In moving forward with Podcasts and storytelling, with an Indigenous lens, I struggle from anger, frustration, sadness, hope, determination, resentfulness, thankfulness, and passion. My path, I believe, determines the impact I can and want to make for other Indigenous.
Listening to stories from Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, to Residential School experiences, and scrolling through the wide variety of Indigenous podcasts, illustrates the content and the people that share the need to tell stories, while listening to others stories. At times, I am doing so to justify feelings and emotions, and believe the podcasts offer knowledge, explanations, and experiences to those who do not know the history. The history of the land we are on, why people hang out outside of post offices and downtown buildings as lost souls, or how individuals choose one life over another life and choices having to be made to live traditionally or contemporary. These stories shared through podcasts are necessary to be told and heard.
This course and exploration on the topic and technology is an emotional journey for me and it is taking a toll mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I struggle to balance my life through this program and course, full time managing a business, raising my three beautiful and smart girls, being a wife, and taking moments to explore my artistic path that continues to drive me forward. I haven’t had a lot of time to explore literature related to podcasts and I’ve made the decision for now to spend less time learning about the technology and more time listening to podcasts with stories. It is the feelings, the understanding, and the emotions I get that are teaching me the value of storytelling through podcasts, for the future of Indigenous people. I have no quotes or references to offer at this time, only personal reflections.
– Myrna
LNRT 526 Activity 3: Individual Blog Post – Podcasts and Indigenous Identity
As a team (Chan, J., et als. 2022), we chose Podcasts as the technology to explore for the foundation of our assignments. I have not listened to or referred to Podcasts in any of my research prior to this course. At first, I was not interested, curious, or excited about the choice, but it has grown on me. I assumed podcasts were mainly used by news broadcasters and those discussing personal opinions through conversations. What influenced the change in my mind, was the conversation I had with Dr. Irwin (2022, Personal Conversation) who reminded me of the broad range of topics available through podcasts and the opportunity it could offer with my interest in Indigenous topics.
The first podcast I listened from my search of podcasts (Tricarico, 2022) and Residential Schools (Historica Canada, 2020) as the visit to the Vatican was current, I felt podcasts had more to offer than I originally thought. My journey through the initial phases of research and in conversation with my team though Slack and our scheduled zoom meetings (2022, Chan, J. et als) brought me down a path towards my own identity and the future of my family.
I have been haunted with knowing blood quantum is a death sentence of my identity since the birth of my first daughter. Since then, I have meandered through life searching for answers as time permits. Through this podcast journey, I stumbled across a podcast that brings Indigenous Identity to light. The search of podcast as a technology has guided me in the direction I am on and through this journey, I feel I have reached a topic that is meaningful and empowering.
The image below is illustrative of my identity and how the research of podcasts to bring Indigenous discussions forward is shaping the change I intend to make in my worldview. This assignment is also very reflective of past assignments and most importantly my final research project for the MALAT Digital Learning Research Consulting Project I was approved for. It is the motivation with the potential to have meaningful change while bringing Indigenous Identity and the Secret Life of Canada forward (CBC, 2022).
References
Canadian Broadcast Corporation. (2022). The secret life of Canada [Podcast Series]. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/secretlifeofcanada.
Chan, J., Donahue, ,D., Pokiak, M., Ramirez, L., & Yee, G. (2022). Team 5’s venture into the world of podcasts. [April 15, 2022 Blogpost]. https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0216/team-5s-venture-into-the-world-of-podcasts/#comment-46
Historica Canada. (2020). Residential Schools. [Podcast hosted by Shaneen Robinson-Desjarlais]. https://open.spotify.com/show/127UKPIyiwbADySuYV26qK?si=5a355c7c50a94a12
Pokiak, Myrna. (2022). Paul/Pokiak Blood Quantum.
Tricarico, A., Roges, R., & Blanchet, B. (2022). The 6 best podcast apps for listening to all your favourite shows. Business Insider: Reviews. https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/best-podcast-apps
University of Essex. (2022, January 20). Indigenous Voices (No.5). The Louder than words podcast. Episode 5, January 20, 2022, 00:38:59. https://louder-than-words.castos.com/episodes/indigenous-voices