Two Indigenous health care professionals; two leaders in their field. They talk about the challenges and the opportunities to fix a broken healthcare system that too often harms Indigenous people. Dr. Alika Lafontaine says Indigenous people are starting to take their place in institutions like the medical field. He would know, he’s done it as the first Indigenous physician to head the Canadian Medical Association - the largest advocacy group for Canadian doctors. Dr. Lafontaine, who is Oji-Cree and Pacific Islander, is positioned to make change. Dr. Lafontaine tells us how he uses his position as a leader in his field to uplift others, just as he has been lifted up by others before him. As one of only a few Indigenous pharmacists in Canada, Jaris Swidrovich knows about making space. When they started in the field, Indigenous pharmacists were few and far between. Longing for community, they founded the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada to support other Indigenous pharmacists and make room for Indigenous ways of teaching and healing. Jaris, who is Saulteaux and Ukrainian, is also an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s faculty of pharmacy.

Today, the beautiful resistance of Indigenous music makers carrying powerful messages Digging Roots is Raven Kanatakta and Shoshona Kish. The blues/folk/soul duo just won a JUNO Award for their latest album Zhawenim. Their fourth studio album takes inspiration from skylines and mountain ranges; something the couple call Anishinabek Songlines, an ancient way of creating music. Rising star Aysanabee also got to shine on Canada’s JUNO stage this year. The singer/songwriter from Sandy Lake First Nation gave an emotional performance of his song, We Were Here featuring Northern Cree. We catch up with him to find out where his album Watin, about his grandfather, has taken him since its powerful debut. It’s rage and recovery with Kristi Lane Sinclair on her new record Super Blood Wolf Moon. The Haida/Cree rocker takes us through her personal journey as a survivor of domestic violence and PTSD. But more than that it is a journey of reclamation, healing and ultimately, the power of women who rise above it all. Zoon, also known as Daniel Monkman, represents young two-spirit identity in their latest record Bekka Ma’iingan, available now. Anishinaabemowin for ‘slow down’ and ‘wolf,’ Bekka Ma’iingan is both a grieving and a celebration of lost loved ones. From escaping a religious cult, to receiving JUNO nominations Jayli Wolf has seen a lot. Her 2021 debut EP Wild Whisper helped her work through intergenerational trauma and the shame she experienced as a young queer woman. Ultimately, the Anishinaabe woman reclaimed the Indigenous identity she had been displaced from. On her new record, God is an Endless Mirror, set for release this summer, Jayli shares her spiritual awakening. Plus a taste of the latest music from Indian Giver, Wyatt C. Louis, Sebastian Gaskin, and Andrina Turenne

This week, we speak with two Indigenous artists who mash-up traditional with contemporary as a way to carry on culture Joshua De Perry, a member of Long Lake 58 First Nation, is a fancy dancer who you might see strutting his traditional style at a pow wow. But he’s just as comfortable on a dance floor break-dancing to the beat of his own music. Also known as Classic Roots, the music producer and DJ blends pow wow and electronic music to create pow wow techno. And that’s not his only mash-up. During his DJ sets - Joshua also wears his colourful regalia - his feather bustle bouncing to the heavy hitting beats. Carrie Okemaw, from Manto Sipi Cree Nation and Berens River First Nation, has been beading and sewing powwow regalia for over 20 years. She learned the art of beadwork from her grandmother and aunties. Inspired by the bright floral patterns the Cree designer created her own fabric line with a contemporary twist. Now her designs show up in many other creations – from jewelry to ribbon skirts. The possibilities for her bright flower designs are limitless. Plus three friends of Unreserved drop by to share their suggestions of what music to listen to, TV shows to watch and what books to read this summer! Our favourite Indigi-Nerd, writer and filmmaker Sonya Ballentyne tunes us into what to watch on the big and small screen. Some great Indigenous music picks from the producer of the Indigenous Music Countdown, Dave McLeod. Don’t forget a good book! Tli Cho Dene author and Pop-culture Uncle Richard Van Camp shares his top three books to read this summer.

You never know what you’ll find when you walk into Sunshine House. There could be people singing karaoke or making get well cards for a friend. This resource centre in Winnipeg’s centennial neighbourhood provides harm reduction supplies, a cup of coffee and community. In the center of this community: Drag. Feather Wolfe and Davey Francis Kole are the heart and soul of Sunshine House – and two of the Queens behind the Like That drop-in program, primarily focused on the LGBTQ2S+ community and invites them to come as they are. Chelazon Leroux sashayed into our hearts on the third season of Canada’s Drag Race. The Dene drag queen from Saskatoon is one of the few Indigenous queens to grace Ru Paul’s Canadian stage. But it’s more than just stilettos, big hair and crowns; Chelazon is fierce, funny and proud to represent being Indigenous. In a world of queens, it can be a challenge for kings to find a place for themselves. Drag artists like Vancouver-based King Fisher, aka Jayme Andrews have had to fight to be part of the scene. But, clad in rhinestone, armour and love, they’ve won that battle. A drag performer of the Ktunaxa Nation, King Fisher challenges what drag should look like. Did someone say Landback? Colonization almost completely erased the space where two-spirit people exist within our communities. Anita Landback, who is from Millbrook First Nation, uses their drag as a love letter to their Mi'kmaq culture and to reclaim this space for themselves and future generations of two-spirit people. As much as many might wish they looked like Adam Beach, that’s not the reality for most. Growing up, Tygr Willy loved watching Mr. Beach on the screen but didn’t see themselves reflected. Through drag they’re hoping to bring softer representation of Indigenous bodies and cultural intersectionality to a wider audience.

Nicole Mann and NASA made history this past October when Mann became the first Indigenous woman in space. A member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Nicole rocketed into orbit 20 years after Chickasaw astronaut John Herrington became the first Indigenous person in space. She spent 157 days on the International Space Station as the mission commander and conducted research and experiments to prepare for explorations to the moon and Mars. Wilfred Buck is a star Knowledge Keeper from Opaskwayak Cree Nation and he’s on a mission to restore Indigenous knowledge of the universe. This Canada Day, the author of Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star stories, shares the Cree knowledge of Keewatin over the Winnipeg skyline. But if you think fireworks are the main event? Think again. Wilfred is using new tech to tell ancient stories - drones. Jennifer Howse is an Education Specialist at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory at the University of Calgary, nestled in the Foothills of the Rockies. Jennifer, who is Métis from Alberta, reveals the night skies to young people - as a way to reveal their connection to the stars. Using a giant telescope, she shows them bright stars and distant planets that some have never seen before. Connecting youth to the constellations helps her teach them about the impacts of light pollution.

Archeology that reconnects the past, present and future of Indigenous history Archaeology has always studied Indigenous history without us. It was something that was done to, instead of with Indigenous peoples. But a growing number of Indigenous archaeologists are pushing back against the colonial boundaries of the field. Cree/Metis archeologist, Paulette Steeves makes the case that Indigenous peoples have lived on Turtle Island a lot longer than previously thought. The Canada Research Chair in Healing and Reconciliation says archaeology’s deeply held beliefs that we originated somewhere else are rooted in racism. The professor at Algoma University authored The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere in 2021. It is the first book written from an Indigenous perspective on the Paleolithic archaeology of the Americas. Cree/Scottish Curator of Indigenous Collections and Repatriation at the Royal BC Museum, Kevin Brownlee believes archaeology is about more than digging up the past. It’s uncovering our histories to pass on to our children. As a 60s scoop adoptee, he had questions around where he came from. Archaeology helped bring him a deeper understanding of that history. Now, he wants other Indigenous youth to have access to that same knowledge. A new generation of archaeologists are now recovering their past as a way to reclaim narrative. Anishinabe Odjibikan is an archaeological field school in Ottawa. Anishinaabe Algonquin youth like Jennifer Tenasco, Breighton Baudoin and Kyle Sarazin help clean, sort and catalogue items left by their ancestors thousands of years ago because they believe Indigenous people should be telling their own histories.

