Our season-ender is all about Discord: no, not some disagreement or friction somewhere, but Discord the digital platform, one which lets creators connect more directly and responsively with their audiences, free of all the ickiness of sites operated by huge social media corporations. A platform we’ll soon adapt and adopt as part of our podcast! And not only do we introduce you to the exciting world of Discord and a bit of how we plan to deploy it, you’ll also get to meet the person behind it: Courteney Morin, a new member of the MEDIA INDIGENA team thanks to our new partnership with the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing, & Media. More specifically, its Global Journalism Innovation Lab, a project supported in part by funding from SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is ‘nesting’ by birocratic. Other music featured this episode: 'Up & At Em' by James Hammond.

Summer is back and so is MEDIA INDIGENA's Summer Series, our compendia of conversations collected and connected from over the past six years, coming up on 300 episodes of the podcast. Our first two shows of the summer are all about belonging, a subject neither dull nor academic for Indigenous peoples. After all, the Canadian state has worked so very hard to break the bonds that bind us. 
 
Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance):

• Pam Palmater, Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the author of Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity

• Paul Seeseequasis, writer/journalist behind the Indigenous Archival Photo Project

• Damien Lee, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University and Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence

• Kim TallBear, Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment

• Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC

• Taté Walker, award-winning Two Spirit storyteller

• Cutcha Risling Baldy, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt

// CREDITS: Creative Commons music this episode includes “Kite Fly High” by Adeline Yeo (HP), “Tree of Tears” by Kevin Hartnell, “Ronin” by EXETEXE, and “Acrylic on Canvas” by Audionautix. Our opening theme is “Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain; our closing theme is “Garden Tiger” by Pictures of the Floating World. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.

For our eleventh 'MINI' INDIGENA of the season, we try something a little different this time ‘round: a face-to-face-to-face discussion recorded Friday, June 24 in Winnipeg! Joining host/producer Rick Harp this episode are MI regular Kim TallBear (University of Alberta professor in the Faculty of Native Studies) plus special guest Tasha Hubbard (Associate Professor, U of A Faculty of Native Studies, writer and filmmaker), as they discuss:

• a recent poll which claims “millions” of Canadians believe in 'White Replacement Theory'

• the struggle to stay focused, present and attentive against the constant pull of our digital devices

• how ribbon skirts have apparently become mandatory for women

• monthly Patreon podcast supporter Veronica asks what we think of the B.C. government suspending a $789 million rebuild of the Royal B.C. Museum after First Nations complained it's failed to repatriate items from its collection.

>> CREDITS: Co-edited by host/producer Rick Harp and Courteney Morin, this episode featured the tracks ‘Bahn Song,’ ‘What,’ and ‘Tic Tac’ by PCxTC (CC BY 4.0).

THIS WEEK: Return to Restoule—the back half of our conversation about the Restoule case, the litigation some say has advanced a re-consideration and re-interpretation of the 1850 Robinson treaties.

In part one (ep. 291), we discussed the principle behind the treaties' unique annuity clause: an annual payment by the Crown to the Anishnabek Nation that would only rise as resource revenues did. An economic treaty right that bakes in a fair share of an expanding pie made with entirely Indigenous ingredients. A right the Crown’s refused to respect for decades, loss after loss in court has now brought them to the negotiating table, a possibly telling indication of what they think the Supreme Court of Canada will do with their request to appeal.

And as the Court weighs that request, the Anishinabek side weighs their options for what the principle of a fair share might look like in practice, including how to remedy its breach. Options host/producer Rick Harp explores with the help of our returning guests Christina Gray and Hayden King, two of the driving forces behind the Yellowhead Institute report, “Treaty Interpretation in the Age of Restoule,” co-produced with JFK Law.

// CREDITS: Our intro/extro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

Our tenth 'MINI' INDIGENA of the season runs the gamut as usual, with MEDIA INDIGENA regulars Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama) and Kim TallBear (U of A professor in the Faculty of Native Studies) joining host/producer Rick Harp Saturday, June 11 via the Callin app to discuss...

