THIS WEEK: Weapons and exceptions. The Liberal government’s recently-announced ban on 1500 types of assault weapons is not going over well with certain gun owners. Could the exemption for, among others, Indigenous hunters make them a target? We cover which weapons the ban covers, and whether Canada always walks its talk concerning violence. Joining host/producer Rick Harp at the roundtable once again are Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, and ...
May 23, 2020•25 min•Ep. 209
THIS WEEK: 21st century voting, 19th century colonialism. An Ontario First Nation feels frustrated by the fact that, just weeks away from its June election, it still hasn’t got the green light from Indigenous Services Canada to hold their own vote under their own rules. Rules that include on-line voting, a system they say is critical amid concerns of COVID-19. Joining host/producer Rick Harp to discuss the delay and whether turning democracy digital in Indian Country is a good thing or not are K...
May 10, 2020•37 min•Ep. 208
THIS WEEK: Butter blowback. With next to no fanfare, the makers of Land O’ Lakes butter have stripped their packaging of a decades-old iconic Indian maiden. Prompting pouts a-plenty from some Settlers who found the switch distasteful—a butter backlash that spread across social media. But, no surprise, #NativeTwitter was more than ready with a flurry of counter-memes. Joining host/producer Rick Harp to share some of their favorites, plus discuss some of the ambivalent history behind the box, are ...
Apr 30, 2020•48 min•Ep. 207
Patient privacy, public protection: they can feel at odds in this era of coronavirus. And yet, when it comes to the impacts of the virus on black and brown people, some say there’s not enough information being captured and communicated. But could knowing who is infected risk stigma in turn? Tackling these thorny questions and more with host/producer Rick Harp this week are Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism ...
Apr 27, 2020•54 min•Ep. 206
THIS WEEK: Corona commiseration. It’s the topic on everyone’s mind, all the time —which itself can be a challenge, for us included. Inundated with infection information, how much might be too much for our mental health? It’s a real question: with so many media already covering Covid-19, should we? Joining host/producer Rick Harp to share their thoughts on exactly that and more are Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, and Brock Pitawanakwat, Asso...
Apr 17, 2020•55 min•Ep. 205
THIS WEEK: Post-secondary plunder. Cornell, MIT, Rutgers—can you guess what these prestigious U.S. centers of higher learning have in common? Well, together with scores of schools just like them, they all owe their existence and persistence to the systematic theft of Indigenous lands. Dating back to the late 1800s, this heartless campaign of dispossession has just been documented in agonizing detail by an Indigenous-led team of journalists at High Country News . Back at the roundtable with host/...
Apr 09, 2020•53 min•Ep. 204
After hosting back-to-back episodes of special guest appearances concerning COVID-19, this time we re-connect with two of our regular roundtablers, both to see how they’re faring in this new era of "the rona" and which virus-related stories and developments they think will especially impact Indigenous people and communities. Back at the table with host/producer Rick Harp are Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama and Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate P...
Apr 01, 2020•52 min•Ep. 203
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 including a nurse who tested positive after travel abroad. The kind of scenario that’s prompted multiple Fi...
Mar 28, 2020•52 min•Ep. 202
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. So far in Canada, that’s largely meant promoting hand hygiene and social isolation. The goal: to stop a huge spike in cases to keep the healthcare system from...
Mar 19, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 201
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, associate professor in UBC's Graduate School of Journalism, and Kim TallBear, associate professor in the...
Mar 10, 2020•46 min•Ep. 200
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 of lawlessness” created by recent Wet'suwet'en solidarity actions across the country. Joining host/p...
Mar 01, 2020•57 min•Ep. 199
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 own Candis Callison , associate professor in the School of Journalism at UBC. Also at the roundtabl...
Feb 24, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 198
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 reviewing her work. In this episode, we’ll discuss what these two attempts to influence who says what about...
Feb 16, 2020•47 min•Ep. 197
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 encampments in ancestral Wet'suwet'en territory. Joining host/producer Rick Harp this week are Candis Ca...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 196
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) join Rick to explore the various crossroads confronting the different parties active at the time—and...
Jan 31, 2020•59 min•Ep. 195
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 LUMI—the streaming service of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network ( aptnlumi.ca ). Joining Ri...
Jan 30, 2020•45 min•Ep. 194
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 Nation in Saskatchewan. The title of her talk: “Quilted Glyphs: Theories of Speculative Landings fo...
Jan 24, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 193
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 Institute for American Indian Education. She’s also a poet and passionate advocate for Anishnaabemowin ...
Jan 12, 2020•46 min•Ep. 192
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 types feel there’s way bigger fish to fry. Joining host/producer Rick Harp for the final show of the de...
Dec 31, 2019•39 min•Ep. 191
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 those Calls are Ryerson University's Eva Jewell (Assistant Professor of Sociology) and Ian Mosby (Assis...
Dec 26, 2019•43 min•Ep. 190
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 (University of Alberta associate professor of Native Studies) and Candis Callison (Associate Professor at UB...
Dec 24, 2019•31 min•Ep. 189
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 host/producer Rick Harp this week to discuss this departmentaI dismay (and diagnosis) are Ken Willia...
Dec 15, 2019•37 min•Ep. 188
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 skin to saliva, blood to bones, do we even know how much Indigenous material has been banked across t...
Nov 29, 2019•52 min•Ep. 187
“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 Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, as well as Candi...
Nov 25, 2019•37 min•Ep. 186
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 cry “Indian Control of Indian Education,” how close is anyone to realizing that vision? Joining host/pr...
Nov 18, 2019•40 min•Ep. 185
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 center of gravity, and stop merely critiquing, and start actually creating outside of its orbit? Questi...
Nov 11, 2019•45 min•Ep. 184
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 shake out. We also go deeper into Indigenous electoral participation: be it as voters or vote-gette...
Oct 30, 2019•55 min•Ep. 183
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 of Arts at Ryerson University: Executive Director Hayden King as well as Research Fellow Vanessa Wa...
Oct 25, 2019•46 min•Ep. 182
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 "blank cheque." So how is it that resolving a basic necessity and a fundamental inequity can both be fram...
Oct 14, 2019•55 min•Ep. 181
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 pushback from parts of Native Twitter, frustrated at how she seemingly gets all the accolades while...
Oct 08, 2019•45 min•Ep. 180