For Indigenous people water is more than just hydration. Water is alive and holds a spirit. Water is life. Stephanie Thorassie advocates for the Seal River Watershed, a pristine region in northern Manitoba, about 200 km west of Churchill. It is a vast area central to the Sayisi Dene people, who have served as its guardians for millenia. As the executive director of the Seal River Watershed Alliance Stephanie leads a partnership of four First Nations pushing to have the area designated an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. In 2003, Anishnaabe Elder Josephine Mandamin took her first ceremonial water walk around Lake Superior. She wanted to share a message: the water is sick and people need to speak, love and fight for it. Following Mandamin's footsteps, Elder Shirley Williams, an Anishinaabe Elder from Wikwemikong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, along with her niece Elizabeth Osawamick have been organizing annual water walks around the Kawartha region of Ontario since 2010. Lawyer and activist Pamela Palmater created a documentary that warns: we must work together to save water – before it's too late. The short documentary is called Samqwan which means water in the Mi'kmaq language. Pam is a lawyer, professor, activist and author who wants to raise awareness around the threats to water - from pipelines to clear-cutting to water pollution.

We're celebrating four Indspire Award recipients who create, educate, and inspire The Indspire Awards represent the highest honour the Indigenous community bestows upon its own people. Every year, a dozen First Nation, Metis and Inuit people are chosen for their outstanding achievements across Turtle Island and beyond. Nations Skate Youth is where Joe Buffalo and his team teach kids to skate, as a way to empower, inspire and instill pride. Joe is a legend in the skate community. Not just for his gravity defying feats on a board but also because of his incredible story of survival and resilience. He survived one of Canada’s last residential schools, confronted substance abuse in his life, and after picking up his first skateboard turned pro and became a legend. This year the Samson Cree man was recognized with a Sports Indspire Award. One of this year’s Youth Recipients is Willow Allen. She is a fashion model, a cultural content creator with over a million followers and a soon to be social worker. After being discovered on Instagram, the Inuvialuit beauty has walked runways from Singapore to New York for big name brands like Clinique, Louboutin Beauty, and Canada Goose. But because home is where her heart is, Willow, who is from Inuvik, Northwest Territories also teaches people online about life in the north – just as her dad taught her on the land. Building cabins with her grandfather inspired Reanna Merasty to build a career as an architect focused on holistic homes. Now, Reanna is an architectural intern. She also co-founded the Indigenous Design and Planning Students Association at the University of Manitoba. Reanna is a recipient of a Youth Indspire Award for her advocacy and dedication to changing the field of architecture. Lori Campbell is a 60s Scoop adoptee: one of about 20-thousand Indigenous children who were removed by the government and adopted into mostly non-Indigenous families. She was lost - disconnected from her culture until she enrolled at the University of Regina. There she found a community of “aunties and uncles” that guided her on a journey of self-discovery. Now, as the Associate Vice President of Indigenous Engagement of the same university, she is on a mission to make universities a resource for other Indigenous people who want to find their way home.

This week on Unreserved we explore what it takes to decolonize our colleges and universities. Amanda Tachine is Diné from Ganado, Arizona. She is an assistant professor at Arizona State University and the author of Native Presence and Sovereignty in College: Weapons to defeat systemic monsters. She tells us how her students are taking on settler colonialism and finding power in kinship and love. And we don't know where we're going unless we know where we come from. Harvey McCue tells us how he co-founded the very first Indigenous Studies Department in Canada, back in 1968. Harvey is an educator, a long time advocate for Indigenous youth, and a member of the Order of Canada. And Randy Herrmann is taking on the institution and industry as he encourages the engineering department at the University of Manitoba to take Indigenous knowledge systems into account. He is the director of Engineering Access Program which supports Indigenous students studying engineering. Plus, we check in with students at the University of Ottawa about where they find belonging on campus.

Indigenous agricultural practices kept our ancestors alive for millenia. They not only fed their own communities but also taught settlers how to grow food across this vast territory. Indigenous people, like Cree-Métis Winnipegger Audrey Logan, keep that tradition alive and growing! Audrey’s whole life revolves around growing food. It has to. We tour Spirit Park, a community garden she helped create, in the West Broadway neighbourhood where she shares her journey from being depressed, overweight and diabetic to a healthy-eating Indigenous garden guru! Over in Tyendinaga, Chloe Maracle is carrying seeds for the next 7 Generations. We dig deep and learn about the 300 seed varieties kept at the Kenhteke Seed Sanctuary and Learning Centre. The Haudenosaunee intern is not just learning how to care for the vast collection but is also growing that list to include at-risk varieties important to her people. Food insecurity has been a concern in many Indigenous communities for years. A 2019 study found that almost half of all First Nations families struggle to put food on the table. But people like Steven Wiig and Julia Pechawis are trying to change that. They turned a farmers field into a food forest in Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Saskatchewan.

This week, a powerful season opener featuring a daughter leading a resistance with a call to Search The Landfill. Cambria Harris is the daughter of Morgan Harris, one of four Indigenous women who Winnipeg police say was murdered by the same man. Morgan is believed to be buried in the Prairie Green Landfill, along with a second woman Marcedes Myron. Police were led to a serial killer after the remains of Rebecca Contois were discovered in a city garbage bin and at the Brady Landfill. The remains of a fourth woman - named by the community as Buffalo Woman - is still unknown. Listen, as Cambria invites us into her home. She shares personal memories of her mother who “always made time for us,” despite a system that kept them apart and why, at only 23 she is leading the call to bring all of these women home. Come gather around the sacred fire burning at Camp Marcedes in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Hear why demonstrators from across Turtle Island are organizing now around the issue of MMIWG2S+ and calling on authorities to search a Winnipeg landfill. Firekeeper, Goldstar, welcomes us to the sacred fire at Camp Marcedes and explains why he keeps the flame burning. Jordan Myron says she is at the camp for her sister, Marcedes Myron, whose “bright smile could light up a room.” And Helper, Danielle Pelletier who lost a cousin to violence, supports, educates and comforts those who come to fire. Please take care while listening to this episode.

Cafè Daughter is a movie inspired by the life of a little girl with a secret that would drive her passion for science, advocacy, and ultimately lead her back home. At 78 years old the Honourable Dr. Lillian Eva Dyck is a former Canadian Senator, a highly respected neuroscientist, and a champion of Indigenous rights. Born in 1945 to a Chinese father and a Cree mother, Lillian grew up in small-town Saskatchewan working at her family's cafè. As a residential school survivor, her mother Eva was taught to be ashamed of her Cree identity and encouraged her children to keep that part of who they were hidden. Lillian’s life inspired first a play, and in October, a feature film called Cafè Daughter. The film is an adaptation of a play of the same name, by Cree playwright Kenneth T. WIlliams. Both Lillian and Kenneth are members of George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan and Kenneth says it was a fateful encounter with the former senator that sparked his creative flame. Mohawk filmmaker and director Shelley Niro was immediately drawn to the story because it reflected much of her own experiences. The same thing happened to Keith Lock, one of the first Chinese-Canadian filmmakers in Canada. He has been involved with Cafè Daughter since its early development as a play.

