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Ivana Yellowback
992 Plays7 months ago
Ivana Yellowback is a member of Manto Sipi Cree Nation – God’s River (maternal family) and a relative to Mathias Colomb Cree Nation (paternal family). She is both Asiniskow Ithinew ekwa Muskego Ininew (High Rock and Muskeg Cree).
Ivana an Associate Producer, Writer, Cree host, and English co-host of Eagle Vision’s and APTN’s 7TH GEN Home (7thgen.ca) \ Cree Webisodes | 7TH GEN (2022/2023/2024). She has also acted as principal characters in “DJ Burnt Bannock” (2021) The Team — DJ Burnt Bannock, along with “Little Bird” (2023) 'Little Bird,' From Fremantle, Rezolution: Jennifer Podemski Talks - Variety.
Ivana holds a 4-year Bachelor of Arts HONOURS degree at the University of Winnipeg (4-Year Honours BA: Sociology, Minor: Conflict Resolution Studies), and a Bachelor of Social Work degree at the University of Manitoba. She is also starting her Masters of Social Work degree this upcoming Fall at the University of Manitoba.
Ivana holds 10+ years of experience in social services work, spanning from program development and implementation, facilitation, and workshop trainings (various), youth mentorship and leadership, and social advocacy and counselling.
Ivana is an Executive Training Facilitator (with Indigenous Leadership Development Institute Inc.), an executive board member for sakihiwe festival, and is an oskâpêwiskwew (helper) member of the Indigenous Helpers Society. She is also a trained Traditional Family Parenting facilitator, a Grief and Loss Facilitator, and Indigenous Life Skills Coach. Ivana’s most important roles and work is being an aunty, pipe carrier, lodge carrier, drum carrier and singer.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Vellante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. Hey everybody, this is Ken Vellante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And I'm pretty darn thrilled to have Ivana Yellowback on the show.
00:00:28
Speaker
And I just wanted to welcome you, Khansi. Hello, welcome. Awesome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. I'm excited. Yeah. I first got introduced to you, you know, your work in storytelling with the creepy teepee program with SA Lawrence Welch, who's been a guest on this show.
00:00:57
Speaker
quite a quite a brilliant and engaging woman and I learned a lot from I Have a bunch of stuff to ask you about but we just stop late.
Collaboration on Creepy Teepee Program
00:01:11
Speaker
Can we just start late?
00:01:13
Speaker
like they're just working with SA and doing those, oh gosh, I love those stories. Thanks. Yeah, definitely. So SA and I, we actually got connected from a mutual friend of ours, a friend that I've known for years. His name is Natani Means. He's Navajo Lakota from down south in New Mexico.
00:01:36
Speaker
And so, him and another friend, Anton Edwards, who's also from, I think, Omaha, Nebraska. He's, I think, Omaha and Lakota. But they would come on and they would share scary, spooky stories.
00:01:53
Speaker
I came online on their Instagram Lives a couple times and shared some of my stories and SA was watching one of them. And I'm not sure she went on also, but she connected with me and added me on Instagram. We started messaging and she's like, yeah, like, you know, the stories you're telling our stories or situations that have happened to me, I feel very connected to them. So we just kind of, you know, we haven't met in person yet. There was a time that
00:02:22
Speaker
she was going to come to Winnipeg, I think this was last June, and she didn't end up making it. I think she ended up getting sick at that time, so she wasn't able to come out. And yeah, but we just connected online, and then she just spurred this idea, because I was also sharing some stories, and I was just on Facebook, because a lot of Indigenous people use Facebook, especially in Canada, and a lot of our community members here in Manitoba, like a lot of our
00:02:52
Speaker
grandparents are on there and elders and so a lot of our young people still utilize Facebook a lot so I was on it sharing some stories and then she's like what do you think about you know sharing some stories online and on Instagram and I'm like yeah like I'm down you know I'm down down to story tell
Origins and Future of Creepy Teepee
00:03:12
Speaker
so then that's just how it started and so the creepy teepee because she is Cree she's Métis Cree and I'm Cree from Manitoba that's how it came was like creepy like Cree P and then teepee just kind of like a little jingle that kind of like came together in a good way so ever since then we've been
00:03:34
Speaker
been sharing and we actually have some exciting plans coming up. She is going to be coming to Winnipeg sometime either this May or June. So we do have some stuff in the works for Krapie TV. We're super excited about it.
