Unsettled: Journeys in Truth and Conciliation

Nicole Weatherly's deep connection to the art and genius of her brother, his challenges and his unique essence underpin the space for change she's created under the banner Superstar X.

Cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee talk with Nicole about what makes her and her website tick, on the eve of Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the launch of Love 2024, a multiplatform, weeks-long extravaganza.

Subtitled An (un)Learning Summit for Truth & (re)Conciliation, Love 2024 kicks off on September 30, connecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous people through art shows, truth talks and Superstar X Magazine. The festival of ideas, words and imagery promotes healing and actionable steps to reciprocity across Turtle Island.

Jessica, George and Nicole discuss:

• Nicole's journey from the small town of Czar, Alberta, to the big-city lights of Toronto, Ontario
• the tricky distinctions and pratfalls of so-called allyship—along with the tricky distinctions and pratfalls of discovering and sharing your ancestral identity
• why and how Superstar X connects to her brother, Edward, and others who fall outside mainstream labels
• how art breaks down barriers to reach into our souls, revealing and personalizing universal truths
• personal motivations for social change
• the adoption and use of information technology as a force for good within and beyond Indigenous communities.
• and much more.

Superstar X Website
https://www.superstarx.xyz/

Love 2024 Registration
https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/love-2024-3583239

Kevin Peeace Art
https://www.kevinpeeace.com/

Ma-Nee Chacaby Art
https://www.superstarx.xyz/artists/ma-nee-chacaby

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Deborah Curran's passion for the environment flows through her psyche and the work she does as a lawyer, an academic and a consultant.

"If you met me in my 15-year-old self and drew a line, it would be pretty straight to where I am today," says Curran, a professor with the Faculty of Law and the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria.

Jessica, George and Deborah discuss:

• the inherent limitations of colonial law in addressing Indigenous and environmental issues
• how some Indigenous communities are putting an outward-looking face on their internal legal orders
• the pressure, expectations and workloads placed on Indigenous leaders
• the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• the growing role of Indigenous awareness training in Canada's professions
• the work and purpose of UVic's Indigenous Law Research Unit and student-led Environmental Law Centre
• and much more.

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About 10 years ago, a stranger unwittingly revealed facts about Tom Wilson's adoption, pointing the singer and guitarist with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings towards life-changing truths about his identity.
His origins had been hidden from him for more than five decades, even though a sense of not belonging and a recurring dream had made him suspect things were not exactly as they appeared.
Growing up in Hamilton, he'd come to think of himself as "a big, puffy, sweaty Irish guy, when I'm actually a pretty big Mohawk guy," Wilson tells cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee.
 "Now I can continue in my life, knowing the blood that runs through me, and that only strengthens my intent creatively," says Wilson, a member of the Kahnawake Mohawk Nation in Quebec.  "My job now is to bring the Mohawk culture into the light, to battle whatever way I can, artistically or with my voice, or through  standing as a land defender, or through starting an Indigenous scholarship, which I did at McMaster—all those ways are fighting colonialism."
Find out more about Wilson, his thoughts on Canada, colonialism and identity, and his way of living a Mohawk life in this episode of Unsettled: Journeys in Truth & Conciliation.

The Tom Wilson Indigenous Bursary in Honour of Bunny Wilson
https://tomwilsononline.com/scholarship/
Beautiful Scars: Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the Road Home
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/531052/beautiful-scars-by-tom-wilson/9780385685672
Beautiful Scars TVO Documentary
https://www.tvo.org/video/documentaries/beautiful-scars
The Art of Tom Wilson
https://tomwilsononline.com/art/
Kahnawake Mohawk Nation
http://www.kahnawake.com/
Thunder Bay Podcast
https://www.canadaland.com/shows/thunder-bay/
Thunder Bay on Crave
https://www.crave.ca/en/tv-shows/thunder-bay

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When your ancestors speak to you, you should probably listen. And in Mike Bern's case, that means using his talent and voice to honour them, his culture, and the loved ones he's lost.

The folk rocker from Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick released the album Ancestors earlier this year, with the single no words for goodbye reaching number one on the Indigenous Music Countdown.

