MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

In this set of collected, connected conversations (the penultimate episode in our Summer '22 series): Neech the Vote ! Was it really a year ago that Canada held its last federal election? A contest we didn't much concern ourselves with, to be frank; after all, we'd gone hard on the election two years prior. But, looking back, maybe that 2019 campaign taught us all we needed to know about how Indig...

On this week's collected, connected conversations (the sixth in our Summer '22 series): Settlerology . That's right: our chance to turn that gaze around, to peer deep into the soul of settler society! Heck, who better to lead a course on colonial culture than Indigenous people?   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): •  Brock Pitawanakwat , Associate Professor of Indigenou...

For the fifth instalment in our Summer '22 series, we burrow into bureaucracy , the Canadian civil service which administers every aspect of Indian life from cradle to grave via the technocratic tentacles of Indian Affairs.   Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): •  Shiri Pasternak , Assistant Professor in Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-founder at th...

For the fourth instalment in our Summer '22 series of collected, connected conversations: freedom of speech . From censorship to libel, press access and accountability, there are many facets to free speech, and we've sounded off on many of them. Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): •  Ken Williams , Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Department of Drama...

On the third instalment in our Summer '22 series: weaponized words . The first of two shows sounding off on speech, we've stitched together a variety of verbiage, from all about threats to speech in part two to all about threats via speech here in part one. Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): Ken Williams , Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Department...

On the second instalment in our Summer '22 series: the battle over belonging . The back half of our investigation into inclusion—or is that excursion into exclusion? They're kind of two sides of the same coin to be honest, minted at our expense. Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): •  Candis Callison , Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies a...

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 worl...

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.    Feat...

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 Studie...

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 e...

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...

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...

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 m...

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 Nati...

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 day...

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, Ontari...

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...

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...

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 her...

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. P...

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 insu...

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...

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 apocalyp...

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 t...

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 th...