Teachings In The Air

Welcome back to Teaching In The Air podcast with your host Gerry Oldman! We're so very happy to present this first episode of Season 2 of Teachings In The Air!

In our first episode of this second season, we listen to Gerry talk about the origins of his life's work, stemming from the challenges he faced as a young man struggling to recover from trauma, abuse, and addictions. Gerry's story is many of our stories, and it has a lot to teach many of us as we struggle to come to grips with our own attitudes, behaviours, and challenges in the face of continued hardships.

There are many lessons for us to glean from this episode. As Gerry says, "you can't say goodbye to your problems until you say hello to them!" For Gerry, the first step was recognizing in and for himself that he had problems to deal with. As we listen to his story, we find out that the problems Gerry had to deal with were manageable, and could be overcome with some work, support from the people around him, and love from the Elders and ancestors; we are reminded that 'culture is healing.' In 1976, Gerry began promoting this idea that culture is a critical key in healing the legacies of trauma in so many of our Indigenous communities and still promotes this idea today.

We can all find our way through hard times if we want change. Let's do something, let's work together to fix what's been broken.

Remember to follow us on social media; we're on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - and if you like the podcast, send us some feedback! Like, repost, retweet and mention us when you share the show! We want to hear from you, so let us know what you think about our shows. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Indigenous Families, Relationships and Parenting with Colby Tootoosis

On this episode of the podcast, we catch up with new father Colby Tootoosis of Poundmaker Cree Nation. We wanted to talk to Colby about relationships, parenting as a new dad, and how he and his partner Andrea are transforming legacies of historical trauma into what they call 'uncontrollable love' for one another and for their new baby daughter.

We shared stories.

Colby introduced us to himself, and to the work he's been cultivating in his community over the course of his younger life. He talks about developing an awareness of our trauma in order to develop strategies for healing ourselves. We discuss lessons about parenting coming from our parents, and from our new family members, about a range of issues like expressing our emotions with our children. We unpack lessons from Colby's female relatives over the course of his life, and talk about the impacts that their teachings have had on him. We talk about working on the balance between the masculine and feminine within each one of us, and acknowledging our teachers.

We explored lots of issues, but this conversation can be characterized by one of the questions Gerry had for Colby: what are the core issues facing Indigenous families in North America today?

According to Colby it has something to do with attempted genocide, colonialism, colonial belief systems and paradigms of "how we engage and how we connect to children."

Colby told us about what it was like to welcome his daughter into the community he and his partner live in while still coming to terms with grief over loss in their families. He was very generous with his reflections and his ideas, and opened up about some very deep issues and for that, we are grateful. We are very excited to share this conversation with you.

"From the 10+ years of experience in working in the front lines of communities and organizations in the areas of crisis response, suicide prevention/intervention, grief and recovery, life skills programming, individual and group counselling, family support services, and with a back ground in evolving systems using new conscious systems principles and approaches in the area of leadership; my passion remains strong in working for social transformation with people and community!" - Colby Tootoosis

To find out more about the work Colby does, you can find him at his website: http://www.colbytootoosis.com

Addictions & Wellness with Paul Andrew

"Happiness is a very strong medicine."

This week on the show, we share a conversation we recorded back in early August with Paul Andrew from Tulíta, in the Sahtú Region of Denendeh. We talk about addictions, community challenges such as pain, loss, grief and depression, and healing rooted in the teachings of Elders and Ancestors. We discuss the connections between addictions and grief, and discover uplifting similarities in our cultural teachings around health and wellness.

Paul shares what he says would be comparative to the Ten Commandments from his culture, the Three Commandments his Elders have left him to share. Gerry tells a story in which he was told the answer to a question about why our communities are struggling with addictions today. The Elders, speaking through an interpreter, said to Gerry, “Tell him we know why we’re like this.”

We talk about living in solutions, and processing loss. We are very excited to share this conversation and these teachings with you. Due to some initial technical difficulties with our software tools, we needed to get creative and so we recorded this conversation from inside Gerry’s vehicle parked outside of his home, with his phone plugged into the hands-free! We did our best with the audio, but you may notice this a little in the recording.

Paul Andrew was born along the Twitya River in the Mackenzie Mountains across from Tulít’a, NT. He was raised in the Sahtú Region of Treaty 11 Territory, growing up on the land in the Mackenzie Mountains across from Tulít’a before spending seven years attending residential school as a young man. After many years in residential school, Paul is a student of Dene history, including but not limited to connection to the environment, Dene understandings of cosmology, pharmacology, ecology and Indigenous spirituality.

Paul became Chief of Tulita at the age of 22, the year before the Berger Inquiry heard testimony from across the Mackenzie Valley with regards to a proposed pipeline construction project. Paul worked as a broadcaster for CBC for 30 years before retiring in 2012. While at CBC, Paul covered all the biggest Northern stories of the age. After hosting On the Trapline, Focus North and Northbeat, he launched the multi-language phone-in show Ehts'ula. He's also known as a singer-songwriter, performing in his regional dialect of the Slavey language. Paul also served as the Vice President of the Dene Nation.

In 2012, Paul was appointed to chair the NWT Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness, a committee which was created to facilitate a community-engaged action plan meant to advance healing and wellness across the Northwest Territories. The committee worked to make recommendations to the department of Health and Social Services based on feedback from hearings in communities across the NWT.

In May of 2017, Paul was awarded the Order of the Northwest Territories. The Order of the Northwest Territories, established in 2013 by the Territorial Emblems and Honours Act, recognizes individuals who have served with the greatest distinction and excelled in any field of endeavour benefiting the people of the NWT or elsewhere. It is the highest honour awarded to NWT residents.

These days, Paul composes and performs songs in his first language: Mountain Dene, part of the North Slavey language. He visits the Mackenzie Mountains regularly to never forget ehts’ula.

https://vimeo.com/76167675

Our Way(s) of Life ft. Heebz the Earthchild

This week on the show, we’re talking about Our Way(s) of Life with Travis Hebert, also known as Heebz the Earthchild, who is one half of Indigenous hip-hop group Mob Bounce.

We wanted to talk about what culture means to Travis, so we caught up with him in July 2017 at UBC Studios on Unceded Musqueam Territory in Vancouver, BC. We wanted to explore the harmful impacts colonialism has and continues to have on Indigenous men, and to hear about what we can do with our cultures to call our brothers to pursue healthy ways of living. We talk about Mob Bounce’s use of culture and the role that music and art play in advancing healing for the people. We discuss our ability to heal by freeing ourselves from the traps and pitfalls of colonial thinking, and then Travis drops an *exclusive* freestyle in the studio for us, expanding on his own personal teachings and the lessons which have inspired him to create the music he and Craig Edes, also known as The Northwest Kid, continue to perform across Canada.

Mob Bounce is a Hip Hop duo that formed in the later half of 2010 with the release of their, “Mixed Blood Mixtape.” Before the mixtape release, Travis Adrian Hebert and Craig Frank Edes had been writing & recording music since 2004. Craig is Gitxsan and Travis is Cree/Metis. The two Aboriginal artists have exceptional experience in playing guitar and drums, and have blended their musicianship with elements of Electronic Dance Music (E.D.M.), and Hip Hop production; they incorporate aspects of a Cultural identity with an Artistic identity by experimenting with free toning(Chanting), and a Cultural soundscape influenced by sounds of Nature.

Since the release of “Mix Blood Mixtape”, Mob Bounce has focused heavily on creating social and environmental awareness through the arts. They have done their share of anti-pipeline events and a series of shows at Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival that is organized through W2 Media Arts Society in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mob Bounce spent the summer of 2014 performing at various Music Festivals and events including Aboriginal Music Week in Winnipeg, MB. Combined, they have shared the stage with; A Tribe Called Red, DJ Itchy Ron of Sweatshop Union, Git Hayetsk: “People of the Copper Shield”, We Are The City, The Born Ruffians, Filastine, Cris Derkson, Swollen Members, Leonard Sumner, Tall Paul, and other established artists.

Mob Bounce’s lyrical content is based on culture, spirituality, sustainable living, healing, Mother Earth and awakening a warrior spirit, since it is a warrior who sacrifices themselves for the better of others.

To listen to more of Mob Bounce’s music, you can check out their Soundcloud page at the link below:

https://soundcloud.com/mob-bounce

I Want To Live.

In this episode of Teachings In The Air, we talk to award-winning filmmaker and We Matter co-founder Kelvin Redvers about his journey to wellness, and what inspired him to start We Matter with his sister Tunchai. Kelvin recently dropped by our office in Vancouver, BC and we were fortunate enough to hear some stories and insights from his work in spreading hope to Indigenous youth across Canada.

Kelvin Redvers is an award-winning writer, producer and film director who belongs to the Deniniu K’ue First Nation. Kelvin grew up in Hay River, Northwest Territories and now calls Vancouver home. His work covers both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal topics as well as First Nations community and aboriginal current affairs.

In October 2016, Kelvin and his sister Tunchai launched 'We Matter', a national online campaign designed to bring awareness to the struggles of Indigenous youth across Canada. It is modelled after Dan Savage's 'It Gets Better' campaign and collects videos and writings from each Indigenous community across Canada with the aim of reducing the number of indigenous teen suicides, while also providing them with mental health resources.

We Matter is a multi-media campaign in which Indigenous role models and allies submit art, written and video messages sharing their own experiences of overcoming hardships, and communicating with Indigenous youth that no matter how hopeless life can feel, there is always a way forward. Since launching in October 2016, the We Matter Campaign has reached millions of people on social media and continues to be an ever-growing library of positivity and hope. Kelvin and his sister mail the We Matter videos on USB drives to Indigenous communities across Canada who do not have internet access, and if you have some positive messages of support and encouragement for our Indigenous youth, you can even submit a video yourself!

We had a great time catching up with Kelvin, and we hope you enjoy the episode. To find out more about We Matter, visit their website at:

http://wematter.org

Season 1 Episode 1

The Fit Nation Episode

October 02, 2017

In this first episode of Teachings In The Air, we talk to the I·SPARC FitNation team about the benefits of being physically active. We had a chance to catch up with FitNation at their first Spring Leaders Training in Richmond, BC back in April. During our visit, we recorded interviews and learned about the connections between physical fitness and mental health - and how easy it is to get started. One of the key features of the FitNation program is that anyone can do it - and you don't even need a gym!

The Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity & Recreation Council (BC) is committed to inspiring Indigenous people in BC to Move, Play and Compete.

I·SPARC was established as a collaborative community health and social development initiative of the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, First Nations Health Council and the Métis Nation BC. I·SPARC, through the sum of its actions, will create responsive and enduring sport, recreation and physical activity programs for Indigenous people across BC, which will result in healthier, more active individuals, families and communities.

On the show, we interview the following FitNation leaders:

Robynne Edgar is the Director of Healthy Living for ISPARC - we had a chance to speak with her to find out more about FitNation and other Healthy Living programs.

Dwayne Roberts is a Nike Sparq trainer, he met the ISPARC team at the N7 summit in Portland and worked closely with ISPARC to create FitNation.

Michelle Webster became a FitNation leader in 2014 and has never looked back. As the inventor of the famous FitNation freeze tag, Michelle continues to inspire youth in community as the regional coordinator for the Interior for ISPARC, and she's also acted as the head coach for the North American Indigenous Games girls softball team at the 2014 and 2017 NAIG.

Daniel Young-Mercer was originally trained as a FitNation leader back in 2013 for his community and now serves as the Provincial Coordinator of Physical Activity, Training and Development for ISPARC.