This week, we learn how history, culture and science can all play a role in bringing people home. For decades, policies like the Sixties Scoop saw thousands of children fostered or adopted out to non-Indigenous families. Now, thanks to DNA detectives, resilience research and mapping projects Indigenous adoptees are finding their way home. You might remember Dean Lerat from last season. He’s an RCMP officer by day and DNA Detective by night. Dean helps people in his community find the families they were separated from by using their DNA. We catch up with Dean at Cowessess First Nation pow wow where he is still busy reuniting families. That's where Rachael Lerat comes in. No relation to Dean but thanks to his detective work she has found her way here. Rachael came to Cowessess First Nation to reconnect with her mom’s side of the family, but also to seek out new connections to her biological father. That journey brought her somewhere completely unexpected! Listen to find out why. Colleen Hele-Cardinal hopes to lead Sixties Scoop adoptees back to their families, communities and themselves by literally drawing a map. As the co-founder of the Sixties Scoop Network, she created an online interactive map so adoptees can upload and share their stories. And she has her own story to tell: Colleen and her two sisters were taken 2000 kilometers away from Edmonton, Alberta to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario as part of the Sixties Scoop. Since reconnecting with her biological family, she now knows she is from Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta. Amy Bombay researches the impacts of residential school and how trauma gets passed down from generation to generation. She was a guest on Unreserved eight years ago. She’s back to tell us what her research reveals about something else passed from generation to generation: resilience.

It's Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. September 30th is a day to talk about the effects of Residential Schools; about the trauma that continues to ripple across Turtle Island. It’s a day that honors the experiences of Indigenous survivors, celebrates our resilience and affirms a now familiar phrase: every child matters. It started with an orange shirt. Taken from a little girl in residential school. Every year on September 30 that little girl tells her story. Phyllis Webstad was 6 years old when she was forced to leave her Secwpemc community - Canoe Creek Indian Band - and attend St. Joseph's Mission, near Williams Lake, BC. For the occasion, her grandmother bought her a new orange shirt. But it was taken away from her when she arrived at the school. Phyllis has been sharing the story of her orange shirt for ten years now. She’s written several books about it, including her latest called, Every Child Matters. St. Joseph's Mission operated for nearly a hundred years. It closed in 1981 but many children never returned home. Since St. Joseph’s closed there have been two separate investigations using ground-penetrating radar. One-hundred-fifty-nine potential burial sites were detected on the school grounds. On September 5th of this year, Williams Lake First Nation purchased the site. Chief Willie Sellars of Williams Lake First Nations says they want to ensure the integrity of investigations into children who disappeared while attending the school.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an opportunity for Canadians to listen to the wisdom coming from Indigenous communities: to learn and unlearn our shared story. Music is a powerful way to share it. Music That Carries Truth was recorded live at CBC Manitoba Studio 11 and features music and conversation with Nadia and Jason Burnstick (Burnstick) and Sebastian Gaskin. It’s folk music that brims with the kind of chemistry that could only come from a husband and wife. Nadia, a Francophone-Métis singer-songwriter, and Jason, a Plains-Cree guitarist, are award-winning duo: Burnstick. Two performers whose voices and musicality blend together with ease. They share songs from their album KÎYÂNAW, Cree for Us and the inspiration behind their music. Plus, they debut a new single: Made of Sin is a powerful response to the 215 graves of children found at Kamloops Indian Residential School at Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc in BC. Sebastian Gaskin is a multi-instrumentalist R&B Singer-Songwriter from Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake). Sebastian writes and self produces music that is anything but formulaic, thanks to eclectic musical tastes in R&B, Hip Hop, Metal,and Punk. Their first EP - Contradictions was released in 2019 and they were recently signed to Indigenous owned record label Ishkōdé Records. The last generation to attend Residential school in their family, Sebastian shares songs and tells us how music saved their life.

During the “Sixties Scoop” thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families. These children were forced into the child welfare system and often placed in non-Indigenous homes. The exact number of children taken, of families torn apart, varies – it’s estimated that over 20,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were removed during the Scoop. But many still don’t know this story. Enter: Little Bird. Little Bird is the first television series to explore the Sixties Scoop. It is available on CRAVE, APTN Lumi and will soon air on PBS. This six-part award-winning series follows Esther, raised in a Jewish family but born Bezhig to an Ojibway family, as she searches for her birth family and discovers the truths of her past. The Little Bird family shows us what life was like for many Indigenous people living on the prairies, until a government policy left a path of destruction that devastated families, communities and cultures – the wake of which continues to be felt today. Four of the Indigenous women behind the series take us behind the scenes. Producer/Creator Jennifer Podemski is Saulteaux/Ojibway and Jewish and says it is not “any one person's story” but is reflective of many Sixties Scoop stories. Directors/Writers, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (Blackfoot and Sámi) and Zoe Leigh Hopkins (Heiltsuk and Mohawk) were more like Aunties, taking great care on the set of the series to make sure everyone felt safe to tell this story. Darla Contois is the star of Little Bird in the role of Esther/Bezhig. The Cree-Saulteaux actor from Misipawistik Cree Nation says she brought her own family's experience with the Scoop to inform her role.

As Indigenous people our connection to the land is at the core of who we are. Every river, lake and piece of land had a name and a story. It might tell us what the land looked like, who lived there or whether the area had good hunting and fishing ground; stories handed down and remembered. Since early contact, our lands have been renamed by Canada’s settlers. Many of our traditional place names were erased and replaced. Some names were derogatory like Killsquaw Lake in Saskatchewan. Other names are a reminder of a dark history like Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa or Avenue Christophe-Colomb in Montreal. But now that is changing, or rather name-changing. Alestine Andre is a Gwich’in researcher from Tsiigehtshic, formerly known as Arctic Red River. Ingrid Kritsch is an anthropologist and archaeologist from Ontario. For the last 30 years, the duo have been interviewing Gwich’in Elders, and used their knowledge to return about 1000 place names to their traditional territory. Christopher Columbus is often credited with “discovering” the “New World.” Once celebrated as a great explorer – his legacy has shifted from discoverer to invader. But his monuments still stand in many streets, parks, towns and cities. That’s what brings Kahnawake – Mohawk Sean French to march along Avenue Christophe-Colomb . He plans to continue marching until the name of the street is changed. Changing a place name can also heal and repair relations because as Kellie Wuttunee says, names have power. The Cree lawyer from Saskatchewan pulled over to the side of a lake one day in 2017. She looked up to check where she was, a sign read: Killsquaw Lake. That started Kellie on a 2 year mission to change the derogatory name. The traditional territory of the Algonquin people is also known as Ottawa - the Capital of Canada. That’s where you’ll find many references to Canada’s first Prime Minister: Sir John A. Macdonald. While he is rightly memorialized as such, he also had a darker history. Macdonald was the architect of the Indian Act - federal legislation that governs “status Indians” and life on reserves. He also oversaw the expansion of the residential school system. That's why Algonquin poet and storyteller Albert Dumont wanted the name changed. Last September 30, he gave notice to the National Capital Commission - the board that decides on name changes. Dumont said he would protest the parkway that year - and every year until it was renamed.

Jules Koostachin is a Cree filmmaker from Attawapiskat First Nation. Her new documentary WaaPaKe explores how children of Residential School Survivors “survive the survivor.” Her mother, Rita Okimawininew is a residential school survivor and is at the heart of the film documentary and the heart of Jules’ own story– because so much of her mother’s story has influenced her own. It’s a part of the legacy of Residential Schools but one that is still finding its voice. Let The River Flow is a historical drama by Sami Norwegian filmmaker Ole Giaever. It gives us a glimpse into the Sami struggle for land and cultural survival. The Alta Conflict in Norway saw the Sami people fight back against a dam construction that threatened not just their culture but their very lives. Ester is a young Sami woman but she was raised Norwegian and encouraged by her family to conceal her Sami identity. That all changes when she gets involved as a protester in Alta. Along the way, Ester finds herself and reclaims her Sami identity.

