Candis Callison, an environmental journalist and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, and Julian Brave Noisecat, a Senior Media Fellow at the NDN Collective, join us today to talk about the role of Indigenous people in achieving environmental justice. They discuss methods that will better accommodate the inclusion of Indigenous voices in the present, particularly in approaching their stories through narratives that already exist such as marriage equality and climate change. There are, however, key differences between Indigenous perspectives on climate change and climate change as it is often presented in scientific and political spheres; Callison and Noisecat raise the concept of Indigenous knowledge to describe the largely historical and relational outlook on climate that Indigenous people have. They suggest that Indigenous people need to be included in the climate conversation but on their own terms, in ways that fully acknowledge and respect the deep history and context with which they live. This, of course, also requires that mainstream media shift their perspective on Indigenous populations, which, as it stands, mostly fits them into a victim-hero mold that fails to connect individual problems to larger Indigenous concerns. As journalists better understand the power they wield in shaping the media and our perceptions of the world, Callison and Noisecat argue that it’s important to bring Indigenous people into the present and future, respecting them not as simply victims or heroes, but as nuanced and human as any other community.
A full transcript of this episode will be available soon!
Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:
Apocalypse Then and Now – Julian Brave Noisecat’s piece in the Columbia Journalism Review
More of Julian’s writing
Candis Callison’s books:
How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts
Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities
Some of the Indigenous voices invoked in this episode:
Cowboy Smithx
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Patricia Cochran
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Ghost Dance of the Lakota Sioux
International Indigenous Research Conference
Jenni Monet, Pueblo of Laguna
Debra A. Haaland
Grace Dillon
Catherine Porter’s article on the Inuit
NAJA’s calls for an apology of the above
Problematic NYT reporting on Deb Haaland Cabinet nomination
Indigenous organizations and publications:
NAJA – Native American Journalists’ Association
Indian Country Today
APTN (Canada)
mediaINDIGENA podcast
Threshold Podcast – not an Indigenous production, but a sustained journalistic engagement with native communities
Also check out Episode 73: Increasing Visibility is Existential for Native Communities, with Crystal Echo Hawk
Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at howdoyoulikeitsofarpodcast@gmail.com.
Music:
Stand Up / Stand N Rock #NoDAPL (Official Video)
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
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In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumental
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceship
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q
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