00:03:52
Speaker
Uh, somehow I missed the Cree at the beginning of it. I feel quite silly. It was actually Essay's idea. Like she, yeah, she is just like, she's so awesome. She's so funny.
00:04:09
Speaker
that was her idea. And I was like, I'm down for whatever it is that you want to do, even like the the creepy teepee designs with us pointing with our lips. It's not us blowing kisses, like we're pointing with our lips. So you'll see if you if anybody checks out our Instagram page, she actually put up shirts for sale, which were super cool. That's something I never thought of. I was like, wow, I never would see myself as a cartoon on a t shirt. It's wild. But she's just like, she's just amazing. Like she just knows the ins and outs of
00:04:38
Speaker
you know these kinds of projects and productions and I'm just like along for the ride so yeah very very creative I believe
00:04:49
Speaker
originally from Alberta. So on the Manitoba Winnipeg, I did tell you I'm wearing my Winnipeg hats hat. Yeah, I see it. Not to just be a sucker here, but I saw the
00:05:10
Speaker
you know, you had some Winnipeg gear on and I'm a big hockey fan. And one cool thing on the show too, I had a Letitia Spence who did the design for the indigenous... Oh, for Wazak. For the... Obamous and Winnipeg. Nice. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, that is awesome. They're actually having their, Manitoba Moose is actually having their Indigenous celebration tonight, and then Winnipeg is, the Jets are having it tomorrow. Yeah. So I was looking, yeah, I was looking at some of the Manitoba Moose gear, because they're follow your dreams, like the Indigenous version of their jerseys are so nice.
00:05:54
Speaker
I've been wanting to purchase one for so long. I do have a Wesok jersey, like the indigenous version of the Jets, but I'm so hoping to get one of those. Yeah, but it's just such beautiful designs.
00:06:07
Speaker
There are just gorgeous designs. Anyways, that's really exciting. I think I saw a preview on the Manitoba, and I didn't realize the Winnipeg, the indigenous night was tomorrow. It was a good weekend to be chatting. Oh yeah, totally.
Social Services and Indigenous Advocacy
00:06:29
Speaker
So I've been very impressed and I've learned a lot from your teaching. I've run into your YouTube videos and talking about the treaty system, which I'm down in Oregon in the US.
00:06:56
Speaker
And since I started doing the podcast, I
00:07:00
Speaker
encountered and learned so much about indigenous culture and art and also seeing the differences same but the differences with the US and Canada so learning from you has been like really helpful for me to to understand and also as part of the show I've been very fortunate to learn in
00:07:29
Speaker
and to advocate around MMIW, girls, two spirits, missing and murdered indigenous persons. And what I wanted to ask you about is,
00:07:44
Speaker
your work doing that, your work advocacy, you work in the community, you help other people. And I just wanted to ask you about doing that work and the kind of places you've been able to present and teach folks, hopefully if they're listening.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So I've been in social services for over 10 years. Yeah, throughout my university degree. So I have two degrees, one in sociology and one in bachelor's social work. Actually, I'm going to my master's program this fall.
00:08:26
Speaker
I was working in the community through the entire the entire time of University and a lot of the work that I do today. So now I'm self employed. I do a lot of contract work with different agencies and organizations and.
00:08:43
Speaker
Some of the work I do is I develop programs. So just taking my social work background, I work with a lot of indigenous women and girls. So a lot of moms and any young woman. So some of the programs that my cousin and I, her name is Raven Hart.
