic, and wellness is an inherent aspect. Their good words help us to feel grounded amidst this time of pandemic, and we hope you will find comfort in their teachings as well.Well For Culture is is a grassroots initiative which aims to reclaim and revitalize Indigenous health and wellness, they say on their website, “Well For Culture promotes holistically well lifestyles. We believe in mind-body optimization through The Seven Circles Of Wellness. Much like a ceremony, a song, a story, or an activist movement, Well For Culture Is at once a space, a place, a group of people and an evolving idea.”+This work is supported by the National Geographic Society’s Emergency Fund for Journalists. The Wisteria Fund, and our incredible Patreon subscribers. +Special Thanks to Max Levin and Teo Shantz for our music, Ciara Sana for episode art, and Teo Elisio for doing all the things. +We want to hear from you! Please follow us on Instagram!Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

Today we launch Season 2 of All My Relations: “Growing New Beginnings”! This episode was recorded around the new year when the world was functioning without Covid-19, and we were emerging from our off-season hibernation, reveling in new life, and trying to figure out a healthy and wellness-focused way forward. Then, things changed, and we sat on the episode for a bit. We decided to bring the conversation up to speed with the current moment and talk about how we’re riding out the pandemic in our homes, mourning losses and feeling scared, but also continuing to grow. In Season 2, we are dedicating several episodes to wellness.  We have amazing conversations on Whole Family Wellness with Thosh Collins and Chelsea Luger of Well For Culture, Healing the Land and Ourselves with Kim Smith, Building Indigenous Futures through Higher Education with Bryan Brayboy and Amanda Tachine, and a multi-part series on the movement to protect Mauna Kea in Hawai’i featuring a whole crew of scholars, activists, students, and community members. We continue to explore what it means to be a good relative to our families, the land, and one another, and especially during this time, how to take care of ourselves and our communities. We may sprinkle in some bonus content too, reacting to what is happening as the world continues to change around us. We are so excited to share all of this with you! +This work was supported by the National Geographic Society’s Emergency Fund for Journalists, The Wisteria Fund, and our incredible Patreon subscribers. +Special Thanks to Max Levin and Kyle Sherrer for our new music, Ciara Sana for her beautiful episode art, and Teo Elisio for his editing, mixing, tech support, moral support, and vision. + We also found out All My Relations was an “honoree” for the 2020 Webby's! We’re recognized in the “Diversity and Inclusion” category alongside some fantastic podcasts! So thank you for your continued support. We send big hugs. Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

This bonus episode explores the impacts of Covid-19 in tribal communities. Even though tribal nations are most at risk, Indigenous voices have been widely left out of mainstream news coverage. Nationally, health experts and tribal leaders are sounding the alarm that Native Americans are particularly vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19. During this time of crisis, it is critically important to hear from national leadership. Listen in to hear conversation between Matika and New Mexico’s First District US Congresswoman, Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo); Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan (White Earth Band of Ojibwe); President of The National Congress of The American Indian, Fawn Sharp (Quinalt); Director of Urban Indian Health Institute, Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee); President & CEO of Black Hills Center for American Indian Health, Dr. Jeff Henderson (Cheyenne River Sioux);  Indigenous Environment Network Organizer, Dallas Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota and Dine); Nutritionist Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot); Ethnobotanist Linda Black Elk (Catawba); and Medical Doctors Dr. Edi Chu and Dr. David Price.  Each speaks to crisis from their own perspective and offers insight. +++This work was supported by the National Geographic Society’s Emergency Fund for Journalists. Learn more:  @InsideNatGeo+++Special thanks to the team of people that put this episode together:Sound Engineer, Editing and Scoring: Teo ShantzProducer and Host: Matika WilburOriginal Episode Art: Ciara SanaMusic Composition: Alex Chadsey, Teo Shantz and Greg KramerProduction Assistance: Kristin Bolan+++Sending love to all our relatives at this time. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at allmyrelationspodcast@gmail.com, follow us on Instagram, or contribute to our patreon. Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