Cohosts Jessica and George talk to Mike about his current and past musical focus, his culture, the importance of incorporating his native language in his songs, and much more.

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Renowned Blackfoot educator Ramona Big Head talks about overdoses and other tragedies, the ripple effect of residential school abuses through generations and families, and hope.
Recent deaths in her community and family "knocked me off my feet," she tells cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee. "I think I'm still processing the magnitude of these losses. And it's still happening."
Among her tools for healing are prayer, ceremony, physical exercise, humour, empathy, and spending time with her grandchildren.
"I'm such an optimist," Ramona says. "I honestly believe that this generation of kids. . .they could be the first generation of our people that absolutely, 100 per cent stay away from drugs or alcohol. Why? Because they see immediately, you take that drug, you die."

Warning: suicide, sexual abuse, and substance abuse are discussed in this episode.

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Rooted in her own story of domestic abuse, Kristi Lane Sinclair's album Super Blood Wolf Moon oozes strength, perseverance, pain, and vulnerability. The award-winning Haida-Cree singer-songwriter has released a searing, deeply personal, and profound collection of songs, at once driving and anthemic, wispy and gentle, angsty and orchestral.

"I didn't want to write this," says Kristi. "It was the last thing I wanted to do at that point, to share my story. But just going through it, I had this knowledge. I'm part of this secret club now. . .I just thought I'd extend that. If you know you know. They'll get what I'm talking about, and I'll not really help but just hang out and make someone feel not quite so alone."

Cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee also talk with Kristi about:

• the healing power of creativity, women, community, family, ancestors, dogs (especially one named Murphy Brown) and nature
• the need for non-Indigenous Canadians to stand against racism and for justice, side-by-side with their Indigenous neighbours
• Kristi's film and TV work
• the making of a song that features the late Inuit singer Kelly Fraser and the supporting video that features Haida women and family in traditional and ancestral roles
• film-making and TV work
• and much, much more.

Under fair dealing provisions of Canada's Copyright Act, we used recordings of several songs from Super Blood Wolf Moon in the production of this episode. If you'd like hear more, download Kristi's music wherever you get your music. You can also find out more about her and her music on her website:
www.kristilanesinclair.ca.

To watch the official music video of Break, feat. Kelly Fraser, check out Kristi's YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/NkNN2o94O-s?si=nfqOOk-GTcEteTnn

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In our Season 3 finale, Jessica and George look back, look ahead, and look around.

Their discussion of  how the podcast has affected them and others—and where it might go from here—touches on many of the truth and conciliation challenges Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians continue to face.

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For musician and luthier Kevin John of Kaslo, B.C., delving into his Indigenous roots is an important part of his own unfolding story. But it's not everything.

The full story, he says, is about who the rest of us are, too, and what we can do individually and collectively to make Canada and the world a better place.

Kevin—the writer and performer of the podcast's theme music—talks about reconnecting with his Kyuquot/Checleseht First Nations family, finding his own reason for being, and the need for peoples reconnected by technology to start heeding the teachings of their elders and spiritual leaders.

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Her heart told her she needed to connect her work to helping others and making a difference. Calgarian Diana Frost's dreamscape looked after the rest, giving her a fully formed outline for what her future as a social entrepreneur would look like.

"I needed to do something I cared about, in order to justify the effort and time," she remembers. "And one morning, in the spring of 2016, I woke up suddenly and I remembered my dream, which was a very unusual thing for me: I never remember my dreams.

"And I rushed into the living room and I said, 'John (my husband), I'm going to publish a series of colouring books. And I'm going to work with elders and artists from different nations, and we're going to share stories and teachings and beautiful artwork and we're going to help people to connect.'

"And John looked at me and he was stunned, because how do you go from engineering to book publishing? But it just seemed to fit; it just seemed right, you know?"

Visit the Colouring It Forward website at https://colouringitforward.com/

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Are the very constructs of English a barrier on Canada's path to becoming a nation of nations?

Cohosts Jessica Vandenberghe and George Lee talk about words—how they serve us, how they fail us, and how they reflect and unlock our identities.

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