00:09:00
Speaker
She's from Nissachawi-Sik Cree Nation, which is Nelson House in Mount Etobicoke. And her and I, we developed a program, so just one example, around the Mikiuwap. So the Mikiuwap in Cree is the tipi. So tipi is actually a Dakota word. Mikiuwap is what we call that structure. That's like our language for it.
00:09:23
Speaker
So in the Miki O'Wap, there are 13 poles and 14, 15 poles on the outside. So there's two that control the flaps. So her and I developed this program of a 15-week schedule around the 15 TB poles, because each of the poles have a virtue. And we do life skills. We have program twice a week, so we do life skills.
00:09:48
Speaker
We do grief and loss because we're both, she was grief and loss trained and I just come in and do that work, that counseling work alongside of her. And then we also do a training. It's called traditional family parenting, but we're kind of making it a little bit different and doing changes on it just based on our territory here on Treaty 1. So the 15 polls, they all have a different virtue and different teachings and
00:10:19
Speaker
they they're every three represents the life stages of a child. So in our Cree teachings, there are about seven life stages, you know, you have like when babies born to when their toddlers to when their children so when they
00:10:34
Speaker
before they come of age, and when they come of age, and even when they come of age, there's also another kind of stage of their coming of age, even when they're young adults, et cetera, and things like that. And yeah, so it just kind of goes around.
00:10:50
Speaker
those teachings and it also talks about how to have a healthy home and community. Hence why we developed the program because a lot of the women we work with in our culture and pre-culture
00:11:06
Speaker
Specifically, the women are the leaders and we're the ones who govern the home. And so it's very different based on how patriarchy is where it's like the man is the man of the house, things like that. In Cree culture, it's the opposite. It's the woman who has the right to remove a man.
00:11:25
Speaker
Out of her home if he's being disrespectful or abusive in any way to her children so we just based it around and then make you up around the TV and the work that we do with our moms that we work with we uplift them through those teachings and
00:11:42
Speaker
through that ceremony knowledge because a lot of our teachings are in our language so even like a lot of the words we use are surrounded by the woman and so many of our ceremonies as Cree people come from the woman or
00:11:59
Speaker
are modeled around the woman's body in some aspect. There's just so many beautiful teachings and all of it's in the language like I always tell people you know the blueprint of who our people traditionally are is in the language and with colonization
00:12:19
Speaker
you know, that removal of not being able to understand or speak our languages that really shifted our mindset and the way that we see the world. So when we look at the language and learn the language and learn the teachings that are embedded within it, like it just really opens the doorway to a different, to that worldview that our ancestors carried. So that's in the Miki Wap. And we developed a program around the Miki Wap
00:12:48
Speaker
When the women are done, they graduate with a grief and loss certificate, decolonizing family parenting certificate, life skills, and then we also give them a bundle.
Empowering Women Through Cree Teachings
00:13:00
Speaker
So we'll have like medicines that are traditional to our territory here at Treaty 1, and then we celebrate them. Yeah, so throughout the program as well, because it is 15 weeks, we'll do ceremonies, so we'll do cedar bath ceremonies, sweat lodges,
00:13:17
Speaker
type ceremonies, full moon ceremonies, and we'll do all the teachings of those ceremonies in that education. And then we'll also do life skills that are indigenous framed and based, as well as grief and loss, and then decolonizing family parenting, which talks about the traditional teachings of our language and those parenting structures. Yeah. So that's just one program.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's just one program. I mean, um, incredible empowerment. I heard, you know, your comments upon, you know, with colonialism and the PD system, and I was surprised to hear about the traditional role of the woman. Do you find in doing that because
00:14:11
Speaker
working with the women that you do, is there a decent amount of them that are surprised by the power of that system? I mean, it's traditional, but the massive loss or disruption, they kind of surprise. I just hear empowerment in it, like in understanding
00:14:31
Speaker
The power of being a woman within the within the culture is it a surprise? Some of it is some of them just kind of when we tell them about these teachings and cultural practices like a lot of them already have it in their families.
