On this week’s roundtable: 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...
2020-02-10 20:51:06 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s roundtable: part two 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 (assi...
2020-01-31 23:49:49 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s roundtable: 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 MI's own Rick Harp, together with Tim Fontaine.
Entitled “2020-01-30 06:13:45 +0000 UTC View Post
On this week’s program: surviving the Scoop, falling into place. Once again on the podcast, we feature 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 wee...
2020-01-24 19:39:05 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, it's time to finally let you all in on what's been wreaking havoc with all aspects of my life of late, a mammoth project I launched into some 2 years ago in collaboration with my very good bud, Tim Fontaine.
Get ready for the Friday Jan. 24 release of part one of the two-part documentary, The Power Was with Us: Idle No More, a sweeping look at the emergence of this historic Indigenous-led...
2020-01-22 22:03:03 +0000 UTC View PostOn 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. 2020-01-12 01:09:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Will 2020 ever see (hear?) its first MI episode? Great question. Totally fair too.
Here's the thing. As you may recall from my last update, I am neck deep—still—in one BEAST of a project, with a late-January deadline looming larger by the day. (I'm still too superstitious to say what, tho.)
Sadly, pulling out all the stops to get it done has meant neglecting everyone and everything else in my life. ☹️ Trust me: no one is more disappointed about this than I.
🎉 We did it! We hit our #500by2020 goal! 😍
To every supporter of MEDIA INDIGENA new and old, I just wanted to say a huge thank you on behalf of myself, Ken, Brock, Kim and Candis for your investment in what we do.
It's because of you that our wee podcast can now say it enjoys the patronage of some 500 people! This would have been unimaginable way back in March of 2016, but 190+ episodes and three-plus years later, we've made it—and we couldn't hav...
2020-01-01 05:40:31 +0000 UTC View PostIf 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....
2019-12-31 18:35:57 +0000 UTC View PostDid 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 compl...
2019-12-26 01:22:59 +0000 UTC View PostOn 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 ...
2019-12-24 06:22:44 +0000 UTC View PostHey Member of Team MEDIA INDIGENA!
Host/producer Rick here. I hope this finds you well: I am busy as heck these days so have not been as able to put out finished episodes as often as I'd like this month (meanwhile, a number of raw, uncut discussions just sit there on my mental shelf, mocking me).
It's all because a major project I've been working on for the past 2+ years has an unforgiving deadline coming up fast and furious, something I'm too superstitious to ...
2019-12-17 23:26:56 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s Indigenous roundtable: 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 the...
2019-12-15 00:33:41 +0000 UTC View PostON THIS WEEK'S INDIGENOUS ROUNDTABLE:
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 kno...
2019-11-29 05:30:51 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s Indigenous roundtable: panning pan-Northernism. “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 join...
2019-11-25 22:33:02 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s Indigenous roundtable: 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 discriminatio...
2019-11-18 21:46:10 +0000 UTC View PostON THIS WEEK'S ROUND TABLE: Escaping the Orbit of Settler Colonialism
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...
2019-11-11 06:55:50 +0000 UTC View PostThis 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 c...
2019-10-30 18:03:38 +0000 UTC View PostBarely 3 days after the Liberals' return to power -- only this time, as a minority government -- we wonder what that could mean for Indigenous peoples in Canada 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 Researc...
2019-10-25 19:28:42 +0000 UTC View PostAs we told you a while back, we'll be hosting a live-audience discussion this Thursday October 24 in Toronto, a political post-mortem of sorts, all about Canada's imminent federal election. Tickets are free but you need to 2019-10-20 00:58:02 +0000 UTC View Post
On this week’s Indigenous roundtable: colonial calculations. And 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 2019-10-14 22:19:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Fresh off the vote, MEDIA INDIGENA and the Indigenous-run think-tank Yellowhead Institute will record a special post-election episode this October 24th @ 2:30 PM!
What could the results of the October 21 election mean for Indigenous peoples going forward? Will it be more of the same under the incumbent Liberals? Or could a Conservative government change the game? Some say a minority government is in the offing: might that help or hurt Indigenous interests? Join us to ex...
2019-10-10 05:01:06 +0000 UTC View PostThis 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 acco...
2019-10-08 21:27:48 +0000 UTC View PostQuick reminder that MI host Rick Harp sits down this WEDNESDAY Oct. 9 at 7 pm at the University of Winnipeg for a live audience discussion with Dr. Margaret Noodin, poet, Anishinaabemowin language advocate and associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Admission is free!
Where: Convocation Hall, (2nd floor, Wesley Hall), U of W, 515 Portage Ave.
More info: 2019-10-08 05:29:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello supporter of MEDIA INDIGENA! Quick note to tell you that host/producer Rick Harp will be sitting down this Thursday Oct. 9 at 7 pm at the University of Winnipeg for a live audience discussion with Dr. Margaret Noodin, poet, Anishinaabemowin language advocate and associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Admission is free!
It's the second in our series of conversations with invited presenters at the ...
2019-10-02 22:53:17 +0000 UTC View PostOn this week’s program: taking the measure of data about Indigenous peoples. And this week's show is a bit of a departure from our usual roundtable format: it's 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 2019-09-29 17:43:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Quick note to let fans of MI who live in or often visit Winnipeg that, over the weeks and months to come, host/producer Rick Harp will be in conversation with featured guests of the Weweni Indigenous Scholars Speakers Series at the University of Winnipeg, beginning this Monday, September 23! The first speaker is Dr. Jennifer Walker.
Hosted by the U of W's Academic Lead of Indigenous Affairs, al...
2019-09-19 22:51:54 +0000 UTC View PostON THIS WEEK’S INDIGENOUS ROUNDTABLE: Dissecting the Debate
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 2019-09-18 21:06:48 +0000 UTC View Post
If Kim TallBear could vote in Canadian elections, who might she vote for? Inquiring minds want to know. A wee bonus bit of audio (not included in the forthcoming episode on the recent leaders' debate) for the people who help make it possible: you!
This rolled off our discussion about whether an all-opposition-party debate was actually not an entirely bad thing. I also reference a 2011 MEDIA INDIGENA piece on a situation where Indigenous voters might have had an impact were they...
2019-09-17 15:56:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey, it's Rick! Thanks to some nice late summer weather, I'm outside prepping for today's MI recording, a de-brief on the Canadian election debate held this past Thursday.
As you may've heard, the debate included a lot of Indigenous content: something that certainly caught me off-guard. Accordingly, we're doing a post-debate de-brief with Kim and Candis, and you're encouraged to share your thoughts and questions here for us to incorporate into the show as best we can.
Looking fo...
2019-09-15 18:37:07 +0000 UTC View Post