MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

THIS WEEK: Could the benefits of hindsight foreshadow the costs to come? As we discussed last episode, the collision of colonialism and COVID-19 carries additional layers of risk for remote and urban Indigenous populations. Among those already impacted, dozens of confirmed cases on the Navajo Nation in the American southwest and two presumptive cases on a northern Saskatchewan First Nation includi...

THIS WEEK: Flattening the curve, feeling the gap. COVID-19, the virus that first popped up in Wuhan, China, is now officially a global pandemic. And even though the vast majority of people who get COVID-19 will ultimately suffer either mild or even no symptoms, it's the most vulnerable among us that we need to worry about and look out for. S o far in Canada, that's largely meant promoting hand hyg...

When a company in one country is linked to human rights abuses in another, should they be held responsible for that abuse back home? According to Canada's Supreme Court, yes! Which means a Canadian mining company operating in northeast Africa could stand trial for alleged violations of human-rights in the state of Eritrea. In this episode, host/producer Rick Harp is joined by Candis Callison, asso...

THIS WEEK: Is Alberta becoming a police-state? At least one critic thinks so, after the province's recent introduction of Bill 1. Labelled the "Critical Infrastructure Defence Act," the bill will, in the words of the Premier, create new "stiff penalties for anyone who riots on or seeks to impair critical economic infrastructure." Penalties he says are necessary in light of the "general atmosphere...

This week: Choosing our words carefully. When discussing those who oppose resource extraction, how important is it to call them protectors rather than protesters? And when it comes to the members of a dominant society horny for such extraction, how vital is it that they be called Settlers? Judging by the dust these debates still kick up, a lot! And wouldn't you know it, among those kicking was our...

Tired of how the media has covered its event in recent years, an all-Indigenous basketball tournament in BC has decided it's had enough of 'negative press.' With one exception—a First Nations radio station that broadcasts the games live—other media hoping to cover the event have been denied access. Meanwhile, a Toronto playwright has made a point of discouraging non-Indigenous critics from reviewi...

THIS WEEK: Wet'suwet'en Redux . It's an ever-changing story, yet all-too-reminiscent of other Indigenous struggles—and that's just in supposedly pro-UNDRIP British Columbia. With #ShutCanadaDown solidarity rallies and blockades going up in different parts of Canada and beyond, we look at how police actions this time around compare to last year's RCMP raid of the anti-pipeline, pro-sovereignty enca...

THIS WEEK: Part 2 of our discussion on APTN's new retrospective docuseries, " The Power Was With Us : Idle No More." Picking up where Kim, Candis and Rick left off last episode —when they discussed the movement's genesis—this time 'round, Ken Williams (assistant professor, University of Alberta department of drama) and Brock Pitawanakwat (York University Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies)...

This week, the emergence of Idle No More, the Indigenous-led movement that's arguably changed Canada forever. Now its arrival on the Canadian political scene is the subject of a major APTN National News retrospective docuseries, co-directed and co-produced by Rick Harp and Tim Fontaine. Entitled "The Power Was With Us: Idle No More," the first of the two-part series is now available exclusively on...

Once again, our podcast features a conversation based on our partnership with the Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speakers Series, a series made possible by the University of Winnipeg's Office of Indigenous Affairs. This time, we hear from Dr. Karyn Recollet, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto's Women & Gender Studies Institute, and a Cree woman originally from the Sturgeon Lake First Nat...

On this week's program: awakening ancestral languages. Our very first episode of 2020 sees us return to our partnership with the Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speakers Series, sponsored by the University of Winnipeg's Office of Indigenous Affairs. This time around, we'll hear from Dr. Margaret Noodin, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and director of the Electa Quinney Ins...

If you're active on Twitter maybe you've seen it—the fuss some have kicked up over Donald Trump's recent use of the phrase "Indian Country" in a tweet. But look carefully among those the most fussed: what you won't find are many, if any, "Indians." On this week's Indigenous roundtable, we climb into this cross-cultural chasm of criticism, and discuss why even those ever-vigilant #NativeTwitter typ...

