Media Indigena : Weekly Indigenous Current Affairs Program

We wrap up October a titch late with another ‘mini’ INDIGENA (the quick + dirty version of MEDIA INDIGENA), featuring a quartet of tidbits, ranging from a federal security agency’s overt admonishment of Nunavut over ‘covert’ foreign investment in otherwise neglected infrastructure to new highway signs in Saskatchewan overtly delineating its many treaty boundaries to passing motorists.  Joining host/producer Rick Harp the early afternoon of Friday, October 27 were Ken Williams (associate professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama) and Trina Roache (assistant professor of journalism at the University of King’s College). CREDITS: 'All Your Faustian Bargains' and 'Love Is Chemical' by Steve Combs (CC BY 4.0); 'Lazy Sumday' by Sahy Uhns (CC BY); 'Au coin de la rue' by Marco Raaphorst (CC BY-SA 3.0); 'Weissenborn, Six Trios for Three Bassoons' by Grossman, Ewell, Grainger (CC BY-SA 3.0). Production assistance by Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas.  

This week: another MINI INDIGENA featuring Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) and Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC), who joined host/producer Rick Harp Wednesday, October 18 to discuss: where things go from here after a majority of Australians voted to reject the constitutional institution of an Indigenous advisory board known as The Voice the B.C. Supreme Court rejects a resident association's legal challenge against a massive Vancouver housing development project led by the Squamish Nation a new StatsCan report finds those accused of killing Indigenous women and girls are less likely to be charged with first-degree murder than cases involving non-Indigenous victims Twitter's in the shi**er, and its name change is the least of its problems: has it taken #NativeTwitter down with it? CREDITS: 'All Your Faustian Bargains' and 'Love Is Chemical' by Steve Comb

MEDIA INDIGENA is back from its summer break with all-new shows, and we kick off with a far-ranging foursome of items, ranging from a historic provincial election in Manitoba to the RCMP opting not to lay charges against a Yellowknife doctor for the unilateral sterilization of an Inuk woman.  Joining host/producer Rick Harp for this first 'mini INDIGENA' of the season (recorded Friday, October 6) are two familiar voices, Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) and Ken Williams (assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama). CREDITS: 'All Your Faustian Bargains' and 'Love Is Chemical' by Steve Combs (CC BY 4.0); '2.12.05 elevator' by BOPD (CC BY 4.0); 'Montmartre' by Jahzzar (CC BY-SA 4.0); 'Music Box Rag' by Heftone Banjo Orchestra (CC BY-SA 4.0)

For the eighth and final installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—our audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp finish out the series with Anishinaabe journalist, author and speaker Tanya Talaga as they discuss the chapter's conclusion. ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the seventh installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp welcome back Anishinaabe journalist, author and speaker Tanya Talaga to discuss the excerpt 'Sioux Lookout: Training New Journalists.' ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the sixth installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp sit with veteran Shoshone-Bannock journalist Mark Trahant one last time to discuss the excerpt "Geographies and Destabilizing 'the Local.'" ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the fifth installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp welcome back veteran Shoshone-Bannock journalist Mark Trahant to discuss the excerpt 'Perspectives, Expertise, and Knowledges.' ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the fourth installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp welcome back Anishinaabe journalist, author and speaker Tanya Talaga to discuss the excerpt 'Countering Erasure.' ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the third installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MEDIA INDIGENA regular Candis Callison joins host/producer Rick Harp and special guest Anishinaabe journalist, author and speaker Tanya Talaga to discuss the excerpt 'Settler-Colonialism and Journalism.' ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, MEDIA INDIGENA is 100%-listener-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep this podcast free for all to enjoy. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.

For the second installment of our 2023 Summer Series, "Indigenous Journalisms"—an 8-part audio book club based on Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities—co-author and MI regular Candis Callison joins host/producer Rick Harp and return guest Indian Country Today editor-at-large Mark Trahant to discuss the excerpt 'Indigenous Journalists in Newsrooms.' ✪ Indigenous owned + operated, our podcast is 100%-audience-funded. Learn how you can support our work to help keep our content free for all to hear. ✪ // CREDITS: 'Saturn' and 'Find Your Peace' by HoliznaCC0; 'Heart of Acceptance' by John Bartmann. All tracks are CC0 1.0.  

The opening installment of MEDIA INDIGENA's 2023 Summer Series debuts a new format for this time of year: a kind of 'audio book club' built around eight excerpts from "Indigenous Journalisms," the penultimate chapter of the book, Reckoning: Journalism's Limits and Possibilities, co-authored by Mary-Lynn Young (professor, UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media) and MI regular Candis Callison (Associate Professor, UBC Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and Graduate School of Journalism, and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Journalism, Media and Public Discourse).  And in part one of our series—centered on the first excerpt, simply entitled, "Introduction"—it's Candis herself who joins host/producer Rick Harp plus special guest Mark Trahant (Pulitzer Prize nominated Shoshone-Bannock journalist and Indian Country Today editor-at-large) to discuss how Indigenous journalists engage "new technologies for self-representation and the long history of mis- or non-representation by mainstream media."  ✪ I

For our final show of the 2022/23 season, we debut a somewhat new format—working title: 'the RADAR'