Hundreds of years ago when colonizers instituted the idea of “blood quantum” as a means of reducing the Native population, our Native ancestors probably did not envision a modern Indigenous world of Tinder, multi-billion dollar tribal enterprises and per cap payments, or a world where who we love might determine if our children are considered Indigenous at all. Last episode we talked about Blood Quantum through history, law, science, and policy. In this episode, we’ll approach the topic on a more personal level--how does it affect our love lives? Join Matika and Adrienne as they talk with our production team members Brooke and Nita about how we’ve navigated finding partners, racist federal/tribal policy, and how we’ve had no choice but to consider how blood quantum affects our children, our families, and our nations.This is an emotional episode, we talk about a lot of really hard and personal things things--from enrollment and belonging, to cancer and to sexual assault. So we want to give you a heads up that this might be an episode you need to be emotionally ready for, and might want to give yourself the space to smudge or decompress after. But it’s also us--so we promise to maintain the chuckle.We’re also at the end of Season One! We’d especially like to thank Brooke and Nita for weighing in on this episode, and for all of their hard work on Season One. This couldn’t and wouldn’t be possible without the help of our good friend Teo Shantz, who does all the production, engineering, and editing for this project. Also Ciara Sana, who creates the most beautiful episode art for us. We also want to thank the amazing Katherine Paul aka Black Belt Eagle Scout for the music on this episode, and we especially want to thank you. Thank you for listening. We love you! We’ll be back soon.Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

The foundational narrative we teach our children about Columbus is rooted in myth and falsity. Instead of teaching our real Native American history, or our real humanity, we’ve settled for American mythology. When we celebrate Columbus, we are blindly supporting indigenous erasure and perpetuating the romantic, dire, insatiable story of extinction. It’s the story that dilutes Native American genocide, and celebrates notions of pioneering, settlement, and manifest destiny. These myths reject indigenous intelligence, indigenous land, indigenous humanity, and dare we say, indigenous futures. So instead, today is a day to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples, and it is an important part of our movement— it centers our stories and therefore our resiliency:“Every Native American is a survivor, an anomaly, a surprise on earth. We were all slated for extinction before the march of progress. But surprise, we are progress. “    — Louise Erdrich, from First Person, First PeoplesIn the spirit of celebration, we invite you to listen to Adrienne and Matika discuss the complexity of this issue on our podcast All My Relations; and we encourage you to share it with your friends. If you live in one of 7 states or 130+ cities that has worked to #AbolishColumbusDay, then we applaud you. If you are still in the struggle to rewrite the narrative, we stand with you. ###Special thanks to Teo Shantz for editing and production. Shoutout to Ciara Sana for this beautiful artwork. Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

