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.
On our first-ever “rapid round” of shorter conversations on multiple topics (recorded via the social audio app Clubhouse), we discuss: provinces that won't make Orange Shirt Day a holiday; the stripping of a residential school advocate’s name from various Edmonton locations; and what happens on Twitter when an Israel state official tweets in support of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Joining host/producer Rick Harp on this inaugural audio experiment: 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)
>> CREDITS: 'Microship' by CavalloPazzo (CC BY-SA 4.0)