Podcasts to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day
by Annie Kierans
This month in Dawson City, we marched down Front Street from City Hall to the RCMP Station chanting “Black Lives Matter, Indigenous Lives Matter”.
Members of our community spoke about the racism they experience here, elsewhere, everywhere. Hopefully you didn’t miss the programming provided by Radio Zho on CFYT: The Spirit of Dawson this past weekend, but in any case here is a selection of podcasts produced and hosted by indigenous folks across Turtle Island to perk your ears to:
Media Indigena: Interactive Indigenous Insight – A highly rounded round-table conversation amongst scholars, journalists, and activists. I listened to an excellent episode about food sovereignty between vastly intelligent speakers who cut straight to the heart of the matter.
Thunder Bay – a CANADLAND investigative series detailing widespread suicide of Indigenous youth in northern Ontario. A hard but important listen featuring drug abuse, corruption, scandal, and hate crimes. Word on the street is they will be producing a sequel, this time based in Niagara Falls, so stay tuned.
CANADLAND’s The Imposter is no longer producing shows, but I recall this episode about Alanis Obomsawin (prolific Abenaki filmmaker) is stellar. If you haven’t checked out her films, many of them can be viewed on our very own NFB website.
The Secret Life of Canada - Lesser known histories of our country, such as this episode about the Indian Act. Short n’ sweet shout-outs to prominent Indigenous people, such as Autumn Peltier and Atuat Akittirq. Especially recommended is this episode about everything you didn’t know about the Indian Act.
Also by the CBC, Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo – Addressing the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigineous women in Canada through the story of Cleo Nicotine Semaganis, a young Cree girl taken from her family during the Sixties Scoop.
There has been controversy lately within the CBC surrounding systemic racism, but there is one more rad CBC podcast I can recommend, which is Unreserved, hosted by Rosanna Deerchild.
All My Relations – Soothing, authentic voices of hosts Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation). They speak about how violence on the land is violence to our bodies with Diné woman/community organizer/ citizen scientist/activist/water protector Kim Smith in this episode.
Coffee With My Ma – Funny, on-the-nose anecdotes from host’s mother during her days as an activist (“a female, Native Forrest Gump”). I LOL’ed at her story about the Friendship Centre Murderer.
It Came From The Woods: Canada’s Disproportionate Aboriginal Disappearances – The heartbreaking cases behind the Highway of Tears, the 725 km stretch between Prince George and Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
Métis In Space – By Indian & Cowboy, a podcast producer stock full of interesting content! As a lover of sci-fi films, I really enjoy Molly Vowel and Chelsea Swain’s stylized, echo-y commentary on films like David Lynch’s Dune, with an indigenous lens. Also looking forward to their takes on the Twilight Zone and Westworld. Buoyant tone, sharp critique.
Mähsi Cho and Happy (belated) Indigenous Peoples Day, Dawson.
Annie Kierans is a visual artist, film-maker and support worker based out of Dawson City.
June is indigenous history and pride month
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