Blood quantum. The percentage of Native “blood” one possesses, the fraction listed on Certificates of Degree of Indian Blood, and a fraught concept that has its defenders and dissenters in our communities. Despite its colonial origins, many tribes still use blood quantum as a requirement for tribal enrollment, and these fictional fractions carry huge weight in the lives of Indigenous Peoples. In this episode we hope to parse out some of these complications around the topic of blood quantum—legally and interpersonally, as well as the ways these metaphors of blood have moved into genetic science. Many of our Native nations are at a crisis point when it comes to thinking about enrollment, and notions of blood and belonging are at the center of that. Knowing all of this, where do we go from here? Join Matika and Adrienne as they discuss blood, enrollment, law, genetics and belonging with Charlotte Logan (Akwesasne Mohawk) a genetic researcher debunking blood quantum theory, Gabe Galanda (Round Valley Indian Tribes of California, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Tribes), a prolific Seattle attorney fighting disenrollment cases, Tommy Miller (Colville), attorney and author of law review article “Beyond Blood Quantum: The legal and political implications of expanding tribal enrollment”, and Professor David Wilkins (Lumbee), legal scholar and co-author of “Dismembered: Native Disenrollement and the Battle for Human Rights”.Guest Bios:Charlotte Logan is Akwesasne Mohawk and a molecular biologist working in upstate new york.  Charlotte has a Masters in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Brandeis University and has spent a decade specializing in the field of small RNA and mRNA Processing. She recently made a life altering choice by stepping away from her career and enrolling in the Onondaga Language  Program, where she spent two years studying the Onandoga language. Then returned to biochemistry and molecular biology as a senior research support specialist, and now is a graduate student in linguistics.Gabe Galanda belongs to the Round Valley Indian Tribes of California, descending from the Nomlaki and Concow Tribes. As a partner at Galanda Broadman, Gabe is an attorney whose legal practice represents tribal governments, businesses and citizens often working on complex, multi-party litigation and crisis management. Gabe is a prolific writer on  tribal litigation and sovereignty and Indian civil rights issues, having been published over 100 times in national periodicals like The National Law Journal, and Business Law Today. Tommy Miller is a Citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and his Seattle law practice focuses on litigation, Indian Law, government contracts and procurement, which touch on a wide variety of issues including treaty rights.  He received his JD and bachelor’s degrees from Harvard University.  In 2014, he published in the American Indian Law Journal: “Beyond Blood Quantum: The Legal and Political Implications of Expanding Tribal Enrollment.” David E. Wilkins is a citizen of the Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and a Professor at the University of Richmond. He earned his Ph.D. in political science from the USend us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

On this episode we tackle a huge topic: the importance and power of our Indigenous languages, and the work that's being done to revitalize and promote Native languages. It was too much to fit in with just one guest, so we collected stories from throughout Indian Country, talking to Thelma Whiskers from Southern Ute, Harry Oosahwee from Cherokee Nation, Henrietta Mann from Cheyenne Nation, Amber Heywood and Archie Cantrell from Puyallup, and Tia Averett Pocknett and Sola Santos from Mashpee Wampanoag. Every one of our nations and communities has suffered language loss due to colonial policies, but despite the statistics and very real threats to our languages, there are also so many incredible stories of hope and resurgence. We hope you'll feel inspired to use your language today and every day, even in small ways. Your ancestors will hear you. UN Declaration of 2019 as "International Year of Indigenous Languages": https://en.iyil2019.org/Thank you to  Siobhan (Vonnie) Brown, Sola Santos, Adeline & Wesley Greendeer, Eliana Ruzzo, and Jenn Weston from Mukayuhsak Weekuw and all of the other incredible folks we talked to whose voices didn't make it into the episode, you're amazing.This episode we’re super thrilled to have music by Sicangu Lakota rapper and composer Frank Waln! We’re also as always grateful for all of the team that worked on this episode, editor Teo Shantz, PA Juanita Christine, Production by Brooke Swaney, and episode art by Ciara Sana. We’re also in the process of trying to find funding for season two. If you have any resources, grants, or funding that you think we should look into, please let us know! Remember to like, comment, share, and subscribe on iTunes!  We’re on instagram @amrpodcast, and our website is allmyrelationspodcast.com. GvGeyu! Love you! Send us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.

All My Relations talks story with two of our favorite fashionable friends: artist extraordinaire Jamie Okuma (Lisueño and Shoshone Bannock) and scholar/fashion entrepreneur Dr. Jessica Metcalfe (Turtle Mountain Chippewa). Listen in as we venture into their journeys through the Native fashion world and what it means to them to represent for their communities through fashion and design. Jessica often says, “Our ancestors were stylish,” so what are the ways we can represent our identities through what we choose to wear? Beyond Buckskin Boutique: shop.beyondbuckskin.comJamie Okuma: Jokuma.comSend us your thoughts!Support the showFollow us on Instagram @amrpodcast, or support our work on Patreon. Show notes are published on our website, Allmyrelationspodcast.com. Matika's book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America is available now! T'igwicid and Hyshqe for being on this journey with us.