MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

On this week's Indigenous roundtable: high-tech treaty rights. According to Māori in New Zealand, their treaty rights don't just extend to resources of the land and sea, they also include a fair share of the radio spectrum known as 3G, 4G and (soon) 5G, that set of telecommunication frequencies our wireless devices depend on. But the reception from the Settler state so far has been anything but gr...

THIS WEEK: A headdress head scratcher. What exactly did the premier of Alberta — a province hell-bent on hydrocarbon exploitation, come what may — do to deserve the honour of a Blackfoot headdress? Then again, could it be that, as non-Blackfoot, it's none of our goddam business? So what do we make of those Blackfoot who do seem to hate the idea? Joining host/producer Rick Harp at the roundtable th...

This week, a battle over boundaries in the state of Utah. We discuss the simmering split in San Juan County, where a majority Indigenous population now has an Indigenous majority representing it on the region's top decision making body. And while some celebrate this new democratic era for the county, others agitate for its division. Back at the roundtable this week are Candis Callison, Visiting Pr...

Back from our brief hiatus, this week's show speaks frankly about why the Liberal government's proposed Indigenous Languages Act is mostly notable for what it doesn't say. Joining us this week is special return guest Lorena Fontaine , Indigenous academic lead and associate professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg. // Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

This week... Another BC battlefront: Why Wet'suwet'en resistance to the Coastal Gas Link pipeline project is—and isn't—so complicated to understand. Revitalizing MEDIA INDIGENA: Why us taking a break after 147 consecutive weeks is the best guarantee of many more episodes to come. L earn more on our website . Joining us for this special episode—recorded as a livestream with our supporters on Patreo...

This week, the second installment in our two-part conversation with Darrel McLeod, author of Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age. Winner of the 2018 Governor-General's award for non-fiction, Mamaskatch has been lauded for its raw, revealing portrait of McLeod's early years. Covering just over three decades, the book's proven inspiring to many who have faced similar hardships. That includes host Rick...

This week, we present part one of our two-part conversation with Darrel McLeod, whose memoir recently won this year's Governor-General's award for non-fiction. Also joining host/producer Rick Harp for this special edition of the roundtable: Rick's mom, Jane Glennon (née McCallum). According to the jury that awarded McLeod the $25,000 prize, " MAMASKATCH: A Cree Coming of Age dares to immerse reade...

Policing the police: A new review of Thunder Bay law enforcement finds the quality of their investigations so flawed many need to be re-opened; Fighting fakery: How a BC media outlet is trying to tackle inauthentic 'Indigenous' art;  Off track : Why is Mexico's new president pushing for a railroad no one seems to want, least of all indigenous peoples whose lands would be threatened by it? Joining...

This week, we share two presentations delivered on day two of the International Symposium on Indigenous Communities and Climate Change, hosted this December 6th and 7th by Princeton University in New Jersey. Part of a line-up featuring nine speakers in all, we share talks by MEDIA INDIGENA roundtablers Candis Callison ("Communal Lives and Climate Change: Convening spaces for Indigenous publics, na...

1. How to deal with denial? Can links be drawn between minimizing the intent and impacts of residential schools of the not-so-distant past with the contemporary practice of forced/coerced sterilization of Indigenous women in Canada? A question top of mind this week for roundtabler Ken Williams as he contemplates the implications of the story of a Canadian imprisoned in Germany for Holocaust denial...

1. Fighting fire with fire? Why some say the massive blazes ripping across parts of California did not have to be so furious or fatal, if only the state would listen more to Indigenous peoples. 2. Cultural linchpin or not-so-scenic buzzkill? Why some Ontario cottagers ain't so 'wild' about the return of rice to the region. 3. Media muzzle? A southern U.S. tribe suddenly takes back the press protec...

1. Child and family fraud? How a potential class action lawsuit against one B.C. social worker has exposed some gaping vulnerabilities in a system supposedly set up to care for kids. 2. Lodging complaints: What the mainstream media missed in its coverage of how a convicted child-killer ended up at an Indigenous-based correctional facility (though she's been subsequently removed). 3. Libellous or f...