This week, In Search of April Raintree celebrates 40 years and a new essay collection traces 40 years of history of Indigenous resistance in Winnipeg. In 1983 Beatrice Mosionier wrote a book about two sisters - separated by the child welfare system; one embraces her Métis identity, the other tries to leave it behind. Much of their journey mirrored Beatrice’s own life. She reflects on how she drew on those memories and how the book inspired a generation of storytellers. Forty years later - her seminal novel - In Search of April Raintree is still a must read. Winnipeg has a long history of grassroots organizing. Many of those groups have been led by women like Kathy Mallett. Kathy is one of the editors and writers behind Indigenous Resistance and Development in Winnipeg 1960-2000. The book traces the growth of Indigenous-led groups, including the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre which she helped create in 1984. Kathy wanted to change the child welfare system to include rather than exclude Indigenous participation in decision making.

From museums and monuments to letters and laughs shared around the dinner table, Indigenous veterans are being remembered across Turtle Island. Take a walk with us through the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, where Canada’s military history is told. Indigenous Military Historian Danielle Teillet is our guide. She tells us why so many chose to fight, what they were fighting for and recounts some of the common experiences she's heard from Indigenous veterans. Then we head to Labrador where Heather Campbell passes on the stories of her great great uncle John Shiwak, an Inuk soldier in the first World War. Heather knows his story well because she has been learning about him since she was a little girl. To Heather he is “Uncle John” and her family has been honoring his memory for over one hundred years. And, we land south of the medicine line in Exeter, Rhode Island to visit the Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery where a beautiful stone monument honouring Indigenous Veterans now stands. That’s thanks to Lorén Spears, co-chair of the Honouring Indigenous Veterans of Turtle Island Committee and the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum. The monument is the first to honour Indigenous Veterans, even though Native Americans have fought in every war since confederation.

When the apocalypse hits – the best place to be might be the rez! This week, a special presentation of Unreserved: A live studio interview with Anishinaabe author and journalist Waubgeshig Rice on his latest novel, Moon of The Turning Leaves, recorded at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon in the Toronto Public Library on October 18, 2023. Waubgeshig Rice takes us back into a world he first dreamed up after his own "end of days" moment: A world that fell into chaos after the lights went out but where an Anishinaabe family survives by returning to the land. Moon of the Turning Leaves is the sequel to his 2018 best seller Moon of the Crusted Snow. In that book Evan Whitesky and his small northern reserve deal with the fall-out after a mysterious black out. But we don’t know why it went dark or what happened to the rest of the world. Find out the answers and why Waub says, Indigenous people have already survived their own apocalypse.

This week, we chef up some Indigenous cuisine! Share in the spirit – and the science – of cooking with pre-contact ingredients. Unreserved associate producer Aicha Smith-Belghaba also happens to be a chef and it didn’t take us long to see her passion for Indigenous foods. Join us in the kitchen for our first cooking video, as Aicha cooks up decolonial dishes. On the menu: Sweetgrass Tea, Lyed Corn Berry Parfait and Sister Salmon Cannelloni. While Aicha and I chef it up, she’ll introduce us to some fellow foodies in her community of Six Nations, a Mohawk reserve teeming with people working to decolonize their diets. Chandra Maracle is a traditional food researcher from Six Nations. She says a Haudenosaunee approach to food is an essential part of healthy living. Her research focuses on the nutritional qualities of pre contact food – especially as it relates to motherhood. Deyowidron’t Morrow is a Haudenosaunee dietitian and the chair of the Aboriginal Nutrition Network of Dietitians of Canada. The Six Nations foodie combines her work as a dietician with the traditional food knowledge of her ancestors. Concerned about how often we’re eating colonized food like white flour, milk and sugar, Deyo set out return people to Nation-specific eating, based on the uniqueness of land, culture and tradition.

A month has passed since the investigation into Buffy Sainte-Marie rocked the Indigenous community. The CBC’s Fifth Estate aired the investigative documentary on Friday, October 27th. It cast doubts about the iconic musicians Indigenous identity. In the end the report labeled her a “Pretendian," the term used to describe people whose claims of Indigenous identity have been found false or built on distant family lineage. The report was a bombshell and it hit the Indigenous community hard. Those with connections to Indigenous communities say the story has caused harm and division. Today, we make space for grief: to mourn what Buffy meant in the Indigenous community, to learn why stories like this do so much harm and find out where the Indigenous-led solutions lie to find our way forward. Lori Campbell is using her roles as the Associate Vice-President of Indigenous Engagement at the University of Regina and as a community Aunty to keep dialogue open, and counter the negative comments and conversations that divide. Michelle Cyca is a journalist who has been part of identity investigations in the past. She wrote an exposé for Maclean's magazine about Gina Adams, artist and former professor at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. But now she says she’s growing increasingly uncomfortable with the way the media – and the world – delivers and digests pretendian investigations while ignoring the bigger issues. Shaneen Robinson is the Indigenous Music Development Coordinator at Manitoba Music. In her industry, Indigenous music makers are coming together to talk about the pain and the solutions to the pretendian problem in the music world.

ʔasqanaki is a Ktunaxa word that means to tell two versions of the same story. It’s also the name of a new podcast that shares this traditional world view. Host, Smokii Sumac - Ktunaxa and transmasculine poet - speaks with Indigenous storytellers and creators. They talk on topics ranging from representation to sexuality; from language learning to aunties teaching. After learning to see himself in a new way Smokii Sumac hopes to help others look at the world differently through ʔasqanaki. She’s larger than life in Louboutin heels, a fabulous wardrobe and she came from the stars to save us all with love! Miss Chief Eagle Testickle is the shape-shifting, time-traveling elemental alter-ego of Kent Monkman. The renowned Cree artist is known for his larger than life paintings and films that feature Miss Chief. She has sashayed through his canvases challenging Canada’s narrative for 20 years, but we have never known Miss Chief’s story - until now. The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island (Vol 1 and 2) are the visually stunning and salacious memoirs created by Monkman and long-time collaborator Gisele Gordon.

From Solstice ceremonies to Siqinnaaiut, we share stories that lead us to light out of the dark days of winter. The winter solstice will soon be upon us. That means shorter days and longer nights. Many Indigenous Nations take this time to slow down and acknowledge a new season. For Sarah Sunshine Manning - it means decolonizing the calendar - starting with Christmas. Sarah and her family stopped celebrating Christmas a few years ago and started celebrating Solstice. Sarah is a Shoshone-Paiute writer and director of communications for NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy organization. She’s on a mission to get us to rethink the way we spend our holidays, both in money and time. The winter solstice is a special time of year for many. It’s a time to slow down, pause, reflect and gather. For Nakota/Cree artist and designer Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway it’s a time to bring community together. Since 2018, she's been creating a safe space for Indigenous women in Regina to come together for solstice ceremonies. Each year – around the middle of November – the sun sets over the small community of Igloolik in Nunavut and it doesn’t return for almost two months. But when the sun returns it’s greeted with the crooked smiles of children and a song. Siqinnaaiut – or “the return of the sun” in Inuktitut – is cause for great celebration where Monica Ittusardjuat grew up. The educator, a cultural advisor and the senior editor at Arvaaq Press recalls childhood memories of men hunting by starlight and silhouette and children playing games by the light of the Qulliq during the dark winter months.