• Riffing off “an African sense of western gender discourses” (as detailed in the book The Invention of Women by Oyeronke Oyewumi), Kim wants to know what Rick and Ken’s dating dealbreakers are;

• Ken delves into the story of Cree/Métis scholar Réal Carrière, who told CBC he was rejected for a job by higher-ups at the University of Saskatchewan—despite the wishes of a mostly Indigenous hiring committee—due to a lack of documentation;

• Boardgaming nerd Rick shares news sent his way about Ezhishin, the “first-ever conference on Native North American typography” set for this November;

• monthly Patreon podcast supporter Mark asks us to discuss Bill 96, the new Quebec language law which will effectively require English-schooled students “of Kanien’kehá:ka, Cree, Inuit and Algonquin ancestry … to master two colonial languages to attain a college degree”

This week: Billions in back rent? A pair of treaties covering a territory roughly the size of France are at the heart of a legal fight for a fair share of its resource revenues. Known as the 1850 Robinson Treaties, together they span the north shores of both Lake Huron and Lake Superior, ancestral homelands of the Anishnabek Nation. A Nation forced to sue settler governments over a special section of these treaties, known as an annuity 'augmentation' clause—a yearly payment that’s supposed to grow in step with the staggering amount of wealth extracted annually from Anishnabek lands.

And, while the Crown’s failure to honour its end of the bargain may not come as a surprise, what might is the success so far of Anishinaabe litigation, blazing a path that may have only one place left to go—the Supreme Court of Canada. How did we get here? Where might this all lead? And, just how do you make good on a debt amassed over some fifteen decades?

The kind of mind-boggling, multi-million-dollar questions very much on the mind of our friends at the Yellowhead Institute, thoroughly explored in their new special report, Treaty Implementation in the Age of Restoule, co-produced with JFK Law.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp this week for the first in a two-part discussion about the report: Christina Gray (Ts’msyen and Dene Research Fellow at the Yellowhead Institute and Associate at JFK Law, among the legal counsel taking part in the Restoule case's third stage) plus Hayden King (Anishinaabe from Beausoleil First Nation on Gchi’mnissing, executive director of Yellowhead at Toronto Metropolitan University).

>> CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

This week, it's another 'MINI' INDIGENA, where we pack in sizzling-hot takes on a flurry of items via social audio. Joining host/producer Rick Harp on Friday, May 20 via the Callin app were MI regulars Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama) and Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College) as they discussed:

• Might more and more settlers in Australia be finally taking climate change a tad more seriously now that it's made some of their homes effectively uninsurable?

• Did mainstream media really just victim-blame a gunned-down Métis hunter?

• How a Reuters / Globe and Mail article ("Indigenous Canadians [sic] make a painful plea on eve of British royal visit") triggered many of Trina's pet peeves about reportage on Indigenous peoples;

• monthly Patreon podcast supporter Courtney asks: "Should local First Nations hold approval/veto power over urban planning and land use decisions on their traditional territories?"

>> CREDITS: 'Blueprint' by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0); ‘In Shadows’ by William Ross Chernoff's Nomads (CC-BY); ‘Feeling Like A Delicate Cookie’ by Captive Portal (CC BY-SA 4.0)

For our eighth 'MINI' INDIGENA of the season, MI regular Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) and special guest January Rogers (Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, author, and media producer from Six Nations of the Grand River) join host/producer Rick Harp via the Callin app to discuss:

i) Jacqueline Keeler’s recent piece, “Striking Down Roe v. Wade Leaves Native Women and Girls Even More Vulnerable”;

ii) why the time may be right for a Mister Indian World competition;

iii) how the pro sports team that brought us the ‘Tomahawk Chop’ took it upon themselves to add their voice to National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day;

