Data tells a story, and that’s why survivors of the notorious Mohawk Institute – Canada’s longest running residential school – are reclaiming data and sharing their truths. This week Rosanna speaks with Indigenous people who are reclaiming data to better understand the past and build towards the future. From traditional knowledge passed down through oral storytelling to the records kept by governments and institutions, data is power. Keeping that power in Indigenous hands is data sovereignty.

Unreserved

Indigenous Data Sovereignty

What can, or should, we do with pieces of the past, such as audio recordings of our ancestors? They can inspire art and action but there are also protocols around how these things are shared. This week Rosanna talks with artists who are combining lessons of the past with their own artistic flare and passing it on to the next generation.

Dancing to our own beat

“Humour is the WD40 of healing.” Indigenous playwrights are telling stories their own way – and it includes a lot of laughter! This week Rosanna explores what’s behind a shift in the theatre world that has Indigenous playwrights showing works on about a dozen of the biggest stages in Canada. They’re moving away from the early years of tackling mostly heavy subjects to telling stories that can be playful, unique, dark and funny.

Indigenous playwrights take centre stage

Resistance and rebellion run deep in the history of dance in Indigenous communities. Margaret Grenier’s Gitxsan grandmother hid family items in her walls to protect important dance traditions from destruction. This week Rosanna speaks with dancers and choreographers about how they are reviving, restoring and re-imagining the art of dance.

Dance revolution

For many Indigenous people, food memories are intricately tied to family, community and culture. Meet three Indigenous chefs who are using their food knowledge to transport people to the past and inspire Indigenous menus of the future.

Food and memory

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.

Claiming space in the Great Outdoors

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.

2SLGBTQ+ Love Songs

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!

Gentle book, giant impact: 10 years of Braiding Sweetgrass

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.

Unmapped: NYC

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.

Daring to be different as Indigenous entrepreneurs

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),

Blast from the past

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.

Songs and Stories for the Holidays

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.

A light in the darkness

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.

Two-Spirit artivists share two ways of seeing the world

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.

Healing After Harm: The Buffy Sainte-Marie Investigation

Unreserved is the radio space for Indigenous voices – our cousins, our aunties, our elders, our heroes. Rosanna Deerchild guides us on the path to better understand our shared story. Together, we learn and unlearn, laugh and become gentler in all our relations.

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Unreserved

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