This week, ‘tis the season for traditions and gathering around songs and stories. Indigenous people love a good story! Especially during the long cold nights of winter. For Anishinabeg and Gwich'in Knowledge Keeper Jack Hoggarth, sharing traditional stories like those of the Anishinaabe spirit Waynaboozhoo is a connection to our ancestors. Community, friends and families would come together to tell these tales, passing them down through generations and creating winter-time traditions that continue to this day. Cree Métis musician Don Amero has been growing with his Christmas concert Amero Little Christmas for 15 years. Local holiday shows have become traditions in communities across Turtle Island. In Winnipeg, that means an evening with Don Amero, his band and his glitter ball suit jacket. Inuk classical singer, Deantha Edmunds enchants with a holiday concert of her own that honours a 200-year-old tradition of singing carols in Inuttitut. Songs and Stories of Christmas in Labrador took place on a wintery December night in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Deantha invited her 13 year old daughter Annabelle to sing along with her.

This we go back, waaaaaay back to our second episode ever as a national show. Unreserved turns 10 this year and we’re celebrating how far we’ve come and getting excited about the journey ahead. This episode features 2014 throwbacks to award-winning Cree journalist Connie Walker, Kagagi superhero creator Jay Odjick, Winnipeg visual artist Casey Adams, science educator Wildfred Buck, and -- since we're talking about stars -- we decided to throw in one of our all-time favourite interviews with astronaut Nicole Mann (2023),

Many Indigenous entrepreneurs start their own businesses to fill a void that the mainstream is missing -- because they want to create businesses that were better aligned with their values and the values of their communities. From coffee to tech to cosmetics, we hear from entrepreneurs who dared to do things differently. The result is business success - and mainstream industries are starting to take notice.

We're headed to New York, baby! This episode is part of a travel series from Unreserved called Unmapped. The series invites us to look for the Indigenous presence in some of the most iconic travel destinations around the world. Meet the people who are nurturing community and raising the visibility of Indigenous pasts, presents and futures.

It was an invitation to reconnect with the land, but Robin Wall Kimmerer's bestselling book ended up being more of a call to action. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants is now ten years old. Robin tells us how her humble book of essays spread like seeds in the wind around the world, selling more than 1.6 million copies in the US alone. We also hear from readers and friends who were inspired by the book and took action in their own lives to change their relationships with plants, animals, rain drops...and each other!

There are a lot of love stories out there, but not everyone can see themselves in them. This week we hear from Trans, Queer and Two Spirit artists on how they’re pushing against heteronormative narratives in today’s love stories and love songs. So everyone can see - and hear - themselves in love.

Join us as we check out some birds, hit the halfpipe and prepare for the sugar bush. You'll hear how Indigenous nature enthusiasts are empowering others to get outside and claim space in the Great Outdoors.

Food brings us together. But it can also bring us back in time.One of chef Scott Iserhoff’s favourite memories is of watching his grandparents make goose stew in Attawapiskat, Ontario. Food holds memory for the Cree chef and owner of Pei Pei Chei Ow, a food and education business in Edmonton. His food memories inspire the dishes he makes today and gives his customers a little taste of home.Oglala Lakota chef Sean Sherman, 2023 winner of the Julia Child Award, is on a mission. Growing up, his family's dinner table didn’t often include traditional food. But now the owner of Owamni Restaurant in Minneapolis strives to return the food systems of his ancestors. Both on the plate and on the food scene. Métis chef Patrick Anderson teaches chefs-to-be that making Indigenous cuisine can connect them to their ancestors. Patrick is an instructor in the Indigenous culinary program at Red River College in Winnipeg. He helps chefs-to-be find pride in their communities’ traditions by teaching them about the ingredients growing all around them. He hopes by passing on this knowledge, students carry it back home and create their own communities. 

Sage Paul grew up watching the women in her life sew, bead and craft. She turned these skills into a career, and has been dreaming and designing clothes for over a decade. But clothes aren’t the only things she wants to create. As the executive and artistic director of Indigenous Fashion Arts, Sage also creates opportunities for other Indigenous designers to find success in the fashion industry. This past February, the Dene designer and artist led a delegation all the way to Milan Fashion Week. Two people who were part of the team that Sage took to Milan Fashion Week were Anishinabe designer Lesley Hampton and Metis designer Evan Ducharme. Their stories are woven into the fabrics of history and shared across generations through the clothes they create. While the two young designers never saw themselves included within the fashion industry as children, they’re now bringing the change they wanted to see to international runways. Indigenous people are not just behind the runway curtain creating fabulous clothes. They’re also modeling them. From TikTok to the catwalk, Michelle Chubb knows what it takes to make it as an Indigenous woman in the fashion world. This past February, the 25 year-old Swampy Cree model joined 2Spirit fashion designer Scott Wabano at New York Fashion Week. Michelle was part of a group of mostly Indigenous models to showcase their work.

These ‘tiny horses with giant spirits’ once lived alongside Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island. But after contact with Europeans, they were culled to near extinction. Now the small but hearty breed is making a comeback, thanks to a growing number of Indigenous people. Artist and knowledge keeper Rhonda Snow was a small girl when she overheard some elders talking about the Ojibwe Spirit Horse and was captivated. She has dedicated her life to recovering and reclaiming the spirit horse and making sure the little ponies thrive. Madahoki Farm is an Indigenous tourism and gathering space in Ottawa and home to Stanjii, Kita, Sweetgrass, and Cedar. Trina Mather-Simard is the executive director and helps look after the spirit horses there. Ken MacDonald raises his Ojibwe Spirit Horses under a wide-open Manitoba sky. When he’s not caring for his ponies, Ken plays French horn for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Ken teamed up with Rhonda Snow, Cree composer Andrew Balfour and Anishinaabe hand drummer Jodi Contin and they created The Spirit Horse Returns. Jodi Contin shares what inspired her compositions in The Spirit Horse Returns and explains how her community of Wasauksing First Nation lived and worked with the ponies many years ago. Darcy Whitecrow and his partner Kimberlee Campbell brought the horses back to Seine River First Nation and opened Grey Raven Ranch. There, they run a program for youth that shows Ojibwe Spirit Horses still hold the important role of teacher and helper for the Anishinaabe.

It’s the spooky season! Time for jack-o-lanterns, tons of candy and stories to terrify. Indigenous people have told scary stories for generations to pass on important lessons. Tlicho Dene author, Richard Van Camp loves nothing more than hearing ghost stories around a campfire and he grew up watching 80's horror movies. Richard is working on a graphic novel about a deadly monster called Wheetago, one of the many creatures that’s tormented Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island since before anyone can remember. He loves the creepy, the chilling and what these eerie stories teach us. Anishinaabe storyteller, artist and musician Isaac Murdoch shares a Wendigo story that will scare the wits out of you! Julie Pellissier-Lush is Prince Edward Island’s current poet laureate. When the Mi'kmaq storyteller is not creating poetry, she explores the paranormal. She is working on a book about the spirits that remain after death, still wandering the shores of PEI, including the witch of Port-La-Joye. Who you gonna call when you hear a bump in the night? Six Nations Investigating Paranormal Encounters, or SNIPE of course. These ghost hunters live for a good scare! But Haudenosaunee group member Artie Martin’s first night out with SNIPE at the Mohawk Institute Residential School left him with chills. For Dan SaSuweh Jones, a writer and artist from the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, places like cemeteries are haunted for a reason and the stories we tell about them can serve some surprising purposes. He visited Indigenous communities across the United States and gathered stories about their ghosts, witches and supernatural beings.