iv) intersections between forced sterilization and criminalizing abortion

>> CREDITS: 'Microship' by CavalloPazzo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Gift or grift? When it comes to the spoils of colonialism, perhaps none have been more spoiled than the Hudson’s Bay Company. A 17th century creature of empire which drove a global fur trade, HBC would go on to make itself synonymous with Canada, blanketed in the country’s foundational myths. Along the way, exploiting and extracting all it could from Indigenous lands, waters and peoples. These days, such nationalist nostalgia has taken a bit of a hit, it seems; so too, The Bay’s days of department store dominance. Which may help explain the company’s recent embrace of a novel way to launder its reputation: by handing over one of its most iconic buildings to a First Nations organization. But can this present make up for its past? Will this ultimate fixer-upper help renovate the Relationship—or just expose the gargantuan cracks in its foundations?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to construct an answer to these questions and more are roundtable regular Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, along with special guest Adele Perry, Distinguished Professor of History and the Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

Another week, another 'MINI' INDIGENA (our seventh of the season), where host/producer Rick Harp is joined by yet another pairing of APTN National News alumni, Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism, University of King’s College) and special guest Tim Fontaine (Editor-in-Grand-Chief of Walking Eagle News) as they all discuss:

i) how a brutal editorial cartoon out of Simcoe County, Ontario about the Pope’s so-called 'apology' regarding residential schools has itself prompted not one but two apologies

ii) whether anyone's got a decent working definition of decolonization

iii) whether 'Reconciliation' is on the brink, if not outright over the edge, of becoming little more than a catch-phrase for Canadians

iv) the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe's use of ancient DNA to try and support its claim for federal recognition by the U.S. government

// CREDITS: 'Make Love' and 'Everything You Ever Dreamed' by Holizna; 'Clouds' by Lucien Kemper x Fachhochschule Dortmund

For our sixth-ever 'MINI' INDIGENA, host/producer Rick Harp is joined by roundtable regulars—and fellow APTN National News alumni—Ken Williams (assistant professor, University of Alberta’s department of drama) and Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism, University of King’s College) to discuss:

i) how some in Maine fear tribes potentially regaining some measure of sovereignty means they'll ‘flex their muscle’ on environmental, fish and wildlife, and economic development;

ii) whether the recent haul of hardware by Indigenous creatives at the Canadian Screen Awards means we can now get rid of special ‘Indigenous’ categories;

iii) how rampant and illegal poaching threatens wild white sage in California;

iv) whether those who toppled the controversial ‘Gassy Jack’ statue in downtown Vancouver were out of line for not first checking with regional Indigenous people

>> CREDITS: 'Blueprint' by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0); ‘In Shadows’ by William Ross Chernoff's Nomads (CC-BY); ‘Feeling Like A Delicate Cookie’ by Captive Portal (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Hardly a day goes by it seems without news of some ‘revolutionary’ A.I.-driven tool ushering in a brave new world. Less said is who’ll be left out or left behind. Which is why, when it comes to Indigenous content, some fear much of artificial intelligence remains superficial ignorance. But can ‘The Cloud’ incorporate culture? Can we Indigenize as we digitize? And can the digital be made relational?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to tangle with these tricky, trippy questions and more are Kim TallBear, professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, and Trina Roache, Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

On our latest 'MINI INDIGENA,' special guest Michael Redhead Champagne (Ininew helper, host, speaker & author) joins roundtable regulars Kim TallBear (University of Alberta Native Studies professor) and host/producer Rick Harp to discuss:

i) Is it only propaganda when others do it? The blocking of RT (Russia Today) in some Western countries;

ii) How Ukrainian land defenders get to be brave and heroic to Canadian media yet Indigenous defenders don’t;

iii) Helper, organizer, advocate, rebel—a look at the roles we each can play in movement-building;

iv) A sneak peek of We Need Everyone, Michael's forthcoming book that seeks to “empowers kids to find their gifts & use them to strengthen community.”

