MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

This week: 'Close Encounters of the Colonial Kind,' the title of a talk given by our very own Kim TallBear (University of Alberta professor of Native Studies) at "Of the Land and Water: Indigenous Sexualities, Genders and Ways of Being," hosted earlier this year in Whitehorse, YK by the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning.

Although rooted in her by-now familiar terrains of sexuality and science, Kim's monologue was a bit of a departure from what we're used to here on the podcast: delivered in the fictionalized voice of 'IZ,' she's the personification of an Indigenous-driven movement of 'unapologetic intellectual promiscuity,' or what IZ herself calls "critical polydisciplinamorous engagement."

An adaptation of her 2023 Substack post / 2021 essay by the same name, Kim's keynote so aroused our curiosity we had to have her flesh out the body of thought behind it. In the first of this two-part discussion, she walks MI host/producer Rick Harp and MI audio editor Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas through 'IZ Speaks Back' and 'IZ Confesses,' which together make up the first half of her talk.

CREDITS: ♬ 'A Moment' by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0); 'Cryin' in my Beer' by Jason Shaw (CC BY 4.0); 'As Time Passes' (via ZapSplat.com); a sample of 'Staying's Worse Than Leaving' by Sunny Sweeney; our program intro/xtro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. SFX: 'Deep Space Vibrations Ambience Loop' by rhodesmas; 'Ambient space 4' by DylanTheFish.

Our lead story: residents from James Smith Cree Nation react to the conclusion of the Saskatchewan inquest into the in-custody death of mass killer Myles Sanderson, whose September 2022 stabbing spree killed 11 and injured 17.

On this week's Indigenous round table: legal limbo? Did the Supreme Court's recent rejection of Quebec's constitutional challenge to Bill C-92 really cement the self-determination of Indigenous peoples on child welfare? Or did it seal in the status quo, one where the feds still hold all the cards and all the funds?

A ruling described as "very beautiful" by one leader, hailed as paving "the road… for the transfer of authority" by another, such celebrations risk missing the core point of C-92's critics: that it was always a half measure, keeping full authority and jurisdiction in the grips of the Canadian government. Making the supreme hype about the Supreme Court's ruling all the more puzzling.

Now that the pixie dust has settled, MEDIA INDIGENA regulars Brock Pitawanakwat (associate professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) and Ken Williams (associate professor with the University of Alberta's department of drama) joined host/producer Rick Harp to try and decipher where things now stand after the ruling, drawing on the perspective of well-known child welfare advocate Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society.

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. Other music (i.e., bridges to and from Cindy Blackstock interview) sourced from Zapsplat.com.

This episode, another 'mini' INDIGENA (the easy-peasy version of MEDIA INDIGENA)—one where the first item went way longer than anyone expected! Joining host/producer Rick Harp on Tuesday, February 6th were Kim TallBear (University of Alberta professor in the Faculty of Native Studies) and Candis Callison (UBC Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the School for Public Policy and Global Affairs), as they discuss the multiple Indigenous actors within Mni Sóta Makoce who helped drive the process of reimagining Minnesota's contested state flag, the pushback, and the possible perils of engaging and enabling settler symbolism.

CREDITS: 𝅘𝅥𝅯 'All Your Faustian Bargains' by Steve Combs (CC BY 4.0); 'Guatemala - Panama March' by Heftone Banjo Orchestra (CC BY 4.0). 🕬 SFX 'Hockey fanfare' by jobro.

For our first mini INDIGENA of 2024, Candis Callison (associate professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and Graduate School of Journalism at UBC) and Kenneth T. Williams (associate professor with the University of Alberta's department of drama), joined host/producer Rick Harp this Friday, January 19th to discuss:

• Norway to pay Sámi reindeer herders millions for violating their human rights
• How Canada led efforts to weaken original UN Indigenous rights declaration
• Why the Yellowhead Institute no longer tracks Canada's fulfilment of the TRC Calls to Action
• The Canadian Space Agency seeks Indigenous interns

CREDITS: 'All Your Faustian Bargains' and 'Love Is Chemical' by Steve Combs (CC BY 4.0); 'Brass Burrough' by Cagey House (CC BY); 'Free Tutti Church Organ (F 008)' by Lobo Loco (CC BY).

