On this episode, we celebrate Indigenous people breaking barriers and healing nations through the power of language and art.

Brothers Hjalmer Wenstob and Timmy Masso are making Nuu-chah-nulth art in the midst of a pandemic to offer strength to their community and mark a significant moment in history. They recently shared an original song in a youtube video as a gift to all nations.

Tantoo Cardinal is one of the most recognizable Indigenous actors in Canada and recently received the Governor General’s lifetime artistic achievement award for her wide ranging work on the small and big screens. As a nod to her journey, we revisit a conversation she had with Rosanna Deerchild in 2018 in which she describes her absolute commitment to sticking with a career in the performing arts, even when she was one of the only Indigenous women in the room.

Rassi Nashalik is a brand new inductee to the CBC News Hall of Fame - the first Inuk and Indigenous person to be recognized. We celebrate her many accomplishments, including her self-taught beginnings as a journalist and her skillful ability as a news host to translate English scripts into Inuktitut — live and in real time — for her audience.

The term "two-spirit" has only been around for about 30 years, but it's an identity with ancient roots. This week on Unreserved, meet Indigenous people who are walking the two-spirit path with pride and reclaiming their place in cultural and community circles.

Anishinaabe elder Myra Laramee was gifted the words "two-spirit" in a dream in 1990. She took these words to an annual gathering of Indigenous LGBTQ people, who adopted the term.

Alex Wilson is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and is a professor in the college of education at the University of Saskatchewan. She has devoted her career to understanding two-spirit identity, how it's rooted in the land and how "coming in" (as opposed to coming out) is a uniquely Indigenous experience.

Chantal Fiola and Nicki Ferland are a two-spirit Métis couple living in Winnipeg. They tell the story of their traditional Midewiwin wedding ceremony.

Joshua Whitehead's debut novel Jonny Appleseed won Canada Reads 2021. The two-spirit/Indigiqueer writer from Peguis First Nation is representing two-spirit characters in his writing as real, honest and whole. In doing so, he's paving the way for the next generation of two-spirit people to accept — and love — who they are.

Host Rosanna Deerchild speaks with Tomson Highway, a world-renowned Cree playwright, novelist, and concert pianist, about his new memoir Permanent Astonishment, which just won the 2021 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction worth $60,000.

These Inuit leaders from across Inuit Nunangat bring different experiences of language, geography and time spent on the ice, but they're coming together with one particular shared understanding — the disproportionate effect of climate change on their communities.

Indigenous knowledge is more than beads, drums and sweetgrass — it's also science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). You'll hear from Anishinaabe landscape architect, David Thomas; Wolastoqey language app-developer Diego Bear and Wolastoqey Elder Imelda Mary Perley who narrated all the words and phrases on the app; and Bryan Bellefeuille, an Ojibwe educator who teaches Indigenous math.

This week on Unreserved, Indigenous women who are telling their own stories on big and small screens and breaking barriers for other Indigenous storytellers.

Jennifer Podemski took the long way to success in her TV, film and theatre career. Now she wants to make the path easier for others by producing Indigenous-led shows. Her latest TV show, Unsettled, was shot on Nipissing First Nation in northern Ontario and debuted this September on APTN.

And Sherry Mckay didn’t let failure get in the way of her media dream. She simply changed the medium to become a social media star. Mckay goes by the nickname Nish Bish on TikTok. Her following on the video-sharing app sits at more than 490,000 and her biggest video has 12 million views. As an Anishinaabe comedian and influencer, Mckay uses the platform to educate and inspire, and to show the world that Indigenous people are so much more than stereotypes.

Grab your helmet and your water bottle, Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild takes you on a bike tour through Winnipeg to explore how Indigenous people are using public art to restore their stories.

This legislation — originally passed in 1878 — governs everything on Reserves, from the current band structure to the creation of residential schools. Bob Joseph, author of 21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act, walks you through its continuing impact and you’ll meet First Nation people who are challenging what it means to be a status Indian.

This week on Unreserved, stories about Indigenous people who are guarding their culture, taking back their history, transforming their cityscapes, and breaking barriers in health care.

Join Rosanna Deerchild for a revealing, poignant and emotional conversation with Murray Sinclair, former Senator and Lead Commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In this intimate, hour-long interview ⁠— recorded in his backyard gazebo ⁠— they discuss reconciliation: how far we’ve come, how far we have left to go and who is responsible for taking the journey.

Find out what kept him going during the TRC and what reconciliation looks like to him.