>> CREDITS: 'Absorb' by James Hammond (CC BY-SA 3.0)

How should we speak of safety in society? How ought we to understand and manage the origins of risk? And in doing so, where might we position police’s role in producing either? Depending on who you talk to, “experiences may vary.” Now a new report out of Atlantic Canada’s largest urban centre proposes much less of a role for police in the larger justice equation—in some respects, no role at all. Prepared for no less than the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners, the report puts meat on the bones of the contentious concept of defunding.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp this week: activist, artist and scholar El Jones, Assistant Professor of Political and Canadian Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, and one of the lead authors of Defunding the Police: Defining the Way Forward for HRM [Halifax Regional Municipality]. Also at the table this episode, Trina Roache, the Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

This week: the occupation of Ottawa. And as truckers and others continue to crash Canada's capital and beyond, it’s striking (if not surprising) to watch how these protests have been handled—or not—providing a stark contrast to the often paramilitarized approach taken to Indigenous-led direct actions. Remember the outcry over critical infrastructure, said to be under siege by extremist Indian insurgents? Perspective is everything it seems, and amidst multiple cities' ongoing troubles with truckers, our Indigenous roundtable shares theirs.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp this week are Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama) and Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta), a conversation we recorded the afternoon of February 8, 2022.

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

On our fourth-ever 'MINI INDIGENA,' the quick + quippy edition of the podcast, special guest Q. Anthony Omene (cultural and political commentator with the Rezistans Nwa media network) joins roundtable regulars Kim TallBear (University of Alberta Native Studies professor) and host/producer Rick Harp to discuss:

i) the politics, optics and ethics of citing those who have "fallen from grace";

ii) the increasingly odd directions taken with land or territorial acknowledgments in the U.S.;

iii) the political/historical notes struck by the new Disney series "The Book of Boba Fett";

iv) Q's follow-up reaction to our latest deep dive, "U.S.A. R.I.P.?"

>> CREDITS: 'Microship' by CavalloPazzo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How would you write a eulogy for the United States? Oh, you didn’t realize it was on death’s door? Guess you didn’t read the Globe and Mail over the holidays, when it published no less than six opinion pieces postulating no less than an imminent U.S. civil war. A civil war most agreed Canada needs to plan for. But is this really the twilight’s last gleaming for U.S. Empire? Would American apocalypse trigger Canadian cataclysm?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to flesh out these fretful settler scenarios and what they might (or might not) imply for Indigenous interests on both sides of the border are Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama and Kim TallBear, U of A professor in the Faculty of Native Studies and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment.

// CREDITS: ​​​​"A quiet action sequence," by Sami Hiltunen; our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

This week: the racket of Reconciliation. It’s been some six years since the TRC issued its final report, complete with 94 Calls to Action. Has Canada listened? How would we know? Well, a couple of years ago we spoke to a couple of scholars who took on precisely those questions, generating a kind of ‘report card’ on Reconciliation. And suffice it to say, Canada didn’t do so hot back in 2019. Did they up their game in 2021?

To find out, host/producer Rick Harp has reconvened Reconciliation reckoners Eva Jewell (Research Director at Yellowhead Institute, and Assistant Professor of Sociology at X University) and Ian Mosby, (Assistant Professor of History at X University) to hear their insights into what keeps that needle barely moving, and why they worry survivors’ pain is now a new profit centre for settlers.

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

Displeasure Island. So distressed is an Ontario cottage owner that Indians could regain a significant say over some nearby islands in Georgian Bay, he’s somehow convinced his human rights are under attack.

Ridiculous, right? Not to The Sudbury Star, a regional rag which not only took this settler shitshow seriously, it signal boosted their manifesto. An online screed warning readers that, once thousands of islands worth hundreds of millions of dollars are given to natives with "no connection to these islands," thousands of non-native boaters, kayakers, canoers and vacationers "will no longer be able to access thousands of kilometers of shoreline."

