Celebrate Canada Day by listening to 10 incredible voices that have been featured on the Red Man Laughing Podcast.
Republished with permission from The Red Man Laughing Podcasts
It’s (just about) Canada Day – Happy Birthday, ya miserable ol’ prick. You’re turning 147 this year, who’da thought you’d make it to be 147, what, especially with the way your “personal issues” follow you around & seem to never go away. But I digress. You’re here. You’re alive. It’s your birthday. You’re old-er. Way to go!
We have a lot to be thankful for here in Canada. I’m most thankful for the beautiful land we get to rest our feet on. I’m thankful for all the things that the land gives me – teachings, songs, stories, medicines, food & really kick ass beaches. Our collective ways of life in Indian Country are intricately tied to the land & for this I am thankful.
For everyday Canadians, Canada Day is the day to head to your cities Parliament Buildings or park to hear your favourite Canadian musicians, eat hotdogs & paint the kids’ faces with the ol’ maple leaf. You’ll end the night with fireworks (and possibly a headache depending on how many Molson Canadians you drink throughout the day) and you’ll wake up July 2nd and go about your lives.
OR.
You can celebrate Canada Day by listening to 10 incredible voices that have been featured on the Red Man Laughing Podcast.
Disclaimer: you can STILL eat hotdogs, paint your kids’ face & get hammered on awful beer & enjoy fireworks – just do it AFTER you’ve listened to these incredible people!
10 INDIGENOUS VOICES CANADA NEEDS TO HEAR ON CANADA DAY
Here are 10 incredible episodes from past season of the Red Man Laughing Podcast that raise the voices of resurgence, reclamation & Nationhood to remind Canada, “We’re still here.”
1. THE CHRISTI BELCOURT INTERVIEW (S.3 EP.1)
“I couldn’t sleep anymore. I was seeing these names everyday on social media. I’d see the faces run through my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking of the families. I had to do something. I didn’t know what, but I had to try to help.”
2. THE LEANNE SIMPSON INTERVIEW (S.1 EP19)
“Imagine yourself under the water and swimming and swimming to look for that piece of dirt to put in your hand & to swim up. This became an important metaphor for me – resurgence work is about asking yourself about what YOU can do to help strengthen our communities.”
3. THE MSKWAANKWAD RICE INTERVIEW (S.2 EP 3)
“If I don’t do this, if I don’t learn my language I will always have a hole in my heart. I will always ask myself why I didn’t take the time. It’s what I’m being called to do.”
4. THE COLBY TOOTOOSIS INTERVIEW (S3. SPECIAL EPISODE)
“Decolonize powwow? I dunno. I think we can ask ourselves about who’s sponsoring our powwows, who’s dancing into our Grand Entry’s, and by inviting these people into our circle – what are we telling our children?”
5. THE CHELSEA VOWEL EPISODE (S3. EP12)
“Every year I told myself I’ve gotta do something, I’ve gotta do something. Language became my journey. As a parent, my job is to gift my children their language. That’s my work.”
6. THE TAGAQ INTERVIEW (S3. EP16)
“Standing up for ourselves is standing up for our children. We are fighters. We will stand against all those that refuse to see our beautiful ways of life. We are beautiful.”
7. THE JUSTICE MURRAY SINCLAIR INTERVIEW (S3. EP15)
“History is made when you tell your stories. We are making history right now. We are telling our stories for the first time, unedited, unfiltered, for better or worse. We will be heard.”
8. THE 1491’S INTERVIEW (S3. EP2)
“We do it because we want to be funny. We do it to be political. We do it because nothing we watched reflected who I was. We are here. We need to tell them who we are.”
9. THE A TRIBE CALLED RED INTERVIEW (S1. EP16)
“We just wanted to celebrate us. We wanted to be surrounded by people that wanted to celebrate us. We started this as a celebration of being Indigenous. It’s our gift.”
10. THE MOOSE HUNTING INTERVIEW (S2. EP4)
“I couldn’t sing on a handdrum, but I could shoot the moose needed to make a handdrum. I was raised on the land & the land taught me everything I needed to know about being Anishinaabe.”
