MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

THIS WEEK: Our second-ever 'TalkBack' edition of MEDIA INDIGENA, where monthly supporters of the podcast on Patreon get a chance to share their feedback live via Discord about our latest deep dive conversation. This time around, it's a debrief on our discussion of Alberta’s new Sovereignty Act. Back to dialogue directly with patrons are Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University Brock Pitawanakwat, as well as Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama. // CREDITS: 'Guitarista' by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0); 'Free Guitar Walking Blues (F 015)' by Lobo Loco (CC BY-SA 4.0).

This week: Alberta sovereignty. Sovereign over what and whom, you may ask? Great questions, ones that finally got an answer last week when, on November 29, Premier Danielle Smith introduced her first bill, the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act. Or did they? Already it seems, Smith has done a western walk-back of some of the bill’s more controversial aspects—indeed, days after we recorded our discussion about it on December 2—making it a bit of a moving target. In any case, it never hurts to be Indigenously nervous when provincial premiers flirt with secession, especially when it could come at our expense.  Joining host/producer Rick Harp at the roundtable once again to walk through the Act (such as it was at the time), and what Indigenous peoples there have to say about it, are Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University Brock Pitawanakwat and assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama Ken Williams. // CREDITS: “The Thought of You,” by Squire Tuck; our intro/xtro theme is ‘nesting’ by birocratic.

This week: 'Nation to nation,' or funder to client? When it comes to describing the financial relationship between the Assembly of First Nations and the Canadian government which signs its cheques, critics are anything but kind. Through their jaded eyes, the department of Indian Affairs’ purse strings serve more like a leash on AFN, tightened whenever someone 'misbehaves.' And if this Chiefs’ lobby group can’t much function without so-called Canadian taxpayers’ money—which, to be fair, is more like First Nations' resources effectively given back to them—is this oddball offshoot of perennial paternalism the best we can do in this era of Reconciliaction? A long-standing question recently renewed by just-unearthed documents appearing to show federal bureaucrats committed to keeping the Assembly from coloring outside the lines. This week, Brett Forester, the CBC Indigenous reporter (and one-time host of Nation-to-Nation on APTN National News) who captured this story joins host/producer Rick Harp and roundtable regular Trina Roache, the Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College to discuss the light these internal ISC memos may shed on the relationship between the two entities. // CREDITS: 'The Thought Of You' by Squire Tuck (CC BY 4.0). Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

On our first MINI INDIGENA of the season, host/producer Rick Harp and MI regular Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College) are joined by special guest Melissa Ridgen (former co-anchor of APTN National News, now a network managing editor at Global News), as they discuss: • The Siksika First Nation to create reportedly first-ever First Nation bylaw prosecutor's office in Canada • Trina’s RT of the @APTNNews post: “NDP MP Leah Gazan [successfully] reintroduced a motion to recognize what happened in Canada’s residential school system as an act of genocide…” • Rick’s RT of the @TorontoStar post: “Loblaw made $1 million per day in ‘excess’ profits in 2022, according to a new report analyzing rising prices in the grocery industry.” • Why a Northern Manitoba health leader says English language test a barrier to Indigenous nurses that “smells like white supremacy” >> CREDITS: “Apoplēssein” by Wax Lyricist; “Sing Along with Jim,” by Kevin MacLeod (CC-BY 3.0); “arborescence_ex-vitro” by Koi-discovery. SFX: 'Boing' by InspectorJ.

Introducing our first-ever 'TalkBack' edition of MEDIA INDIGENA, where monthly supporters of the podcast on Patreon get the chance to share their feedback about our most recent deep dive directly with our roundtablers. This week, we debrief about last week's conversation, “The unravelling story of Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond.” She's the high-profile figure in B.C. whose long-standing claims to biological Indigeneity were seriously undermined by a recent CBC News investigation. Returning for this TalkBack episode, MI regulars Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) and Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC), recorded live inside our brand-new Discord on Friday, October 28. // CREDITS: “Guitarista” by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0); “Free Guitar Walking Blues (F 015)” by Lobo Loco (CC BY-SA 4.0)