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to interrogate this property rights propaganda and its call to circle the wagons on the water are roundtable regulars Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) and Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama).

// CREDITS: "Wavestate-Unheil-4" by Endzeiter; our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. SFX: "Native Shaker 01.wav" by Sandyrb

In this latest “rapid roundtable” on multiple topics via Clubhouse, Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) and Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) join host/producer Rick Harp to discuss: the postponement of an Indigenous papal visit due to Omicron; how to support those reeling personally and professionally due to their defraudment by pretendians; the University of Saskatchewan formally asks a Métis political organization to vet the identity of applicants for Métis-specific jobs at the U of S; and their thoughts on the most recent MEDIA INDIGENA deep dive, "Trust, Truth and Treaties."

>> CREDITS: 'Microship' by CavalloPazzo (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On this week’s Indigenous round table: the gulf in understanding between settlers and First Nations people over treaties. A gap recently reinforced by none other than CBC Kids, the junior wing of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, after it hosted a 'debate' about whether Indigenous peoples should even get land back. A debate it grounded in the myth that treaties were all about First Nations losing their lands and rights.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to discuss the persistence and perils of such noxious notions—iffy ideas internalized by kids of all ages—are roundtable regular Ken Williams and special guest Sheldon Krasowski, author of No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous, who also serves as the director of research at the Office of the Treaty Commissioner in Saskatchewan, and adjunct faculty in Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.'

As long-time listeners know well, this isn’t the first time our podcast has looked at long-standing Wet’suwet’en efforts to block outside incursions into their territory. Indeed, last August’s double episode, 'Resource Resistance,' situated their struggle at its core. This time ‘round, we invite on a new perspective regarding recent events on the ground as well as the bigger political and economic picture.

A lawyer from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, Kris Statnyk works exclusively with Indigenous peoples, practicing in the area of Aboriginal law. He shares his thoughts on this latest paramilitary raid on Wet’suweten land protectors—the RCMP's third in roughly three years—as well as his eyewitness account of solidarity actions in neighbouring Gitxsan territory.

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

Our second crack at a “rapid round” of shorter conversations on multiple topics recorded via Clubhouse includes discussions on... whether '#LandBack' has been drained of its radical potential after an Indian Affairs minister's apparently unironic use of the term; how some people "Indian Up" their appearance for non-Indigenous audiences; and the retreat of Alton Gas from its Shubenacadie River project.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp are Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) and Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College).

>> CREDITS: 'Microship' by CavalloPazzo (CC BY-SA 4.0) 

When it comes to advancing Indigenous causes, is making settlers 'feel bad' a winning strategy? At least one settler pundit says 'no,' and he’s rounded up some Indigenous people who seem to agree with him.

At issue: the apparent cultural war on Thanksgiving, where bad attitudes toward the cherished holiday have spilled across the U.S./Canada border like so much rancid gravy. And as the time of year nears for Americans to feel supremely thankful, leave it to some Indian ingrates to try and spoil the party!

Or at least, so says one Postmedia columnist with an axe to grind and a column to fill. In a moment, we’ll subject this settler polemic to some good ol' fashioned line-by-line media critique, carving it open like an overcooked turkey with no thanks given.

Joining host/producer Rick Harp at the 'table this week are regulars Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment) and Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College).

// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

CBC News has recently reported that a number of women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against an Ontario medicine man. Although allegations are not the same as charges or convictions, the stories the women have shared are reminiscent of an all-too-familiar scenario: the kind of stories we’ve all heard whispered about certain healers, spiritualists or elders—individuals you ought not be alone with. Needless to say, it’s a perverse inversion of the roles and responsibilities such healers are supposed to embody and exemplify. The real question is how do they persist? How, despite the open secret of such misconduct, is it all too often met with silence?

Joining host/producer Rick Harp to try to speak to those questions and more, plus hopefully nudge the conversation forward about what prevention might look like, are roundtable regulars Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) and Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama).

// CREDITS: Our opening/closing theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.