Mi'kmaq Matters

This week, King's College journalism student and Mi'kmaq Matters intern Rachael Dyal speaks with Eskasoni rapper Gearl about his new album, From The Ground Up, his songwriting process, and music as a form of therapy. You can listen to From The Ground Up on Spotify and Soundcloud.https://open.spotify.com/album/7F11xXJYIMLsMwVmcswDkV?si=600-k05TQp6-l9EnyrFysA See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marathon Gold has turned in a new version of its environmental impact statement for the largest gold mine in Atlantic Canada to be built on the most ecologically sensitive land on the island of Newfoundland. While some of the additions are positive, natural resources expert Brian McLaren says the risk for vulnerable caribou is still high. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After Indian Act chiefs intervened with the province, hunting licences for non-status Mi'kmaq in Nova Scotia were taken away. Now, the Native Council of Nova Scotia has scored an important legal win in the battle to reinstate them. This week, we speak with Lorraine Augustine, Chief of the Native Council of Nova Scotia. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Proposed gold mines would be located on last undisturbed wilderness in Nova Scotia, areas important to residents of Millbrook First Nation for food gathering and traditional use. This week, we speak with reporter Joan Baxter, who has been covering the story for the Halifax Examiner. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We measure carbon emissions, but how do we value the loss of traditional territory to copper, cobalt, and lithium mines?This week, we speak with engineer Jennifer Dunn, who is working with the Ojibwe on an evaluation that takes the impact on Indigenous people and land into account. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The desperate search for materials for electric vehicles and alternative fuel sources sends mineral exploration companies to Indigenous territory across Turtle Island, including Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With regular supply chains disrupted by the pandemic, recreational drug users looking for opiates often end up with synthetic drugs that are far more powerful than what they're used to, and run they risk of accidental overdose. There are precautions that users, friends, and family can take to avoid tragedy. This week, we speak with Jessica Rex, the harm reduction manager for the Safe Works Access Program in Corner Brook. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Indigenous people across our territories are asserting rights provided for in the Peace and Friendship Treaties, most recently in New Brunswick, where the Welostoqey have filed a land claim covering 60 percent of the province. For Qalipu, however, the outgoing council ran up the white flag of defeat without a fight. Will the new council, which has its first regular council meeting on January 22, take a more Mi'kmaw stance? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mi'kmaq are written out of the tourism narrative of Newfoundland and Labrador in favour of quaint and quirky people and events sanitized of their historic reality. Case in point: mummering, that charming Christmas-season dress-up. But in the 1800s, mummers' parades were marked by drinking, violence, and sectarian clashes between a Catholic underclass and Protestant-dominated elite. This week, we speak with folklorist Joy Fraser about the history of mummering. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In New Brunswick, provincial governments handed over unceded lands to forestry companies that were not theirs to give. Now, Wolastoqey are trying to right a historic wrong. This week, we speak with their lawyers: Renée Pelletier and Senwung Luk of OKT LLP. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The day after Premier Andrew Furey gifted the fossil fuel industry with $25 million in public money, southwest Newfoundland was flooded by a weather formation known as an "atmospheric river." The frequency and severity of atmospheric rivers are increasing due to climate change, of which the burning of fossil fuels are a major factor. This week, we discuss atmospheric rivers and climate change with two experts: atmospheric scientist Rachel White of the University of British Columbia and meteorologist Marty Ralph of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Though it will have gone through a process to remove cyanide and other deadly chemicals, effluent from mine operations will go into salmon rivers.This week, Don Ivany of the Atlantic Salmon Federation on why he fears it will have negative impact on vulnerable fish population. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Charlene Combdon, David Howse and Toby Penney on the the neglect and alienation of Qalipu members in central Newfoundland, and how things could be different. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Famed medical philanthropist Wilfred Grenfell has a university and a health authority named after him, but for the Inuit of coastal Labrador, he was the one who took away the children. As the complete story of Grenfell emerges, there are calls for the renaming of institutions that bear his name. This week, we speak with Evan Careen, a journalist with The Telegram and Saltwire.com, whose recent article sparked protest from Grenfell defenders, and with Michelle Kinney, deputy minister of health and social development for the Government of Nunatsiavut. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Highlights from our panel discussion in Stephenville on the troubled Bay St. George–Qalipu relationship. This week, finding an Indigenous response to the addictions/mental health crisis in the area, and Qalipu's privileging of Corner Brook in economic development, featuring Stephenville mayor Tom Rose; Kippens mayor Debbie Brake-Patten; candidate for Qalipu Western Vice-Chief Jenny Brake; and Peggy White, Chief of the Three Rivers Mi'kmaq Band and candidate for Qalipu Chief. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

D'Arcy Butler calls for an Indigenous approach to the opioid crisis in the Bay St. George area. And we have details about the upcoming Mi'kmaq Matters debate between four candidates for chief of Qalipu First Nation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first part of our special Mi'kmaq Matters presentation held on September 23 in Stephenville, featuring Stephenvlle mayor Tom Rose, candidate for Qalipu Chief Peggy White, Kippens mayor Debbie Brake-Patten, and candidate for Qalipu Western Vice-Chief Jenny Brake. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After serving on Qalipu council with Chief Brendan Mitchell for three years, Stephenville ward councillor Odelle Pike is seeking to topple the embattled incumbent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Terri Greene wants to make members her ward feel more connected to the band, and Rod (Blackie) Bennett promises to be a Vice-Chief who gets people answers—even they aren't always what the answers they want to hear. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, veteran journalist Trina Roache on her move from APTN to the University of King's College school of journalism, and her mission to change the way mainstream media approaches Mi'kmaw issues. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.