From the people searching on the frontlines, to those who hold Canadians to account and the women who know the solutions, we find power and place amidst the national crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2Spirit people. Winnipeg’s North Point Douglas Women’s Resource Centre is the home of the Mama Bear Clan. The volunteer patrol walks three times a week in this neighbourhood, the poorest in Winnipeg and where many of the city’s most vulnerable have few places to get warm and even fewer places to get food. Walkers like Gina Smoke, Mitch Bourbonnaire and Morgan Fontaine hand out food, winter gear and plenty of love while searching for the missing. There are roughly 1,200 missing or murdered Indigenous women in Canada, although the true number is thought to exceed 4,000. In 2016, Canada launched a national inquiry into the crisis and heard from three thousand family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers. Its final report — Reclaiming Power and Place — lists 231 calls for justice. Karine Duhamel knows the report well. As the director of research for the National Inquiry which lasted nearly three years, she co-wrote it. Women like Bernadette Smith and Lorelei Williams have been on the ground in their communities, organizing, marching and educating. But our sisters and relatives keep disappearing. So what is it going to take to finally bring this crisis to an end? Bernadette Smith is the co-founder of the Coalition of Families of Missing and Murdered Women in Manitoba, Drag the Red Initiative and No Stone Unturned, and she is an MLA in the Manitoba legislature. Lorelei Williams is the founder of the Vancouver-based dance group Butterflies in Spirit and member of the Skatin and Sts'ailes First Nations.

This week on Unreserved, Indigenous people who are decolonizing the sky! Pilot and entrepreneur Teara Fraser’s entire career has been about the sky. The Métis woman began as a pilot. Then she started an aerial photography company. But it wasn’t long before she aimed even higher, by being the first Indigenous woman to launch an airline in Canada – Iskwew Air. Now she is a leader in her efforts to rematriate the aviation industry. We fly all the way to coastal Labrador to meet Zoie Michelin. She is a First Officer on Air Borealis, a crucial link within Nunatsiavut. They fly everything from passengers to cargo to and from isolated communities. But the airline based in Goose Bay is also breaking gender and language barriers with its first all-female Inuit flight crew. CEO of Indigenous Aerospace Jacob Taylor uses the sky as a highway. Jacob is teaching community members in Moose Cree First Nation how to use drones to transport goods like medicine and food into hard-to-reach communities. But he says the sky's the limit on where First Nations could take drone technology.

He is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, professor, and author. After 25 years at CBC,the Anishinaabe storyteller is moving on from the public broadcaster and on to a new stage. Duncan began his career at the CBC as a reporter in Vancouver in 1998. These days, he’s the host of Helluvastory on CBC Radio One and the podcast Kuper Island, an 8-part series about the notorious Residential School by the same name. Many know him from the years he hosted Cross Country Checkup. He’s also the author of The Shoe Boy: A Trapline Memoir and created and wrote Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities, which is still used in CBC newsrooms. But all that’s about to change. Later this year he takes on a new role as Professor of Indigenous Journalism and Storytelling at Carleton's School of Journalism in Ottawa. He’ll be creating a new Certificate of Indigenous Journalism for students in remote communities. We want to send him off in a good way, reflecting on – not only an incredible career – but the life and the people that led him to it. Guest appearances and shout-outs of love from: Ian Hanomansing, Adrienne Arsenault, Waubgeshig Rice, and many more admirers, including his #1 fan, his Dad!

Got land you want to give back? That may be harder than you think. Even when a group or individual is ready and willing to give land back to First Nations, there is no system in place to make this happen easily. Still, those who believe in land back are making it happen. SISCENEM, formerly Halibut Island, is a small island in the Salish Sea. When it went up for sale, Tara Martin, professor in conservation science in the department of Forest and Conservation sciences at UBC, wanted to return the island to the WSANEC Nation. She says that their guardianship is how this ecological gem would flourish. She found a funder, purchased the land, had it held in trust, and now that the WSANEC Nation has created its own land trust, it officially can have the land transferred over. If you got land - and want to return or gift it to a local First Nation or Indigenous group, how do you go about it? Lorraine Land, a lawyer who specializes in Indigenous rights and environmental law, knows the barriers in Canadian law that complicate the land back process. She outlines the existing ways land can be given back. Cathy Armstrong is the executive director of the Land Conservancy of BC. After the purchase of the island they held it in trust. Cathy says land back must be part of reconciliation. Eric Pelky is the community engagement coordinator of the WSANEC leadership council and the hereditary chief of Tsawout. He says the island is rich in traditional plants like camas and the presence of an ancient burial ground prove the WSANEC once lived there.

For thousands of years and up until a few generations ago, Indigenous babies were born on the land. They were born in their communities, surrounded by culture, with the help of expert birth workers – women who knew just what to do when the water broke. Colonization and the western medical system nearly destroyed Indigenous birthing traditions, but people like Ellen Blais are bringing birth home. Ellen is from the Oneida Nation of the Thames. She’s a trained midwife and currently serves as the Director of Indigenous Midwifery for the Association of Ontario Midwives. Ellen’s vision to see birth returned to Indigenous communities will certainly become reality if young doulas and birth workers have anything to say about it. We find out what a doula does and why Tagwanibisan Armitage-Smith, Gina Loodit and Madison White want to help bring our babies into the world surrounded by culture. Opolahsomuwehs - also known by her English name as Imelda Mary Perley - is a Wolastoquey elder, knowledge keeper, and doula from St. Mary’s First Nation in New Brunswick. She says a doula’s job isn’t only to support the person about to give birth; they must also prepare the community for the arrival of its newest member. The Cree Health Board in northern Quebec is another group that’s bringing birth back into Indigenous communities. In 2017, the board re-established birthing services in the village of Chisasibi. In 2021, its midwifery team opened a temporary birthing home there with the goal of eventually opening three permanent birthing homes in the region. The health board also intends to launch a midwifery education program in June 2023 so that future Cree midwives don’t have to travel south for their education. Denise Perusse was the interim birth home coordinator in Chisasibi. One she day hopes to become a midwife.

Unreserved is getting in the festive mood with an episode about gifts — material items you can give to family and friends, as well as the intangible gifts of community and culture. We take a tour of an Indigenous-led market in Ottawa that doesn't accept money — and instead is going back to old ways of trading and exchanging. The marketplace is run by the Assembly of Seven Generations. Co-founder Gabrielle Fayant and A7G volunteer Madeleine Kelly reflect on what makes this market such a gift for Indigenous people — especially youth — in Ottawa. Falynn Baptiste says her gift is song. The teacher from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation translates popular holiday music into the Cree language. You'll hear her story and her songs. Are you looking for something good to watch, a great read to dive into or a good book to give to someone you love? Unreserved's resident pop culture uncle, Dene author Richard Van Camp, joins host Rosanna Deerchild to share his recommendations of what to watch and read over the holidays.

Davis Inlet is on an island on the north coast of Labrador. But no one has lived there for 20 years. In the early 1990s, video of children sniffing gas in a cold shack made headlines, forcing the government to relocate the Innu to Natuashish. Davis Inlet will soon be decommissioned and the people who once called this place home must decide what story they will tell their children. This past summer, Innu Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mary Ann Nui invited CBC reporter John Gaudi to return to Davis Inlet with her. He takes us along with them in his documentary "I Still Live Here." Jodie Ashini grew up learning from her dad about the land, animals, Innu and how they all fit together. Her father, Daniel Ashini, was president of the Innu Nation and a tireless advocate for Innu land claims and cultural preservation. Today, Jodie is a cultural guardian. Her whole job is to safeguard Innu culture, including repatriating Innu Nation materials and providing input on government policy. Peter Armitage is an anthropologist who worked with the Innu of Labrador since 1981 and a longtime family friend of the Ashini family. Recently, Peter gifted back an extraordinary archive - three decades worth of irreplaceable Innu history.