Did you know it's been roughly four years since Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final report? If all you follow is mainstream media, likely not: which is odd, because the work of the TRC very much remains open in the form of its 94 Calls to Action — few of which are anywhere near complete. Joining host/producer Rick Harp to share their assessment of where Canada stands on t...

On this week's Indigenous roundtable: Taking control, taking stock. How a First Nation in Ontario decided the only way they're going to find images of Indigenous people that don't rely on stereotypes is to make their own catalogue of stock photography. Joining host/producer Rick Harp to discuss how literally owning your own depictions is key to cultural self-determination are Kim TallBear (Univers...

THIS WEEK: The Bureaucrats' Burden. Could there be any job tougher than running Indian Affairs? Sources at Indian Affairs say "No!" According to a recent Global News story, senior officials at Indigenous Services Canada wish Canadians better understood all the great work they do, something they say has been "difficult" to communicate "effectively" thanks to obstacles like... Twitter bots? Joining...

This week: Bringing blood home. Over a half-century after their removal, a large cluster of blood samples from Indigenous islanders in Australia have been returned to whence they came. The result of direct negotiations with the affected community, the move has been held up as historic for the country. But if Australia's on the bleeding edge of repatriation, what about the rest of the world? From s...

"What was CBC North management thinking?" A question fresh on the mind of CBC audiences and CBC staff this week, shocked and dismayed at the decision to combine three territorial morning newscasts into one. A decision that proved short-lived, however: even before the ink was dry, CBC brass buckled under the backlash and reversed course. In this discussion, host/producer Rick Harp is joined by Ken...

This week, class dismissed — or should we say class denied? A North Carolina advisory board has rejected a proposed Native charter school on the grounds its curriculum would be too radical. Of course, that's all in the eyes of the beholder, but with funding all in the hands of the state, could this be a textbook case of education discrimination? And nearly a half century after the 1970s rallying c...

It's a dilemma that confronts much of Indigenous media: with so much of our time spent working to counter, correct and contextualize mainstream misinformation, do we not risk becoming "This Week in Settler Colonialism"? Does routinely responding to routine violations of our lands and lives see us become all-consumed by what the State does and doesn't do? How do we resist that pull of a Settler cen...

This week, the back half of our post-Canadian-election post-mortem, featuring the Yellowhead Institute 's Hayden King and Vanessa Watts. In part one of our discussion, we compared the relative prominence of so-called Indigenous issues this election versus the one before. Here in part two, we more concretely explore the likely machinations of a minority Parliament and how Indigenous interests might...

Barely 3 days after the Liberals' return to power -- only this time, as a minority government -- we wonder what that could mean for Indigenous peoples going forward. Did Indigenous issues make a difference this election? Did Indigenous voters? Joining us this week to tackle these questions and more are two members of the Yellowhead Institute, a First Nation-led research centre based in the Faculty...

It's been quite the week for the bottom-line of Canadian colonialism. First, a blunt assessment of what the lives of First Nations' kids are worth as the Liberals push to quash compensation for damage done by the child welfare system. Then, as part of an election scrum, a reporter casually suggests that covering the cost of access to safe, clean drinking water on-reserve amounts to writing a "blan...

This week, grousing over Greta. Even though millions recently took to the streets as part of world-wide Climate Strikes, the media still seems to reserve most of its spotlight for the teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. And yet, not everyone's a fan: from Maxime Bernier to Vladimir Putin, she seems to irk white cis male politicians in particular. But the idolatry of Thunberg has also received...

This week: taking the measure of data about Indigenous peoples. It's a bit of a departure from our usual roundtable format — the first of our live audience discussions connected to the annual Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speakers Series , sponsored by the University of Winnipeg's Office of Indigenous Affairs . Starting us off is Dr. Jennifer Walker , Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health at Lau...

Who'da thunk it? For once, we at MEDIA INDIGENA are happy to be wrong—right out of the gate at the first leaders debate, Indigenous issues are on the radar of Canada's federal election. But will they continue to enjoy that spotlight? And among those leaders who did take part in that first to-and-fro, who got it right and who got it left when it comes to 'Indigenous affairs'? Sharing their thoughts...