Mi'kmaq Matters

This week, King's College journalism student and Mi'kmaq Matters intern Rachael Dyal speaks with Eskasoni rapper Gearl about his new album, From The Ground Up, his songwriting process, and music as a form of therapy. You can listen to From The Ground Up on Spotify and Soundcloud.https://open.spotify.com/album/7F11xXJYIMLsMwVmcswDkV?si=600-k05TQp6-l9EnyrFysA

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Marathon Gold has turned in a new version of its environmental impact statement for the largest gold mine in Atlantic Canada to be built on the most ecologically sensitive land on the island of Newfoundland. While some of the additions are positive, natural resources expert Brian McLaren says the risk for vulnerable caribou is still high.

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After Indian Act chiefs intervened with the province, hunting licences for non-status Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia were taken away. Now, the Native Council of Nova Scotia has scored an important legal win in the battle to reinstate them. This week, we speak with Lorraine Augustine, Chief of the Native Council of Nova Scotia.

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Proposed gold mines would be located on last undisturbed wilderness in Nova Scotia, areas important to residents of Millbrook First Nation for food gathering and traditional use. This week, we speak with reporter Joan Baxter, who has been covering the story for the Halifax Examiner.

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We measure carbon emissions, but how do we value the loss of traditional territory to copper, cobalt, and lithium mines?This week, we speak with engineer Jennifer Dunn, who is working with the Ojibwe on an evaluation that takes the impact on Indigenous people and land into account.

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The desperate search for materials for electric vehicles and alternative fuel sources sends mineral exploration companies to Indigenous territory across Turtle Island, including Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland).

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With regular supply chains disrupted by the pandemic, recreational drug users looking for opiates often end up with synthetic drugs that are far more powerful than what they're used to, and run they risk of accidental overdose. There are precautions that users, friends, and family can take to avoid tragedy. This week, we speak with Jessica Rex, the harm reduction manager for the Safe Works Access Program in Corner Brook.

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Indigenous people across our territories are asserting rights provided for in the Peace and Friendship Treaties, most recently in New Brunswick, where the Welostoqey have filed a land claim covering 60 percent of the province. For Qalipu, however, the outgoing council ran up the white flag of defeat without a fight. Will the new council, which has its first regular council meeting on January 22, take a more Mi'kmaw stance?

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Mi'kmaq are written out of the tourism narrative of Newfoundland and Labrador in favour of quaint and quirky people and events sanitized of their historic reality. Case in point: mummering, that charming Christmas-season dress-up. But in the 1800s, mummers' parades were marked by drinking, violence, and sectarian clashes between a Catholic underclass and Protestant-dominated elite. This week, we speak with folklorist Joy Fraser about the history of mummering.

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In New Brunswick, provincial governments handed over unceded lands to forestry companies that were not theirs to give. Now, Wolastoqey are trying to right a historic wrong. This week, we speak with their lawyers: Renée Pelletier and Senwung Luk of OKT LLP.

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