November is when we don our red poppies and remember our veterans, those who fought for Canada in war time. While November 11th is Remembrance Day across our country, November 8th is National Indigenous Veterans Day. Sargent Tommy Prince is one of Canada’s most decorated Indigenous soldiers. We visited Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, Manitoba to learn more about the hero and the man. Students Kash Thompson, Micah Sinclair and Kendrick Bear give us an enthusiastic tour around and show us the humble monuments that bear this local hero’s story. Gertrude and Bill Ballantyne regale us with stories about Sargent Prince's generosity and humour and his son Tommy Prince Junior shares his fondest memories of his dad. Even though Indigenous people across Canada were being denied rights as citizens during the great wars, many still chose to stand with the Crown. John Moses knows the minds and hearts of Indigenous soldiers on a personal and historical level. He served with the Canadian Armed Forces for five years and co-authored a Commemorative History of Aboriginal People in the Canadian Military. He discusses Indigenous soldiers' many motivations for enlisting and the impact their service had on their home communities. After decades lying in unmarked graves – the names of eight Indigenous veterans are now etched in stone. Earlier this year, The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte found and marked their resting places. Chief Donald Maracle of Tyendinaga Mohawk Council says they are taking action to make sure the soldiers are never forgotten again. Francis Pegahmagabow was one of the most highly decorated Indigenous soldiers. “Peggy,” as many called him, was from Wasauksing First Nation near Parry Sound, Ontario. He served as a marksman in the First World War and had over 300 enemy kills and captured 300 more. But back home, the Canadian government and its Indian agents made life difficult for Peggy. Decades after Pegahmagabow made history, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people decided to tell his story through music. That group included Armand Garnet Ruffo, an Ojibway poet and professor at Queen’s University and Brian McInnes, the war hero’s great-grandson and the author of a book about his great-grandfather’s life. Together they created Sounding Thunder: The Song of Francis Pegahmagabow, which debuted at Parry Sound’s Festival of the Sound in 2018.

In November 2012, a remarkable movement began. Indigenous people across Canada pledged that they’d be Idle No More. It was in response to proposed legislation that many believed would take the relationship between Indigenous people and Canada backwards. Bill C-45 would affect the Indian Act, the Navigable Waters Protection Act and the Environmental Protection Act. Thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people took action. They used teach-ins, flash mob round dances and rallies to try and stop the bill. It was a resistance movement that shook a nation. And this year Idle No More is 10 years old. This week on Unreserved, we talk to those who were part of the movement to find out how the drum beat of Idle No More continues to reverberate in our hearts, our communities and around the world. Sylvia McAdam and Sheelah McLean are two of the founders of Idle No More. Along with Nina Wilson and Jessica Wilson, the four Saskatchewan women began to spread the word through social media and used teach-ins to educate people about the 400-page omnibus bill. Soon, the movement spread across the country and eventually around the world. Idle No More called out to Indigenous people to rise and Widia Larivière answered that call. In the early days, the enthusiasm she saw sweeping the country hadn’t quite reached Quebec. So Widia set out to organize the first rally in that province and it lit a fire in her that continues in her work today with Mikana, an organization that educates the public about Indigenous realities and experiences. On December 22, 2012, bustling Christmas shoppers at Winnipeg’s Polo Park Mall were met with a 4000-strong Idle No More round dance. People wearing ribbon shirts, skirts and regalia replaced the winter clad crowd. Drum beats overtook the carols being played over the intercom and soon both levels were lined with dancing people. Aiden Todd brought her then 6-year-old daughter Ryleigh to the round dance that day to make sure her daughter felt the strength and resistance of her community.

This episode of Unreserved shines a light on Indigenous people who are culturally-adapting and reclaiming wellness practices. Michael Yellow Bird, is a citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota and he is the dean of the faculty of social work at the University of Manitoba. He’s been practicing mindfulness for decades and he researches the effects of Indigenous ceremony and mindfulness on the brain. He says mindfulness can decolonize the brain. Smudging - burning herbs like sage - is becoming increasingly popular in some wellness circles. But is it cultural appropriation? Tareyn Johnson is Anishinaabe and a member of Georgina Island First Nation. She's been practicing yoga for many years and has seen sacred medicines like sage being misused or improperly handled in a growing number of yoga studios. Jessica Barudin is Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw and a member of the Namgis First Nation on Vancouver Island and founder of the First Nations Women’s Yoga Initiative. As a yoga teacher, Jessica works with Elders and knowledge keepers to bring culturally adapted yoga to communities and help heal intergenerational trauma.

Three Indigenous nations along the Pacific coast of Turtle Island are working tirelessly to save the salmon because salmon is an integral part of who they are - spiritually, culturally, socially and economically. Brook Thompson is a member of the Yurok and Kurok tribes in Northern California. She is a restoration engineer working to restore the Klamath River. In November 2022, her people successfully won a legal battle to have four dams removed from the Klamath River to help restore decimated salmon populations. hiwus (Chief) Warren Paull helped to successfully negotiate the complete removal of commercial fish farms from shíshálh First Nation territory off the coast of the Salish Sea in British Columbia. Kerrie Charnley was part of a habitat restoration project for salmon in the Upper Pitt River on mainland BC. The river is the home of her ancestors, the Katzie people, whose creation story involves the marriage of a Katzie man and a sockeye woman. The restoration project was a profound experience that deepened her sense of connection with her ancestors.

Fur has become a fashion faux pas in some circles. Aggressive anti-fur campaigns with graphic images and slogans have made furs, feathers and hides increasingly unpopular in popular culture. Animal rights groups say fur farms are cruel, wild animals are trapped inhumanely, and fur just isn’t necessary. It has brought international attention to a move to ban it all together. But for these Indigenous trappers and artisans who use fur, it’s a way of life: Since 1971, the Manitoba Trappers Association, currently led by President Kenneth Woitowicz, has hosted the Thompson Fur Table. Trappers from all over the north come to this two-day event to sell their furs and even compete for who has the best furs. Trappers like Jeff Laliberty and Terry McLellan. Or youth like Robin Donaldson and Deja Tait, who has been trapping since she was 12 years old. While fewer people come each year, trappers try to stay optimistic about a way of life that has sustained generations, a way of life they still pass on. We head north from Manitoba to the Northwest Territories. Nathan Kogiak is the Fur Marketing and Sales Coordinator for the Government of the Northwest Territories. He helps artisans access affordable materials for their crafts. But Nathan isn’t just a public servant. As an Inuvialuk, he also spends a lot of his life out on the trap lines. He knows how challenging – and rewarding – the hunting and trapping way of life can be. Taalrumiq is an Inuvialuit artist, fashion designer, and content creator from Tuktoyaktuk. She also sees herself as an educator. Whether through her online videos or her travels south to sell her work, Taalrumiq takes the opportunity to challenge anti-fur sentiment and offer a different perspective that comes from a long line of fur fashion.