THIS WEEK... What's in a name? Everything, for Indigenous families hoping to reclaim their people's traditional naming practices. What gives with philanthropy? The author of a new book on the subject says it's time to decolonize the sector. Grief over Greyhound: What will First Nations who once relied on the bus service do now that it's ceased operations in western Canada? Host/producer Rick Harp...

  This week... The Will of Brazil : Indigenous advocates raise huge red flags over the election of super right wing president Jair Bolsonaro. Duty Delayed: The Supreme Court rules that Canada does not owe a duty to consult First Nations in the creation of any laws affecting them. Pre-school prevention: What would be so wrong with a new daycare aimed at Indigenous kids? Ask a certain group of prope...

This week, part two of our live show at the University of Winnipeg on the potential impacts of cannabis legalization on Indigenous peoples in Canada. Part one featured matters of jurisdiction and justice; this time 'round, we look at the way some dream of an economic jackpot while others foresee a nightmare of mental and moral jeopardy. Sponsored by the UWSA, the evening featured roundtable regula...

On this week's program, recorded live in Winnipeg, we stir the pot now that Canada's cannabis countdown is complete , making it only the second country in the world to legalize marijuana. But what could this all mean for Indigenous peoples? Some see cannabis as the great green hope, but others aren't nearly so high on the plant's prospects for prosperity. In part one of our discussion, we explore...

Twelve years. According to a new report from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that's how long we have to act both decisively and radically concerning the climate if we are to keep life viable for much if not most of humanity. Here's another number: 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the same IPCC report, that's the maximum increase in average world temperatures, relat...

This week, our special live-audience episode in Edmonton, where we discussed... Protocol Schmotocol: What one professor's slide into another's DMs on Twitter in search of help on a highly-sensitive subject can teach us about ethical research... 'Indigenous Renaissance': Just one of many pointed phrases in the victory speech of Maliseet musician Jeremy Dutcher at this year's Polaris Music Prize cer...

This week we bring you 'part two' of last week's round table, one that ran unusually long because of our extended discussion about APTN's controversial reality show, "First Contact." Those outstanding two topics are... Prime directive: A leaked video seems to show Canada's PM scolding First Nations leaders for their time 'mismanagement'; plus, Settler solidarity — what might it really look like? T...

Provocative or problematic? We discuss why opinion is sharply divided over 'First Contact,' a new APTN mini-series showcasing Canadians' deep ignorance about Aboriginal peoples. And, with our discussion going so in-depth and protracted, we eat up the time normally devoted to three topics! Joining host/producer Rick Harp at the roundtable this week are Brock Pitawanakwat, assistant professor of Ind...

1. 'Sinful' ceremony: a Cree community finds itself at spiritual odds over whether to allow a pow-wow some regard as blasphemous. // 2. Must the show go on? Robert Lepage's first attempt to tell "the story of Canada through the prism of [white-Indigenous] relations" — minus a single Indigenous actor — got cancelled. Now it appears the famous Quebec playwright will get to stage the show after all....

Is a controversial pipeline now a pipe-dream? Canada's Federal Court of Appeal has just ruled that plans to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline are to be put on hold until the government gets its act together on the potential impacts of greater oil tanker traffic on marine ecosystems and on its failure to meaningfully consult Indigenous peoples. But is this ruling a slam dunk? What's to be made of...

1. Man camp controversy: decades-old abuse allegations against hydro-dam workers finally surface in Manitoba. Might it spark a flood of similar complaints? 2. Stat spat: talk of a new federal holiday commemorating the survivors of residential schools gets mixed reviews 3. Mac attack: why the reputation of John A. Macdonald (Canada's first prime minister) is getting taken off its pedestal — literal...

Our ninth and final episode of our Summer Series collects and connects conversations about pipelines, in particular, the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project. Featured voices in this episode include (in order of appearance): Indigenous Resource lawyer Merle Alexander; Kim TallBear, associate professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, and Candis Callison, associate professor at U...

On this week's episode, the second-last show in our Summer Series , we revisit the troubling death of Colten Boushie—the 22-year old member of the Red Pheasant First Nation shot and killed back in August of 2016 by a then-54-year-old white farmer named Gerald Stanley. Featured voices this episode include (in order of appearance): Documentarian and University of Saskatchewan assistant professor of...