This week: The function of injunctions. When First Nations challenge the authority of a province or corporation to enact decisions that ignore Indigenous consent, there’s a handy legal tool those non-Indigenous parties can turn to: the injunction. Basically a court order which forces someone (or someones) to immediately put an end to a particular action, an injunction is, in principle, available to anyone who can make their case. But according to research by the Yellowhead Institute, decades of injunctions reveal how, in practice, they all too often expedite the use of force against First Nations who push back against reckless resource extraction. Now a new paper extends that research to more closely exam and explain how Canada’s legal system tends to favour corporate over Indigenous interests when it comes to injunctions—a tendency they argue is baked into its very core. On this episode, host/producer Rick Harp and MI regular Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College) are j

This week: when culture and commerce collide. Three underground art rings producing hundreds if not thousands of fake artworks worth as much as $100 million: some mind-boggling numbers shared by police during recently-announced arrests of eight people on 40 charges for allegedly forging the work of the late Norval Morrisseau. Known for his bright, bold colours and dramatic composition, Morrisseau’s work vividly conveyed the cosmology of his people. But where some saw something profound, others saw only profit, on both sides of the sale.  Drawing on the in-depth documentary which helped propel the police invesitigation—There Are No Fakes—our roundtable explores the cultural disconnect that got us here, who’s hurt most by it all, and whether all of those charged—a relative of Morrisseau’s among them—deserve an equal share of the blame. Joining host/producer Rick Harp this episode are Ken Williams, assistant professor with the University of Alberta’s department of drama, and Brock Pitawanakwat, Associate Profess

Can a reserve’s chronically unsafe drinking water be associated with a greater risk of suicide for its residents? That’s the lethal link hypothesized in newly-released research entitled “Is Suicide a Water Justice Issue? Investigating Long-Term Drinking Water Advisories and Suicide in First Nations in Canada.” Co-authored by scholars Jeffrey Ansloos and Annelies Cooper, their investigative framework connects the colonial dots between relentless indignities inflicted upon Indigenous communities with the criminally disproportionate rates of premature Indigenous death.  An Associate Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Critical Studies in Indigenous Health and Social Action on Suicide at the University of Toronto, Dr. Ansloos joins host/producer Rick Harp and MI regular Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC) to discuss the wider implications of this study.  NOTE: The Hope for Wellness Helpline is available 24/7 at

This week: our second, long-overdue MINI INDIGENA of the season features regulars Trina Roache (Rogers Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College) and Kim TallBear (professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta) as they join host/producer Rick Harp to discuss: •  Why we don’t necessarily love the idea of a First Nations person as Canada’s next top cop •  How a few Winnipeggers ain't lovin' some newly-proposed Indigenous names for city streets •  Why Kim hates the idea of “Native heritage” as used by settlers •  Monthly Patreon podcast supporter Raven asks: “What's your thoughts on the term ‘descendian’ (someone with distant Indigenous ancestry or connection) vs. ‘pretendian’?  >> CREDITS: “Apoplēssein” by Wax Lyricist; “Love is Chemical,” by Steve Combs (CC BY); “arborescence_ex-vitro” by Koi-discovery

This week: Press Proximity to Power. For our latest TalkBack edition of MEDIA INDIGENA, where monthly supporters of the podcast debrief with us on our latest deep-dive discussion, MI regular Candis Callison and host/producer Rick Harp are joined by listeners as they follow up on their earlier sit-down with Regan Boychuk, an independent political economist and researcher whose paper, "Proximity to Power: The oilpatch & Alberta’s major dailies," was the subject of episode 313.  // CREDITS: 'Guitarista' by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0).

On our latest TalkBack edition, where monthly supporters of the podcast share their questions and comments, a follow-up with journalist Dawn Marie Paley about her piece, “Canadian developers are gentrifying Mexico’s beaches,” published at The Breach. Also back are host/producer Rick Harp and Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University Brock Pitawanakwat, as we pick up where we left off last episode, “How Canadian tourists help endanger Indigenous lands in Mexico.”  // CREDITS: 'Guitarista' by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0).

This week: Storming the beaches. Some Canadian property developers hoping to lure so-called ‘snowbirds’ to sunny beachfront in Oaxaca, Mexico have hit a bit of a hitch: like, the fact that Indigenous people already own the beach. And according to a recent article in The Breach, such land theft by outsiders is all too common in the region, sparking concerns about environmental degradation and unchecked water use, which Indigenous locals fear risk the future of their territory. Put another way: same shit, different shores. On this episode, host/producer Rick Harp and roundtable regular Brock Pitawanakwat (Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at York University) are joined by Dawn Marie Paley, a Vancouver investigative journalist now based in Mexico, and the author of Drug War Capitalism. // CREDITS: Our intro/extro is 'nesting' by birocratic.

Media bias: something many suspect is at play in mainstream outlets. But proving it—that's a different story. Amidst the daily, dizzy churn that is the news cycle, finding a way to parse out and pin down reasonably comparable data isn't always obvious. But new research out of western Canada seems to have found a clever way around that: by looking at how different dailies treated the same original newswire stories within their respective papers. Spoiler alert: what you got to read depends on where you live. And the closer you lived to the oil sands, the less you're likely to see. On this episode, host/producer Rick Harp and roundtable regular Candis Callison (Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC) sit down with Regan Boychuk, the political economist, roofer and researcher behind "Proximity to Power: The oilpatch & Alberta’s major dailies." // CREDITS: Our theme is nesting by birocratic. Sound effects include teletype fast speed by