This week: another one bites the dust? Who is the real Mary-Ellen Turpel-Lafond? A question very much on the minds of Indigenous people in Canada these days, still digesting the exhaustive and explosive CBC News investigation into her public and private life—not least, her repeated claims to being a treaty Indian as a daughter of a Cree man from a northern First Nation in Manitoba. A man the CBC could only verify as the B.C.-born settler son of settler parents of Euro-American ancestry. Just some of the troubling discrepancies documented by an exposé that’s thrown virtually everything about Turpel-Lafond’s life story into question. A narrative that, ‘til now, presented her rapid rise to influence as a remarkable journey against the odds. One the CBC seems to show goes largely against the facts. Joining host/producer Rick Harp to take a deep dive into what’s apparently only one of many such scandals of late, MI roundtable regulars Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Society, and Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC). // CREDITS: Our intro/extro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

On our last Summer '22 episode of collected, connected conversations: settler election fever! In this back half of our political retrospective on Election 2019 and more, we revisit the 2019 campaign's first debate, an infamous campaign scrum, and whether the real solution to our political woes might be an all-Indigenous party.   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): • Hayden King, Executive Director of the Yellowhead Institute based at Toronto Metropolitan University • Vanessa Watts, Yellowhead fellow and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies and Sociology at McMaster University • Kim TallBear, Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Society • Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC • Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University • Ken Williams, Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Department of Drama • Wawmeesh Hamilton, journalist and photographer // CREDITS: Creative Commons music this episode includes “La Citadelle” and “The Tablets” by Komiku, “Trouvée dans la traduction” by Alpha Hydrae, “The Call of the Coyote” by Monplaisir, “High on Loungin’” by Wax Lyricist, and “La maison rose-soleil” by Cuicuitte, and “One Time Last Time” by Soft and Furious. Our opening theme is “Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.

In this set of collected, connected conversations (the penultimate episode in our Summer '22 series): Neech the Vote! Was it really a year ago that Canada held its last federal election? A contest we didn’t much concern ourselves with, to be frank; after all, we’d gone hard on the election two years prior. But, looking back, maybe that 2019 campaign taught us all we needed to know about how Indigenous interests fare in such settler exercises.   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): • Hayden King, Executive Director of the Yellowhead Institute based at Toronto Metropolitan University • Vanessa Watts, Yellowhead fellow and Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies and Sociology at McMaster University • Kim TallBear, Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Society • Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University • Ken Williams, Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Department of Drama • Therese Mailhot, author and Assistant Professor of English at Purdue University • Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC  // CREDITS: Creative Commons music in this episode includes “really beautiful my mambo” and “Regate” by Jean Toba, “Treasure finding,” “Love Planet,” and “Night in a Seashell” by Komiku, “Rien n'a vraiment changé” by Demoiselle Döner, and “Respect” by Alpha Hydrae. Our opening theme is “Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain; our closing theme is “Garden Tiger” by Pictures of the Floating World. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.

On this week's collected, connected conversations (the sixth in our Summer '22 series): Settlerology. That’s right: our chance to turn that gaze around, to peer deep into the soul of settler society! Heck, who better to lead a course on colonial culture than Indigenous people?   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): • Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University • Christopher Powell, Associate Professor of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University • Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC • Kim TallBear, Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience and Society // CREDITS: Creative Commons music in this episode includes “Little Green (Alt Take)” by Wax Lyricist and “Mr Paillettes Theme” by Komiku. Our opening theme is “Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain; our closing theme is “Garden Tiger” by Pictures of the Floating World. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.

For the fifth instalment in our Summer '22 series, we burrow into bureaucracy, the Canadian civil service which administers every aspect of Indian life from cradle to grave via the technocratic tentacles of Indian Affairs.   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): • Shiri Pasternak, Assistant Professor in Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-founder at the Yellowhead Institute • Danika Billie Littlechild, lawyer and international Indigenous rights advocate • Robert Jago, writer/entrepreneur • Peter Di Gangi, land rights researcher and analyst with Sicani Research • Russ Diabo, Kahnawá:ke Mohawk analyst, writer, and activist • Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University • Ken Williams, Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Department of Drama // CREDITS: Creative Commons music in this episode includes “earthwork” by Hinterheim, “Adios” by Stenifer, “Je vous ai menti” by BG du 72, as well as “The Wind” and “Ambiant Wait” by Komiku. Our opening theme is “Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain; our closing theme is “Garden Tiger” by Pictures of the Floating World. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.