MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

Ottawa gets a new, Indigenous-only courtroom, but does the evidence support the move? Why critics say electronic welfare cards are being used to police the behaviour of recipients in Australia. How Iqaluit's new beer and wine store hopes to keep a damper on drinking by customers. R ounding out this week's Indigenous roundtable are host/producer Rick Harp along with the University of Alberta's K im...

This week... Why Indigenous people totally relate to recent violence over icons of intolerance in Charlottesville, Virginia; w e get into Guam, a strategic US island colony that found itself smack dab in the middle of nuclear brinkmanship with North Korea; and, Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq adds her voice to calls for the Edmonton Eskimos to change their team's name. Returning to the roundtable are Lako...

This week's Indigenous roundtable: a new study seems to solidify the link between homelessness and contact with the child welfare system; new data reveals a disproportionate number of Indigenous deaths due to overdose in British Columbia; and, with the big Santa Fe Indian Art market around the corner, we discuss its approach to the perennial debate over "authentic" Indigenous art. Joining us are L...

This week: Starvation, experimentation, segregation and trauma — to Mary Jane McCallum, these four words are critical concepts for any student of Indigenous health history. And she should know: a full professor of history at the University of Winnipeg, McCallum has studied and written about the subject extensively, including a recent article for The Canadian Historical Review . With a title that b...

This week... the conclusion to our conversation with the authors of the recent article, "White Settler Revisionism and Making Métis Everywhere: The Evocation of Métissage in Québec and Nova Scotia." Scholars Adam Gaudry (Native Studies & Political Science, University of Alberta) and Darryl Leroux (Sociology & Atlantic Canada studies, Saint Mary's University) return to discuss why this urge of some...

This week… the first in a two-part conversation that confronts the confusion and contention around what it means to be Métis. In their new article, "White Settler Revisionism and Making Métis Everywhere: The Evocation of Métissage in Québec and Nova Scotia." Co-authors Adam Gaudry (University of Alberta) and Darryl Leroux (Saint Mary's University) argue that moves by some settler communities to in...

This week… a bit of a mid-summer break from our regular format as we take a deep dive into the fiscal infrastructure of colonialism in Canada. As technocratic as that sounds, our guest expertly deciphers how boring bureaucracy can enable inhumane inequity. Our guide on this journey is Shiri Pasternak, Assistant Professor in Criminology at Ryerson University, and the author of a 5-part series entit...

This week... tempest in a teepee: Indigenous people fight to set up a ceremonial camp on Parliament Hill for Canada Day. Did their actions shine a light on the controversy over Canada 150—or simply stoke the flames of a backlash?  We also explore how a press conference meant to educate reporters on why that teepee went up seemingly mutated into a media lecture on how Indigenous people ought to con...

This week, is the state of Indigenous health care plagued by governmental ill will? Some might think so in Alberta, where a pair of provincial employees were punted for a racist text message about a First Nations school principal. Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the political battle over health care inequity for on-reserve kids continues as the feds announce they want parts of a human rights ruling quashed....

This week... When words fail: Especially when one hears about the enormous equity gap in federal funding between French and Inuit languages in Nunavut. Plus... Putting us on the map—literally. Google announces that users of its Maps app will now get to see thousands more Indigenous communities. But will that hide as much as it reveals?   Back again at the roundtable are Karyn Pugliese, APTN's Exec...

This week: why things aren't okay in Thunder Bay. In the wake of two more Indigenous teens found dead in this northwestern Ontario city's waterways, their home First Nations are sounding alarm bells, but local police maintain there is no crisis. A nd WTF is a MOU, and why should we care? We unpack the recent signing of a joint memorandum of understanding between the Canadian government and the Ass...

This week: Questioning curious carriages of justice in Canadian courts. Questions like, h ow is it that a victim of a brutal assault in Alberta not only gets locked up in remand against her will but was made to testify cuffed and chained?! And how did an Inuk grandmother from Labrador end up in an all-men 's prison for opposing a controversial hydroelectric mega-project? Returning to the roundtabl...