For our final episode of 2023, a live audience recording from the spring, when we took part in the ICA 2023 Pre-conference, "20 Years of Podcasting: Mapping the Contours of Podcast Studies," hosted May 24th and 25th at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Entitled, "Independent Indigenous podcasting as knowledge production," this four-person roundtable was a rare opportunity to bring folks together in one place—Rick Harp, Brock Pitawanakwat, Kim TallBear—along with Candis Callison, who joined us remotely. Here's the essence of our event:

"Curious about podcasts as academic avenues, our discussion will explore both pragmatic and conceptual outcomes of independent Indigenous podcasting as a form of knowledge production, for both media and the academy… There is much overlap on [MI's] roundtable between media-makers and academics, many of whom are regularly asked for media commentary on current Indigenous topics. Several of us work(ed) within Indigenous and mainstream print and broadcast media. We will explore how producing for a primarily Indigenous audience compares to addressing a mass audience."

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

This week, our penultimate program of 2023 reunites Kim and Ken for another mini INDIGENA (the rough and ready version of MEDIA INDIGENA) to discuss an array of items, including:

• a response to pushback against our discussion (ep 334) about state vs. federal recognition of tribes in the U.S.
• the mass resignation of CN Rail's Indigenous Advisory Council, citing "the company's ineffective use of the Council's strategic input"
• plans announced for Anishinaabemowin version of the first 'Star Wars' movie
• Canadian bureaucrats crow about their new eagle-shaped correctional building "to support Indigenous inmates on their rehabilitation journey," to which Twitter naturally reacted

CREDITS: 'All Your Faustian Bargains' and 'Love Is Chemical' by Steve Combs (CC BY 4.0); Lifecycle by Fabian Measures (CC BY). Edited by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas and Rick Harp.

On this week's round table: colonial carbon culpability. Calling it a "first-of-its-kind analysis," a recent study by Carbon Brief has crunched the numbers on some 170 years of emissions, seen through the lens of climate justice. Entitled, "How colonial rule radically shifts historical responsibility for climate change," the report adds a critical dimension to addressing the question of what—and who—has brought us to the brink of depleting our cumulative carbon budget, the maximum CO2 our planet can handle before global temperatures rise to dangerous levels.

Among those carbon culprits with a gigatonne to answer for: the former British Empire, so vast it's said every week a country somewhere celebrates their independence. So brutal that to factor in its era of extractive violence nearly doubles the UK's contribution to (and thus responsibility for) climate change.

On this episode, host/producer Rick Harp and MI regular Candis Callison sit with study co-author Simon Evans to discuss this tally of twin legacies many still struggle to navigate and repair.

// CREDITS: Our intro/xtro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. Episode edited by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas and Rick Harp.

This week: where there's smokes, there's fire. Does a recent ruling by Quebec's Superior Court have the potential to dramatically alter Canada's constitutional landscape? Known as R. v. Montour and White, the case takes its name from a pair of Mohawk tobacco traders who refused to pay millions in excise taxes on goods brought across the Canadian border. Import duties the defendants said violated the Covenant Chain, a series of treaties with the Haudenosaunee dating back to the mid-1600s. A defense the court not only accepted, but built upon to breathe new life into these centuries-old treaties, adopting the more recent lens of UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A Declaration the Court held to be both binding and the floor of section 35 protections for Indigenous rights in Canada. And the Court didn't limit the scope of its findings to just tobacco, or even the Mohawks. As some observers note, it affirmed the right of any and all First Nations to freely pursue economic development by their own chosen means, a view that goes well beyond the familiar, racist shackles of mere subsistence or moderate livelihood.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to smoke out the potential ramifications of this mammoth, 440-page judgement—a ruling (spoiler) Canada appealed days after our recording—Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) and Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC.)

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CREDITS: 'Forest Heartbeat' by malictusmusic (CC BY); our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. Edited by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas and Rick Harp.

This week: controversy at the Congress. The National Congress of American Indians, that is. And according to its website, NCAI is "the oldest, largest, and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization serving the broad interests of tribal governments and communities." A little too representative, claim critics, who allege entities are permitted if not encouraged to join the Congress as tribes with insufficient claims to being tribes.

The core concern: recognition. Not just how, but by whom. A concern which came to a head last month at NCAI's 80th annual convention, when a pair of resolutions pushed to restrict full membership rights to federally-recognized tribes, thereby limiting state-recognized tribes to non-voting associate membership. But is federal recognition the be-all and end-all of what makes a tribe truly tribal? Isn't outsourcing who you are to outsiders itself oppressive? And why would the approval of a colonial country hellbent on your destruction be of help to anyone?

Leading host/producer Rick Harp and Ken Williams (University of Alberta department of drama associate professor) through the nitty-gritty of this divisive debate is fellow MI regular Kim TallBear (U of A Faculty of Native Studies professor).

100% Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100% audience funded. Learn how you can support our work to keep our content free for all to access.

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. Edited by Rick Harp and Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas.