THE ROAD TO YOUR NAME / Yoha:te ne kahsen:na
Episode 10 — Shayde Sandy:  Portraiture, and the Metrolinx Bus Wrap
This episode was recorded in November 2025

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode of The Road to Your Name, host Lisa VanEvery sits down with Shayde Sandy, a Haudenosaunee multidisciplinary artist from Six Nations of the Grand River who specializes in oil portraits. Shayde shares her journey from painting at her grandmother's kitchen table to earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at Queen's University, and how she found her signature medium and subject: oil portraits centering on her family and community. The conversation traces her creative evolution from acrylics to oils, her thesis portrait of her grandfather, and the moment her work — a piece from her Intergenerational Love series featuring her grandfather, brother, and cousin — was selected to wrap a Metrolinx GO bus for National Indigenous History Month. Shayde and Lisa also talk about the artists who've shaped her practice, the realities of building an art business as a young Indigenous artist, and what community encouragement means to her along the way.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- Growing up surrounded by art — Shayde's grandmother's early encouragement and her father's work as a soapstone carver
- The path from Brantford Collegiate Institute to Queen's University's Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) program
- Learning printmaking techniques (silkscreen, intaglio, lithography) and why oil painting became her medium of choice
- Her process: photo references, projector sketches, blocking in color, and layering detail
- Painting as therapy, and working through long stretches of solitary studio time
- The thesis portrait of her grandfather that became part of her ongoing Intergenerational Love series
- Designing the Metrolinx GO bus wrap — the first Indigenous-designed bus wrap for National Indigenous History Month
- Public exhibitions at Casa Loma, the Runway of Resilience, and an upcoming group exhibition, Spirit of the Lake, at Crawford Lake
- Artistic influences: Kent Monkman, Kehinde Wiley, and subway-portrait artist Devon Rodriguez
- Building an online presence and using social media to document her process and reach an audience
- The business side of being a working artist — commissions, grants, merchandise, and the path toward a website
- Advice for young Indigenous artists starting out, and the role of community encouragement

GUEST BIO

Shayde Sandy is a contemporary Haudenosaunee artist from Six Nations of the Grand River, specializing in oil portraiture. She graduated from Queen's University in 2023 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), majoring in Visual Art and minoring in Film.  Her grandmother, Lois Porter, was her first art teacher, and she grew up surrounded by artistic relatives, including her father, noted soapstone carver Ryan Sandy.

Shayde's art is largely about her life and experience on the reserve, a focus that developed while she was studying at Queen's. Her ongoing series, Intergenerational Love, highlights the love within her community, and features members of her own family. In 2025, Metrolinx selected Shayde to design the first Indigenous GO bus wrap as part of its National Indigenous History Month celebrations; the wrap is based on a 2022 painting from that series and will remain in circulation across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area for one year.

Shayde's work has been exhibited at venues including Martin Luther University College, Queen's University, FirstOntario Arts Centre, Woodland Cultural Centre, Hamilton Artists Inc., Lynnwood Arts, Casa Loma, the Canadian National Exhibition, the Government of Ontario Art Collection, and Crawford Lake. She has also been featured in Queen's Women in Leadership Magazine, in APTN's social media coverage of Indigenous History Month, and in Seeing Red Media's "Reflecting Authentic Indigenous Representation" campaign. Her work appears in the Yellowhead Institute's report Twenty-Five Years of Gladue, and she illustrated the cover for the book Dream Visitors by Barbara Miller.

You can find Shayde's work on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok under Shayde Sandy Art
Website:  www.shaydesandyart.ca
 

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Aboriginal Legal Services — www.aboriginallegal.ca
- Road to Your Name program (Aboriginal Legal Services)
- Shayde Sandy Art — Instagram / Facebook / TikTok
- Metrolinx GO bus wrap (National Indigenous History Month)
- Intergenerational Love (Shayde Sandy's ongoing portrait series)
- Spirit of the Lake — upcoming group exhibition at Crawford Lake
- Casa Loma, Toronto — Runway of Resilience event
- Kent Monkman — artist referenced as an influence
- Kehinde Wiley — artist referenced as an influence
- Devon Rodriguez — subway/street portrait artist referenced as an influence
- Edward Curtis - photographer discussed for "stoic Indian" portraiture style
- Kyle Joedicke — muralist, Shayde's cousin
- Ryan Sandy — soapstone carver, Shayde's father

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Produced by Aboriginal Legal Services with technical assistance from True Seed Media.
Hosted by Lisa VanEvery (Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan).

Road to Your Name
Season 8, Episode 9
Guest:  Steve Johnson — Vexed Instruments owner and Tattoo artist
This episode was recorded in December 2025

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode, Lisa talks with Steve Johnson (who goes by Steve Haven), owner of Vexed Instruments and a tattoo artist working out of Six Nations of the Grand River. Steve builds and repairs electric guitars and basses by hand, from sanding and finishing to wiring and engraving — and he's the kind of maker who notices when a part doesn't feel right and decides to build the better version himself.

What started with fixing his own guitar after a repair shop turned him down has grown into a full custom-build practice: roughly a dozen guitars built since the summer of 2024, a three-month turnaround for custom orders, and details what nobody else seems to be doing — including fretboard position markers inlaid with wampum shell. Steve also talks about his parallel life as a tattoo artist trained under Steve Hill (16 Aces) in Ohsweken, the ethics that guide who he will and won't tattoo, and the unexpected lessons learned from building a five-foot-long guitar.

This is a conversation about craft, patience, and what happens when you decide to just teach yourself the thing nobody else will do for you.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- How Steve got into guitar building: a repair shop turned down his guitar for not being "good enough" to work on, so he taught himself instead
- Starting with assembly before learning to build individual components from scratch, beginning in the summer of 2024
- The full process behind an electric guitar build: sanding, painting, clear coat finishing, and wiring
- "Vexed," the name Steve engraves into each headstock and fills with epoxy so it becomes a permanent part of the instrument, rather than using a simple slide decal
- Building guitars for musicians in the hardcore and metal scene, including his experience seeing one of his builds played live for the first time with the band Reality Denied
- Custom touches that set his work apart: oil-finished necks instead of clear paint for a stickier-resistant, sweat-resistant grip, and fretboard inlay dots made from wampum shell — something Steve says he's never seen done before
- "Mystery finish" builds, where a thin layer of black paint covers the true finish underneath, designed to be worn away gradually through play rather than artificially distressed before sale
- Building electric basses as well as guitars, drawing on his background as a bass major at Mohawk College
- A look at famous guitars in music history, including Jimi Hendrix's left-handed Stratocaster and Van Halen's iconic red, black, and white instrument
- The challenge and lessons learned from building a five-foot-long guitar, including entirely new approaches to internal wiring and cavity routing
- Steve's process for learning the craft: deep self-study, online research, and following the tutorial videos of a luthier he credits with passing on hands-on, practical knowledge
- NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants) as a potential venue for connecting with other builders and the wider music products industry
- Steve's parallel path as a tattoo artist: training under Steve Hill (tattoo name "16 Aces") of Ohsweken, starting his apprenticeship right as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020
- His tattoo style, rooted in American traditional with his own illustrative, mischievous twist
- The ethics Steve applies before tattooing someone, including conversations about placement, life circumstances, and his firm rule against tattooing anyone under the influence
- Tattoo trends he's observed, including blackout tattoos and the realities of laser tattoo removal, which he's experienced firsthand
- Steve's hope to eventually combine both crafts — offering a tattoo alongside a custom guitar build or repair
- Where to find Vexed Instruments and Steve's work online

GUEST

Steve Johnson (Steve Haven) — Guitar and bass builder and repair specialist, owner of Vexed Instruments, based on Fifth Line at Six Nations of the Grand River. Bass major, Mohawk College. Also a tattoo artist trained under Steve Hill ("16 Aces") of Ohsweken.

Instagram: @vexedharshface

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Vexed Instruments — Instagram: @vexedharshface
- 16 Aces Tattoo (Steve Hill), Ohsweken
- NAMM — National Association of Music Merchants
- Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
- Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
- Facebook: Road to Your Name

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Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nia:wen for listening.

Road to Your Name
Season 8, Episode 8
Guest:  Jesse Brant of Sapling & Flint — From Firefighter to Goldsmith/Slilversmith
This episode was recorded in December 2025

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode, Lisa visits with Jesse Brant, co-owner of Sapling & Flint, a jewelry business rooted in Six Nations of the Grand River. Jesse — known professionally as Yonenyà:kenht, meaning "transparent stone," after the Herkimer diamonds that grow in the Mohawk Valley — is a trained goldsmith who specializes in Herkimer diamond and wampum jewelry, working alongside her twin sister and business partner Dakota Brant.

Jesse's path here wasn't a straight line. She wasn't an art student in high school. She competed at Miss Indian World as a teenager. She spent seventeen years as a firefighter, including five as a platoon captain, all while building Sapling & Flint on the side until the business outgrew the side. What started as a couple of sisters selling their work at powwow tables in 2015 has become a jewelry manufacturer with a storefront in Ohswé:ken's Iroquois Village Plaza and customers ordering from around the world.

This conversation covers the craft itself — wampum cutting, gold and sterling silver work, lab-grown diamonds and the ethics of sourcing — as well as Jesse's hopes for building a silversmithing community at Six Nations, and a goal she's not shy about naming out loud: a future collaboration with a major luxury house.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- How Jesse, a self-described non-artist who took science and math in high school, ended up enrolling in the jewelry arts and design program at George Brown College — at her late mother Terry Lynn Brant's suggestion
- Competing in Miss Indian World in Albuquerque as a teenager, representing Six Nations, and how the experience pushed her toward beadwork for the first time
- Getting into George Brown's competitive program with only a handful of self-made beadwork pieces to show in her interview
- Studying Kanien'kéha at Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa for two years after finishing her jewelry diploma
- Her parallel career as a Six Nations firefighter for seventeen years, including five years as a platoon captain
- How the pandemic — and the arrival of her two children — pushed Sapling & Flint from a side project into a full-time business, as online orders kept coming even while the physical world shut down
- Learning lapidary and wampum-cutting skills informally, including time spent in mentor Audrey Maracle's basement workshop before Jesse could afford her own equipment
- The 2017 opening of the Sapling & Flint storefront in the Iroquois Village Plaza in Ohswé:ken, a space that once housed Shawana Jewelry
- Why the sisters named the business Sapling and Flint, drawing on the older Mohawk creation story names for the Creator and his twin brother — a fitting echo, since Jesse and Dakota are twins themselves
- The division of labor that makes the partnership work: Jesse focused on making, Dakota on the business and marketing side, including targeted promotions timed to lacrosse games for the Creator's Game collection
- A tour through Sapling & Flint's collections: the Creator's Game (lacrosse sticks), Haudenosaunee Traditions (Five Nations belt designs), Four-Legged Leaders (deer, moose, and caribou antler pendants), Trade Silver, and the birch bark–inspired Karhá:kon collection
- Working primarily in sterling silver and in 10K and 18K gold for wedding rings, with custom engagement ring designs developed in collaboration with a CAD designer based in Los Angeles
- Jesse's reasoning for choosing Canadian, green-energy lab-grown diamonds over mined stones, and her frank take on why "conflict-free" natural diamond marketing doesn't hold up — including the history of First Nations communities displaced by diamond mining companies
- Teaching the next generation: summer students, a nephew currently learning the trade, and Jesse's hope to formalize community workshops into something like a silversmithing society or gathering — one she'd like to see include other Iroquoian nations' silversmiths as well
- Naming Six Nations silversmithing legends and mentors, including Floating Canoe, Anthony Green, Larry McKenzie, and Audrey Maracle
- How the sisters incorporate Kanien'kéha words directly into their collection names and product descriptions as a mark of authenticity
- Jesse's biggest goal for the brand: a collaboration with a major international luxury house like Tiffany's
- Where to find Sapling & Flint's work and Jesse's own behind-the-scenes content

GUEST

Jesse Brant (Yonenyà:kenht) — Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, Six Nations of the Grand River. Co-owner of Sapling & Flint. Trained goldsmith with a Diploma in Jewellery Methodology from George Brown College. Specializes in Herkimer diamond and wampum jewelry, learned through both formal training and mentorship from local wampum cutters and silversmiths. Former Six Nations firefighter and platoon captain (17 years). Member of the Canadian Jewellers Association. Co-recipient, with her twin sister Dakota Brant, of the 2022 Young Aboriginal Entrepreneur Award.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Sapling & Flint — saplingandflint.ca
- Sapling & Flint storefront — Iroquois Village Plaza, Chiefswood Road, Ohswé:ken
- Instagram: @saplingandflint (business) and Jesse Brant Jeweller, "Behind the Benchpin" (Jesse's personal content)
- TikTok and Facebook: @saplingandflint
- George Brown College — Jewellery Arts and Design program, Toronto
- Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa — Mohawk language immersion program
- Canadian Jewellers Association
- Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
- Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
- Facebook: Road to Your Name

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Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nia:wen for listening.

Road to Your Name 
Season 8, Episode 7
Guest:  Kelsey Powless - From Scroll Saw to Six Figures of Followers
This episode was recorded in December 2025.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

What does it take to walk away from a stable career to build something you actually love? For Kelsey Powless of Powless & Co., it started with a night market, a 3D sign she couldn't stop thinking about, and a Christmas present she had to talk her parents into.

Kelsey is a Haudenosaunee woodworker and artist from Six Nations of the Grand River. She's known for her intricate wooden mosaics — one-of-a-kind pieces that have found their way into the University of Utah, McMaster University, Cadbury's head office, and now the Royal Botanical Gardens. She has over 150,000 followers on Instagram and has shipped her work to customers across Canada, the US, and as far as England.

But four years ago, she was a 27-year-old programs and services manager climbing the ladder at her local employment agency, making good money and feeling miserable. It took her three-year-old son putting his hand on her face and asking, "Are you okay, Mama?" to make her finally ask herself the same question.

This episode is about what happens when you stop asking "why me?" and start asking "why not me?"

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- How Kelsey discovered scroll sawing at a Christmas night market in 2018 — and spent the next two weeks obsessing over a machine she'd never touched

- Growing up a "serial hobbyist" — beading, knitting, sewing, crocheting, baking — and why the scroll saw was the first thing that ever truly stuck

- Rising to programs and services manager at 27, one position below the CEO, and realizing she was anxious every single day going to work

- The moment her three-year-old son Dax grabbed her face during Paw Patrol and asked if she was okay — and why that was the turning point

- Reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne at an off-grid cottage in Mattachewan and having what she calls her "life epiphany"

- The difference between "why me?" and "why not me?" — and the mindset shift that made quitting feel possible

- How her grandmother and great-grandmother were bootleggers and entrepreneurs, and realizing she came from a long line of women who made their own way

- The terror of printing her resignation letter, standing in the hallway, and choosing to walk across the hall

- Going home to her mom's dinner night that same Tuesday, sobbing, and hearing her mom say "I am so proud of you"

- Waking up at 4 AM the next morning and thinking about texting her boss "just kidding"

- Why telling her team the real reason she was leaving was the moment the fog lifted and the decision became real

- Her partner's skepticism — and how she convinced him to give her one year

- The Six Nations community supporting her from day one, and what it means to walk into the bank or Chiefswood Park and say "I made that"

- Investing everything back into her business in year two — including a $20,000 laser she didn't know how to pay for until a huge school commission came through

- Building her own shop and the two-day window between moving in and the laser arriving

- How a chance conversation with strangers at the computer store — all of them talking about a friend who died before reaching retirement — reaffirmed she'd made the right call

- How wooden mosaics became her signature work: no two the same, the final result a surprise even to her, equal parts puzzle and painting

- Commissioned pieces for the University of Utah, Cadbury, McMaster University, and organizations in Washington and Idaho

- How a tool company sent her a $15,000 SawStop table saw in exchange for tutorials — the last item on her manifestation list

- Teaching high school students to use a scroll saw and wooden mosaics, and the joy of bringing a female perspective into the shop

- Learning to call herself an artist — and what it took to say it with confidence

- Her ornament line: over 900 sold, shipped as far as England, designed to get her art into people's hands at an accessible price point including Goldyn Mini Mo', Dawn Mini Mo', Sky Mini Mo' and Midnight Mini Mo'.

- Her artist-in-residence exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens (February–April 2026): four custom mosaics exploring goldyn, dawn, midnight, and sky — two named after her sister Skylar Dawn

GUEST

Kelsey Powless — Haudenosaunee woodworker, scroll saw artist, and wooden mosaic creator from Six Nations of the Grand River. Founder of Powless & Co.

Instagram: @powlessandco
Facebook: Powless and co
TikTok: @powlessandco
Website (custom orders): powlessandco.ca

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
- The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
- Royal Botanical Gardens artist-in-residence exhibit, February–April 2026
- Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
- Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
- Facebook: Road to Your Name

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Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nya:węh for listening.

Yoha:te ne kahsen:na / The Road to Your Name
Season 8, Episode 6
Guest: Warren Hill, Professional Lacrosse Goaltender and Education Mentor
This episode was recorded in November 2025

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode of Yoha:te ne kahsen:na, The Road to Your Name, host Lisa VanEvery sits down with Warren Hill — professional lacrosse goaltender for the Halifax Thunderbirds and Student Mentor at the Ogwehoweh Skills & Trades Training Centre (OSTTC) in Six Nations — for a conversation about the game that shapes so much of life at Six Nations, and about the work he does helping students find their own path. Warren traces his lacrosse journey from picking up a stick "as soon as he could walk" through a lacrosse family, to playing at The Hill Academy, Onondaga Community College, and Syracuse University, to turning pro in 2016 and becoming one of the top goaltenders in the National Lacrosse League. He talks about what it takes to play the position, how the game has grown internationally, the deep cultural significance and craft of the traditional wooden lacrosse stick, and what it means to carry the responsibility of the Haudenosaunee origins of the game onto the world stage. The conversation then turns to Warren's "nine-to-fiver" as a student mentor, where he draws on his own difficult first experience with post-secondary education to help students at OSTTC — many balancing school with work, family, and other life circumstances — find support, community, and a path to their goals.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- Growing up in a lacrosse family at Six Nations and picking up the game before he could walk
- The path from The Hill Academy to Onondaga Community College to Syracuse University, and turning professional in 2016
- Finding his way into goaltending as a kid, and what makes a great goaltender ("80% mental, 20% physical")
- The maturity and life skills that professional lacrosse demands, on and off the floor
- Playing for the Georgia Swarm, Rochester Knighthawks, and the Halifax Thunderbirds
- The rapid global growth of lacrosse and its path toward the Olympics
- Sharing the Haudenosaunee origins and values of the game with international teams
- The craft, cost, and cultural significance of traditional wooden lacrosse sticks, and the stick makers who keep the tradition alive
- Raising the next generation — his two sons — around the game
- His work as a Student Mentor at the Ogwehoweh Skills & Trades Training Centre (OSTTC), helping students navigate the challenges of post-secondary life
- Infusing culture, community, and support into OSTTC's programming
- Balancing life as a professional athlete and a full-time community mentor

GUEST BIO

Warren Hill is a professional lacrosse goaltender from Six Nations of the Grand River, currently playing for the Halifax Thunderbirds of the National Lacrosse League. Drafted by the Georgia Swarm in 2016 after playing at The Hill Academy, Onondaga Community College, and Syracuse University, Hill has developed into one of the premier goaltenders in the league, previously leading the NLL in save percentage and ranking among the Thunderbirds' all-time saves leaders. He has also represented the Haudenosaunee Nationals internationally, including winning a bronze medal at the U19 FIL World Lacrosse Championship, and has won multiple Mann Cup national championships with the Six Nations Chiefs. Off the floor, Warren is a Student Mentor at the Ogwehoweh Skills & Trades Training Centre (OSTTC) in Six Nations, where he supports students — many navigating the transition to post-secondary education — with the kind of guidance and understanding he wishes he'd had during his own first, difficult experience at McMaster University. He is a father of two sons who are already following in his lacrosse footsteps.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Halifax Thunderbirds (National Lacrosse League)
- Ogwehoweh Skills & Trades Training Centre (OSTTC), Six Nations
- Six Nations Chiefs (Senior "A" lacrosse) — Mann Cup champions
- Haudenosaunee Nationals / Iroquois Nationals
- Syracuse University Orange lacrosse
- Aboriginal Legal Services — www.aboriginallegal.ca

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Road To Your Name
Season 8, Episode 5
Guest:  Don Lynch, author and member of the Six Nations Genealogy Society and the Six Nations Library Board
This episode was recorded in December 2025.

It’s All in the Dash — Genealogy, Family Stories, and the Anderson Legacy with Don Lynch

Episode Description

In this episode, Lisa sits down with Don Lynch, a member of the Ohsweken Genealogical Society and chair of the Six Nations Public Library Board, for a warm and wide-ranging conversation about family history, oral tradition, and why it matters to document the stories before they’re gone.

Don brings a collector’s instinct and a storyteller’s heart to genealogy. He’s less interested in names and dates than in “the dash” between them — the real lives people lived. And his own family turns out to be a remarkable thread through Indigenous history: his great-aunt Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture was the first Indigenous woman to become a registered nurse in Canada and the first Indigenous woman from Canada to serve in the United States military during the First World War. His uncle Arnold Anderson was a chemical engineer on the Manhattan Project and a founding member — and first executive director — of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES).

From a grandmother who got her name because an uncle forgot what she was supposed to be called, to a grandfather who became a teacher after being injured by a jealous co-worker, to two Anderson brothers — one with a wooden leg, one with a glass eye — Don’s family stories are a reminder that every family has this kind of richness waiting to be found. This episode is an invitation to go looking.

What We Talk About

• The Ohsweken Genealogical Society — who comes to meetings, what happens there, and how people with nothing but a name can walk out with a thread to pull on
• Don’s philosophy: it’s not the birth date or death date that matters — it’s the dash in between
• How Don’s family became Andersons — tracing back to a mysterious adoption from the Tuscarora Reserve in New York State
• His mother, who graduated from McMaster University in 1935 as the first Indigenous woman to do so, and the scholarship named in her honor
• His Uncle Arnold — chemical engineer on the Manhattan Project and founding member and first executive director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), with a scholarship now named after him
• His great-aunt Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture, the first Indigenous woman to become a registered nurse in Canada, who had to train in the United States because of the Indian Act, and went on to serve in France during World War One
• How a workplace injury turned Don’s grandfather from a farm laborer into a teacher — and how that accident changed the course of an entire family’s educational legacy
• The story of Mohawk Joe and Delaware Joe: lifelong enemies with the same name, a near-fatal fight, a flight to the Panama Canal, and an unresolved feud
• How Don’s grandmother became “Minnie Essie” instead of Charlotte because an uncle forgot her name when he went to register her birth
• Using ancestry.ca through the Six Nations Public Library — free, in-person, and more useful than people realize
• The Mohawk Kinship Project at the Six Nations Library, which traces the mother’s line through large visual charts available by appointment
• DNA testing services: what they can and can’t do for Indigenous families, and why Don has reservations about submitting personal data
• How posting a single family photograph on the library website led to a California man hiring a detective, tracking down a relative he didn’t know existed, and reuniting a family across the border
• Practical advice on photographs: label them now, digitize old ones, print digital ones, and never lend an original
• Photo restoration tools Don uses — Topaz and HitPaw — and how to colorize old black and white images
• Why oral tradition makes it especially urgent for Indigenous families to write stories down — and how one missed generation can mean a story is lost forever

Notable Family Members Mentioned

Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (1890–1996) — Don’s great-aunt. Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk), Six Nations of the Grand River. The first Indigenous woman to become a registered nurse in Canada, the first Indigenous woman from Canada to serve in the United States military, and the first Indigenous woman to vote in a Canadian federal election. Barred from Canadian nursing schools by the Indian Act, she trained at the New Rochelle Nursing School in New York and graduated at the top of her class in 1914. She served as a surgical nurse at Base Hospital 23 in Vittel, France, during World War One. She returned to Six Nations and worked as a nurse and midwife on the reserve until 1955. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 105, the last surviving Six Nations WWI veteran. A street and park in Brantford, Ontario bear her name.

Arnold “A.T.” Anderson (1915–1983) — Don’s uncle. Six Nations. Chemical engineer at Union Carbide who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War Two, helping to process uranium-235 for the development of the atomic bomb. He held a chemistry degree from McMaster University. After the war, he received presidential commendations from Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter for his advisory work on Indigenous policy. In 1977, he co-founded the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) with six other Indigenous scientists and engineers and served as its first executive director. A scholarship in his name — the A.T. Anderson Memorial Scholarship — continues to support Indigenous students in STEM fields.

Guest

Don Lynch — Member of the Ohsweken Genealogical Society and Chair of the Six Nations Public Library Board. Author of the memoir The Metal Man, Drunken Pigeons, and Me (2022), available on Amazon.

Resources Mentioned

• Ohsweken Genealogical Society — meets the second Saturday of each month at Woodland Cultural Centre. Facebook: Ohsweken Genealogical Society
• Six Nations Public Library — free in-library access to ancestry.ca; home of the Mohawk Kinship Project (call ahead to view the kinship charts)
• The Metal Man, Drunken Pigeons, and Me by Don Lynch (2022) — available on Amazon
• Footpaths Through History by Penny Warner — the story of artist James Beaver
• CBC Marketplace DNA testing segment — search “Marketplace DNA test” on YouTube
• Photo restoration tools mentioned: Topaz, HitPaw
• ancestry.ca and 23andMe — discussed with context on their limitations for Indigenous research
• Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
• Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
• Facebook: Road to Your Name

Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nia:wen for listening.

Road To Your Name
Season 8, Episode 4
This episode was recorded in November 2025.
Guest:  Keris Hope Hill from Six Nations of the Grand River

Keris returns to the podcast (Season 4, Episode 8) and shares with us about her acting career and budding singing career.  She starred in the films Rosie (2022), Little Bird (2023) and Youngblood (2025) and talks about beginning her singing career with her first gig at Six Nations of the Grand River.
Keris shares about her love for 'old country' music and learning to play the guitar and read music.  She talks of movies she watches and her goals in acting when she gets older.

Keris will be performing at Paddlestock on July 19, 2026, 4-8 pm, located at Chiefswood Park, 1037 Brant County Hwy. 54, Ohsweken.  For more information, contact:  www.sixnationstourism.ca

Who Owns the Story? Copyright, Indigenous Knowledge, and AI with Dr. Jean Dryden

Road to Your Name | Season 8, Episode 3
This episode was recorded in November 2025.

Episode Description

Copyright affects every creator — and yet most people, Indigenous or not, don’t fully understand how it works or when it protects them. In this episode, Lisa sits down with Dr. Jean Dryden, an internationally recognized expert on copyright and archival material, for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with the basics and leads somewhere unexpected: the deep resonance between Indigenous communal knowledge and the unresolved questions AI is forcing copyright law to reckon with.

Dr. Dryden has spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of copyright law, libraries, and archives. She holds a Master of Laws degree specializing in intellectual property from Osgoode Hall Law School, has taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Maryland, and has represented the International Council on Archives at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. She is the author of Demystifying Copyright: A Researcher’s Guide to Copyright in Canadian Libraries and Archives.

The conversation covers how Canadian copyright law works, what it gets right and wrong for Indigenous creators, the gap between how copyright treats authorship and how Indigenous nations hold communal knowledge, and why AI is forcing everyone — lawyers, legislators, and creators alike — to grapple with questions that don’t yet have answers.

What We Talk About

• What copyright is — and why Dr. Dryden calls it “an ingenious but imperfect system” trying to balance creators’ rights against the public’s right to access and build on existing works
• A brief history of Canada’s Copyright Act, which dates to 1921 and has evolved through multiple amendments to keep pace with new technologies
• How social media changed the copyright landscape — and why Canada’s “user-generated content provision” (2012) was a practical response to the reality that policing every mashup and remix is impossible
• The three open copyright questions AI has created: whether AI-generated works are even protected by copyright, whether rights holders should be compensated for their work being used to train large language models, and who bears liability if infringement occurs
• Why courts — especially in the US — will likely shape copyright and AI policy before legislators do, and what Canada might learn from watching those cases unfold
• The brilliant connection Lisa makes: AI’s challenge to individual authorship parallels the challenge Indigenous communal knowledge has always posed to copyright law
• Why Canadian copyright law doesn’t accommodate communal ownership — and why the 70-year post-death expiry rule means most traditional stories and songs are technically in the public domain, even though Indigenous nations don’t see it that way
• Dr. Dryden’s argument that a separate, stand-alone law for Indigenous traditional knowledge — rather than trying to fit it into the existing Copyright Act — would be the better path forward
• Why such a law would need to account for more than economic value, including cultural and spiritual values, and different levels of access within communities
• What happens when an individual (Indigenous or non-Indigenous) asserts copyright over a traditional story or song — and the factors that determine whether anything comes of it
• Music sampling, industry guidelines, and how copyright enforcement evolves when monitoring every use is impractical
• How to protect your own creative work: copyright exists the moment a work is created, but registering with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (~$65) gives you a legal head start if challenged
• Why marking your work with the copyright symbol, your name, and the year is one of the simplest things any creator can do
• The “mailed envelope” trick — and why Dr. Dryden considers it copyright folklore
• How collective societies work as a middle layer between creators and users, making licensing more efficient for public performances of music
• How streaming platforms like Amazon Music compensate artists through negotiated licenses
• Recommended reading: Canadian Copyright: A Citizen’s Guide by Laura Murray and Samuel Trosow (2nd ed.) for a readable, user-friendly overview of the Copyright Act
• Dr. Dryden explains "public domain."

Guest

Dr. Jean Dryden — Internationally recognized expert on copyright and archival material. Dr. Dryden holds a Master of Laws degree specializing in intellectual property from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Taught at the University of Toronto’s iSchool and the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies. Represents the International Council on Archives (ICA) at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Copyright Committee in Geneva, and is a member of the ICA’s Expert Group on Legal Matters. As Chair of the Bureau of Canadian Archivists Copyright Committee, she played a lead role in lobbying for copyright exceptions that benefited libraries, archives, and museums in the 1997 amendments to the Copyright Act. Author of Demystifying Copyright: A Researcher’s Guide to Copyright in Canadian Libraries and Archives (2nd ed., Canadian Library Association, 2014). Fellow of the Association of Canadian Archivists.

Resources Mentioned

• Demystifying Copyright: A Researcher’s Guide to Copyright in Canadian Libraries and Archives by Jean Dryden (2nd ed., 2014) — out of print but available at some libraries
• Canadian Copyright: A Citizen’s Guide by Laura Murray and Samuel Trosow (2nd ed.) — readable overview recommended for creators and researchers
• Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) — where you can register your copyright (approx. $65); cipo.ic.gc.ca
• Canada’s Copyright Act — including the user-generated content provision (2012) and fair dealing provisions
• CBC Marketplace segment on DNA testing — referenced as an example of testing methodology (search “Marketplace DNA test” on YouTube)
• Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
• Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
• Facebook: Road to Your Name

Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nia:wen for listening.

Road To Your Name Podcast
Season 8, Episode 2
Guest:  R.G. Miller (Gary) (Kanyen'keha:ka, Mohawk), artist and residential school survivor
Note:  This episode contains content regarding residential school abuse.  Please make sure you have self-care supports in place for yourself should you need them.
This episode was recorded in November 2025 at the Mohawk Institute Residential School Museum
At the time, it was opening night of Gary's exhibition, Tsi Non:we Entewaha'hara'ne (Our Path Forward).
The exhibition has since moved on and will be a travelling exhibit.
NOTE:  This is noted to be R.G. Miller's final interview.  He went to the Skyworld on July 26, 2026.

In This Episode:

Gary shares with us about his experience at the residential school, The Mush Hole, where he went at the age of two.  He speaks about the challenges he faced after leaving there and how the experience affected him.
We talk about his exhibit, Tsi Non:we Entewaha'hara'ne and how painting his residential school experience came about.
Gary also discusses his art career and what's next for him.

Road to Your Name | Dr. David Milward — Indigenous Over-Incarceration, Restorative Justice, and the Long Road to Reform
This episode was recorded in October 2025.  Dr. Milward joins the podcast by telephone.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

In this episode, Lisa speaks with Dr. David Milward, associate professor of law at the University of Victoria and a member of the Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. Dr. Milward assisted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in authoring its final report on Indigenous justice issues, and is the author of several books on Indigenous justice, including Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice: A Search for Ways Forward and the newly released Indigenous Law and Canadian Criminal Justice, co-authored with Jonathan Rudin.

This conversation goes deep into the realities behind Canada's Indigenous over-incarceration crisis: what restorative justice actually looks like in practice, why it remains chronically underfunded, and how political rhetoric around "soft on crime" policy obscures both the data and the human stories behind it. Dr. Milward speaks candidly about his own path into this work, growing up in Indigenous urban communities in Edmonton and Calgary, the friends he lost along the way, and the racism he faced as a law student — including being told outright that he'd never become a lawyer unless he cut his hair.

This is a frank, deeply informed conversation about what genuine justice reform requires, and why the people doing this work keep showing up despite the frustration.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

- The behind-the-scenes process of contributing to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report on Indigenous justice, including the commission's early restructuring under Murray Sinclair and Willie Littlechild
- Working under law professor Ken Roach to develop the justice volume's research, and how the unused material eventually became the foundation for Dr. Milward's own books
- Growing up in Indigenous urban communities in Edmonton and Calgary, and the toll those years took on friends and peers — including loss to substance abuse, suicide, and ongoing incarceration
- How a residential school survivor mother and strict upbringing shaped Dr. Milward's path toward law school
- Racism faced during law school at the University of Alberta, including the assumption that Indigenous students were only admitted through DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) criteria, and a direct, escalating conflict over wearing his hair in a single braid
- Whether overt racism in legal education has shifted into microaggressions over the decades — and why claiming racism is a thing of the past comes from a position of privilege
- Indigenous Law and Canadian Criminal Justice, his newly released book co-authored with Jonathan Rudin, written specifically to reach undergraduate students in their formative university years
- Pushing back on "tough on crime" political rhetoric, including commentary from figures like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, and why those arguments rarely engage with the role of untreated mental illness or lack of access to health services
- The data behind restorative justice: it costs roughly $120,000 a year to incarcerate an Indigenous woman in a federal penitentiary, versus approximately $30,000 a year for probation or a conditional sentence
- Why political incentives — not evidence — often determine whether restorative justice gets funded, since politicians fear being labeled "soft on crime"
- A look at the Nordic countries' low-incarceration model as a counterexample to the assumption that less punitive justice systems lead to societal breakdown
- Research from retired University of Toronto criminologist Anthony Doob showing how public opinion on sentencing shifts dramatically once people are given specific cost and reoffending-rate data
- How a single high-profile failure gets weaponized in media coverage against restorative justice and Gladue-informed sentencing, while the many successful turnarounds rarely make headlines
- The JD/JID program at the University of Victoria, which teaches Indigenous legal orders such as Cree law, Anishinaabe law, and Gitxsan law alongside Canadian law — and the real-world resistance graduates still face when raising Indigenous legal principles in court
- Why current correctional security classifications rely heavily on past behavior despite literature showing dynamic factors — such as relationships with elders and present-day progress — are stronger predictors of future behavior, particularly for Indigenous people
- The chronic shortage of healing lodges, with only a small number currently serving Indigenous women nationwide, and the broader need for more Gladue report writers, Indigenous lawyers, and frontline harm reduction and counseling workers
- Dr. Milward's advice for young people entering frontline Indigenous justice and health work: patience, the inevitability of frustration and pushback, and finding sufficiency in knowing the work itself is good
- We need more Indigenous lawyers and Gladue Writers in the justice system
- If you are Indigenous and working in the justice system, you will experience frustration, but stick with it!

GUEST

Dr. David Milward — Associate Professor of Law, University of Victoria, and Director of the JD/JID (Joint Indigenous Degree) program. Member of the Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation, Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. BA (History), University of Calgary; LLB and LLM, University of Alberta; D.Phil., University of British Columbia. Assisted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada with its final report on Indigenous justice issues. Author of Aboriginal Justice and the Charter: Realizing a Culturally Sensitive Interpretation of Legal Rights (UBC Press, 2012), co-winner of the K.D. Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing; The Art of Science in the Canadian Justice System (with the late Dr. Charles Ferguson); Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice: A Search for Ways Forward (Fernwood Press, 2022); and Indigenous Law and Canadian Criminal Justice (Emond, 2025), co-authored with Jonathan Rudin. Co-author of the widely used Gladue Handbook with Allard Hall Professor Debra Parkes.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

- Indigenous Law and Canadian Criminal Justice by David Milward and Jonathan Rudin (Emond, 2025)
- Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice: A Search for Ways Forward by David Milward (Fernwood Press, 2022)
- Aboriginal Justice and the Charter by David Milward (UBC Press, 2012)
- The Gladue Handbook, co-authored by David Milward and Debra Parkes
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada — Final Report (Justice volume)
- Anthony Doob's public opinion research on sentencing, University of Toronto (retired)
- Aboriginal Legal Services — aboriginallegal.ca
- Support the show: click Donate at the top of the ALS homepage
- Facebook: Road to Your Name

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Road to Your Name is produced by Aboriginal Legal Services and hosted by Lisa VanEvery, Mohawk Nation, Wolf Clan. Recorded on Haudenosaunee territory with technical assistance from True Seed Media. Nia:wen for listening.