MEDIA INDIGENA : Indigenous current affairs

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 joined by Shiri Pasternak, Associate Professor of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Irina Cerić, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Windsor, co-authors of “‘The Legal Billy Club’: First Nations, Injunctions, and the Public Interest”

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// CREDITS: Our theme is 'nesting' by birocratic.

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.

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: 'Close Encounters of the Colonial Kind,' the title of a talk given by our very own Kim TallBear (University of Alberta professor of Native Studies) at “Of the Land and Water: Indigenous Sexualities, Genders and Ways of Being,” hosted earlier this year in Whitehorse, YK by the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning.

Although rooted in her by-now familiar terrains of sexuality and science, Kim’s monologue was a bit of a departure from what we’re used to here on the podcast: delivered in the fictionalized voice of ‘IZ,’ she’s the personification of an Indigenous-driven movement of ‘unapologetic intellectual promiscuity,’ or what IZ herself calls “critical polydisciplinamorous engagement.”

An adaptation of her 2023 Substack post / 2021 essay by the same name, Kim’s keynote so aroused our curiosity we had to have her flesh out the body of thought behind it. In the first of this two-part discussion, she walks MI host/producer Rick Harp and MI audio editor Cassidy Villebrun-Buracas through ‘IZ Speaks Back’ and ‘IZ Confesses,’ which together make up the first half of her talk.

CREDITS: ♬ 'A Moment' by Mr Smith (CC BY 4.0); 'Cryin' in my Beer' by Jason Shaw (CC BY 4.0); 'As Time Passes' (via ZapSplat.com); a sample of 'Staying’s Worse Than Leaving' by Sunny Sweeney; our program intro/xtro theme is 'nesting' by birocratic. SFX: 'Deep Space Vibrations Ambience Loop' by rhodesmas; 'Ambient space 4' by DylanTheFish.

Summer is back and so is MEDIA INDIGENA's Summer Series, our compendia of conversations collected and connected from over the past six years, coming up on 300 episodes of the podcast. Our first two shows of the summer are all about belonging, a subject neither dull nor academic for Indigenous peoples. After all, the Canadian state has worked so very hard to break the bonds that bind us. Featured voices this podcast include (in order of appearance): • Pam Palmater, Chair in Indigenous Governance at Toronto Metropolitan University, and the author of Beyond Blood: Rethinking Indigenous Identity • Paul Seeseequasis, writer/journalist behind the Indigenous Archival Photo Project • Damien Lee, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University and Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence • Kim TallBear, Professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment • Candis Callison, Associate Professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC • Taté Walker, award-winning Two Spirit storyteller • Cutcha Risling Baldy, Associate Professor and Department Chair of Native American Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt

// CREDITS: Creative Commons music this episode includes “Kite Fly High” by Adeline Yeo (HP), “Tree of Tears” by Kevin Hartnell, “Ronin” by EXETEXE, and “Acrylic on Canvas” by Audionautix. Our opening theme is “ Bad Nostalgia (Instrumental)” by Anthem of Rain; our closing theme is “Garden Tiger” by Pictures of the Floating World. This episode was hosted/produced/edited by Rick Harp; production assistance by Courteney Morin.