It was a crime that shook the art world. One hundred million dollars in suspected forgeries, over 1000 more fakes seized and 8 arrests in a far-reaching forgery ring of renowned Ojibwa artist Norval Morrisseau’s work. Police call it one of the largest art fraud schemes in history. But it's not just Morrisseau who has faced fakes and forgeries. Indigenous art makers and supporters all across Turtle Island say it is rampant and the cost is not just their livelihood – it is their culture. Indigenous artists say copycat art is more common than you think and copyright laws must evolve to protect them. Richard Hunt comes from a long line of Northwest Coast artists. The 73 year old Kwaguilth artist started carving at the age of 13 alongside his father, Henry Hunt. Richard says for about as long as he’s been a carver, he has seen his work copied. He says it is worse than stealing art: it is stealing cultural property. It was a design meant to support Residential School Survivors but the artist who created the West Coast stylized hands says people are ripping it off for profit. K’ómoks and Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw visual artist Andy Everson and his wife Erin Brillon, Haida and Cree and owner of Totem Design House, have experienced the damage of copycats firsthand. They see websites selling inauthentic Indigenous art and design pop up on an almost daily basis. The husband and wife team work to educate others about the importance of buying authentic Indigenous art. As the first art historian to be appointed to the Senate of Canada, Senator Patricia Bovey champions Canadian art. But she also advocates for better protections for Indigenous artists’ work. Currently, there are few laws preventing counterfeit and fake Indigenous art in Canada but Senator Bovey hopes to change that by pushing changes to Canada’s copyright laws and setting up a fund that would help artists go after art fakesters.

Indigenous lands back into Indigenous hands: that is the aim of the Landback movement. In Gillam, Manitoba, treaty promises clash with hydro development. As the people of Fox Lake Cree Nation continue to push for land from the government, leaders like Conway Arthurson try to find middle ground with an industry that has historically tried to push them out. In the 1960s, Manitoba Hydro moved into this area - building dams and flooding the land that once held the people of Fox Lake. Arthurson has acted as a negotiator in the community’s decades-long fight for a place to call home - a fight that gets more complicated with every dam Manitoba Hydro builds. And right now they’re building the biggest one of all. In South Dakota, there is no place more sacred than He Sapa, or the Black Hills, to the Lakota. Also known as Mount Rushmore, the site is famous for its massive carvings of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. On July 3, 2020, Nick Tilsen was arrested there as part of a protest against former President Trump's fireworks rally on what is traditionally and legally Lakota land. Tilsen is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and the founder of NDN Collective. The group recently created Landback Magazine, as a means to connect and exchange knowledge with other Indigenous nations. In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Mauna Kea is revered by the people. So much so that their Kapuna - or elders - put their bodies on the line to protect this sacred mountain from a thirty meter telescope or TMT. Since the 1960s, the University of Hawaii has built 13 giant telescopes on the summit, each time promising it would be the last. For decades, Hawaiians have pushed back to protect Mauna Kea from any future developments. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson was born and raised on the island of Oʻahu. She is one of the first board members of the newly established Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. Pua Case was born and raised on the Island of Hawai’i. She’s the program director of Mauna Kea Education and Awareness.

It started with daily phone calls with his grandfather during the early days of the pandemic. Evan Pang was living in Toronto and he wanted to make sure his grandpa up in Thunder Bay was doing ok. But pretty soon, those conversations got deeper. His grandfather shared stories about his years as a child at McIntosh Residential School, the love-story between him and his wife, and the journey of the family name. Evan began to record their chats and the seeds for personal discovery and a creative project were planted. Two years later, those conversations have evolved into an album, Watin, named after his beloved grandfather. Evan is now Aysanabee, after reclaiming the family name. He was signed by an all-Indigenous label, Ishkōdé Records, and he quit his day job to pursue his dream of becoming a musician. Ayasanabee’s debut album Watin was just released November 4th. This week, Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild speaks to him about his musical journey that began with a phone call.

By day, he’s a police officer; by night, a DNA detective. Dean Lerat is an RCMP Staff Sergeant at Fort Qu’appelle, Saskatchewan. But when he’s not on duty, he helps Sixties Scoop survivors find their families, using DNA testing kits, ancestry websites, public documents and other resources. It all started with a curiosity about his own family tree and history. Up until two years ago, youth in Kinngait, Nunavut didn’t have much to do. The Inuit hamlet of about 1400 people had zero hockey games, art classes or social activities. That is, until Joanne Weedmark came along. She made it her job to keep the kids busy. As director of recreation, Joanne is bringing positive change to her community. Her hard work caught the attention of the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association, which selected her as its “Emerging Leader of the Year” in 2022 at the young age of 24. Dr. Courtney Leary is originally from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba. When she was growing up there, she dreamt of becoming a doctor. After graduating from university she returned home to become Norway House’s first practicing doctor. Respect, reciprocity, reconciliation, and relevance are the basis of an organization started by a group of youth in 2014. Jess Bolduc is Anishinaabe-French from Baawating and credits the Idle No More Movement for inspiring her own determination to bring change to her community and start the 4Rs Youth Movement. The organization centers and supports the work that Indigenous young people are doing in their communities, thereby creating an infrastructure for the next generation of changemakers.

When it comes to loss and moving gracefully through grief, Christa Couture knows a thing or two. The multi-talented writer, singer and now filmmaker has lived through more than her fair share of loss. At 11 years old, she received a cancer diagnosis. She lost her first son when he was just a day old due to complications during childbirth. Her second son died at 14 months old due to complications with his heart. Soon after, her marriage ended. And just as some new beginnings emerged, cancer returned. To work through her loss and grief, Christa turned to music – creating seven albums and a memoir called How to Lose Everything. These were important projects in helping her deal with her own grief. Now she’s looking to help others with their experiences with grief and loss. Christa and producer Michelle St. John have teamed up with 5 pairs of Indigenous writers, artists and animators to create a series of short films. Each one – a personal story of loss. Each voice – sharing wisdom to help others through the darkness. “Grape Soda in the Parking Lot” is the name of Taqralik Partridge’s short film animated by Megan Kyak-Monteith. In it, Taqralik recalls her Scottish grandmother who spoke Gaelic and her Inuk father who spoke Inuktitut and poses an important question about language. Archer Pechawis, an artist and member of Mistawasis First Nation, is the storyteller behind “A Bear Named Jesus.” The short film, stop-motion animated by Terril Calder, explores what happened after his mom became a born-again Christian.

Sacheen Littlefeather, activist, actor and healer passed away on October 2, 2022 from breast cancer. She was 75 years old. Littlefeather is iconic for a moment at the 1973 Academy Awards when she stole the spotlight – rejecting Marlon Brando’s Oscar – and shined it on how Native American people were depicted in film and television, as well as the Wounded Knee Occupation. Fifty years later, the Academy apologized to her for the abuse she suffered during and after the broadcast. Just a few weeks before her passing, Unreserved host Rosanna Deerchild had the honour of speaking with Littlefeather. They talked about that moment on the international stage and how it all started with a letter. But there was so much more that didn’t make it into the original broadcast. This week on Unreserved, we bring you Part 2 of their conversation. It's the story of what happened after the Oscars: how Sacheen was ‘pushed out’ of Hollywood and ‘pushed into’ a lifetime of activism, teaching and healing.

Justin Delorme is Métis and an award-winning composer who has scored hundreds of television episodes like the true-crime series Taken, films like Finality of Dusk, and documentaries – including Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On. At just 29 years-old his career is only getting started. Raven Chacon is a Diné composer from the Navajo Nation. In 2022, he became the first Native American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his piece Voiceless Mass. The piece debuted in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist during American Thanksgiving. It features no words or lyrics, but it harnesses the absence of voice to tell a powerful story about the harm of colonialism. Deantha Edmunds grew up learning the classics like Handel’s Messiah. She never thought she would have the chance to sing it in Inuttitut, the language of her ancestors. As the world’s only professional Inuk opera singer, she is blazing a trail in the field of classical music.