This week... outrageous outfits: A group of Alberta students host a controversial "Cowboys & Indians" costume graduation party. Plus, rough ride: a northern Manitoba man says he was unfairly ejected from a Greyhound bus — 5 hours from home — after his diabetes-related symptoms were mistakenly thought to be signs of drunkenness. Joining us this week are Karyn Pugliese, Executive Director of News an...

This week, an extended conversation with two of the people behind 'Unsettling Canada 150.' Planned for the exact same date as Canada Day—July 1—this national, Indigenous-led day of action will serve as a counter-action to the multi-million dollar, orgiastic commemoration of the country's 150th anniversary of Confederation. A joint initiative of the movements known as Idle No More and Defenders of...

On this week's roundtable: sensationalizing suicide?  We recount the critiques of 13 Reasons Why , the Netflix teen drama that's sparked controversy for centering the suicide of one of its characters.  And shaking off Shakespeare: a mid the recent kerfuffle over cultural appropriation, we'll discuss why one Ontario school board has booted the Bard in favour of Indigenous authors.  Joining us at ou...

This week, a breakdown of the BC election, the result of which is still up in the air, leaving Indigenous peoples with all sorts of questions. Questions like which would be better or worse for their interests, a Liberals/Greens coalition or NDP/Greens? How much Indigenous issues factored into this election, or how much Indigenous voters did? And how did Indigenous candidates fare? Our roundtable w...

This week, an extended interview with James Daschuk, author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life . The award-winning book is a harrowing, historical account of Canada's original Aboriginal policy — re-location via starvation. In this conversation, originally recorded in 2014, Daschuk discusses his investigation into the roles that disease, climat...

THIS WEEK: W e delve into an Indigenous woman's 30-year-plus court battle to regain her Indian Status, a battle that just resulted in victory in Ontario. But will Lynn Gehl's win against the sexism of Canada's Indian Status system endure? If so, what could it mean for thousands just like her? We then look at Bill S-3, a bill that, like Gehl's case, deals with gender discrimination in the Indian Ac...

This week: Transportation Troubles. In Saskatchewan, a recent government budget announced the shutdown of the STC, a provincial bus service that critics say is a lifeline for rural communities and reserves. Meanwhile in Manitoba, a First Nations owned airline was stunned to learn that it too could have its wings clipped after news that the province will end its support for a local airport. Returni...

This week, a double dive into recent moves by Health Canada: first, its decision to fund the cost of a travel companion for pregnant Indigenous women who give birth outside their community; second, is social media an effective way for the department to connect to Indigenous kids in need of medical care? Sharing their diagnoses are scholar Pam Palmater and writer Paul Seesequasis. // Our theme is '...

THIS WEEK / Colonial Editorial: Why people like ex-TRC head Murray Sinclair are outraged by a Globe and Mail op-ed rejecting the idea that South Africa's experience with oppression parallels that of Canada's. Is the Globe guilty of whitesplaining? / Third-party Mis-management: a federal Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs continues to hear whether the practice of forcing First Na...

On this week's Indigenous roundtable, we examine mainstream Canadian media and reconciliation. When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its nearly 100 Calls to Action back in late 2015, the fourth estate was among the institutions encouraged to take up those calls. It's been well over a year: what action has been taken? What has that meant for how stories about Indigenous people get tol...

On this week's roundtable: Federal foot-dragging. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered feds to stop underfunding child welfare on-reserve back in 2016. So why has it still yet to happen? And, Departmental dysfunction: a recent news report describes a section of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada as a "deeply troubled, if not toxic, work environment." But is it a localized infection or a...

On this week's Indigenous roundtable: Do growing calls for tougher laws deliberately target some more than others? A look at the apparent push to increasingly criminalize Aboriginal behaviour by non-Aboriginal interests. Plus, how a disproportionate number of Indigenous people throughout Canada struggle with severe food insecurity. Returning to the roundtable are Danika Billie Littlechild and Robe...

This week — Attention Status Indian men: do you have sperm to spare? Some women on Craigslist are hoping you'll consider making what might be called a liquid transaction. And proudly unpatriotic: a Native student at an Oklahoma high school is reprimanded for refusing to pledge allegiance to the United States. Joining us once again are entrepreneur and commentator Robert Jago and lawyer and interna...