00:14:48
Speaker
But they don't realize until we talk with them that they're like, okay, so this is where my granny was the head of our family and why she was like the boss, because grannies are like hookums are the boss. And then just, yeah, so a lot of them.
00:15:06
Speaker
through the program, there's a lot of women because even though we have the 15 weeks, we have an open door policy where it's like, once you're done, you don't have to leave like you can come back for several cohorts. So we've had families who are raising babies in the program. So we have babies who are born, you know, like mom,
00:15:24
Speaker
was in labor during one of the program days and you know gave birth and are bringing newborns and so we've had newborns grow up which is really cool and so yeah like a lot of our ladies are
00:15:37
Speaker
starting to really put that forward in their lives and it helps with their self-esteem and their self-identity. Because, you know, being an Indigenous woman within Winnipeg or within any city centre is very difficult, especially with the high sexualisation and racism. Especially in Winnipeg, you know, like last year,
00:16:01
Speaker
uh you know we had three sisters that were in that were placed in the landfill and how that was a huge thing just for um you know relatives to be searched for within the landfills here in Winnipeg because it's like our people are really due to that cult uh colonized um you know dialogue of who our people are there's still that
00:16:24
Speaker
really, really intense racism. So yeah, so a lot of our moms are really very, are getting their power back and know that they are important, know that they matter, know that they are so important within the vitality and wellbeing of our communities. And so that's some of the work that we ensure to tell them and to let them know.
00:16:49
Speaker
And, um, yeah, like I grew up in ceremony hearing these from various elders in our, in our 21 territory here. Um, so it's like now it's, it's my, it's my responsibility to share that forward. Cause none of the, none of the knowledge that I, that my family carries or that I know belongs to me, like it belongs to community. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I.
00:17:17
Speaker
I have this, it's kind of an odd, curious thing as like the deep interest in Winnipeg. And like, I think it's, you know, it's like from hockey, but it's also, I've read a lot about the labor history in Manitoba. I'm a labor unionist by day. And so, you know, in some film and stuff. So it's been a very, you know, it's like kind of outside
00:17:45
Speaker
Now, in that too, there's been kind of the difficult and disturbing aspect of indigenous women in Manitoba and a lot of stories that come out of there. And again, from the outside, I also see more
00:18:08
Speaker
And I've heard about this dynamic, more illustrious, beautiful celebrations in part, in words, like even at the hockey game and other type of events that look to honor or
00:18:24
Speaker
indigenous folks more than my setting in the U.S. It just seems like that there's- Yeah, definitely. Yes. And that's actually, as you're saying that, that's actually one thing that I noticed too, because it's like with the TRC, the truth and reconciliation not really pushed forward and really catapulted, you know, that the notion that we are treaty partners, especially in Treaty One territory, like we signed treaties together with the British Crown.
00:18:50
Speaker
and all those that, you know, descend to Canada following, like immediately adopt that just by birth of being Canadian within that treaty jurisdiction. So yeah, with the TRC and the unraveling of the truth of the residential school system, and the residential school system is just one aspect. There's still the Indian Act, which is a huge, huge monster to really,
00:19:18
Speaker
to really pick away at like the Indian Act is something I think as a nation as communities we're going to have to look at eventually because it's the residential schools was just one aspect of this huge other aspect. But yeah as you were saying when we actually we drove down to Minnesota we went to go see the wilds so Minnesota wilds versus the Winnipeg Jets and I was actually
00:19:42
Speaker
Like, they didn't have an opening for acknowledging the territory, you know, how when Winnipeg, we have blind acknowledgments. It's like, we're on Treaty 1 territory, you know, land of the Métis, etc. Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota. When we went down there, they have a very.
00:20:00
Speaker
big Native American population actually have some friends that have gone through Minneapolis and they have various gatherings and ceremonies in that territory and how there was no acknowledgement of any of the Indigenous folks. So that was like super different. I was like that's so interesting how
00:20:17
Speaker
There was no acknowledgement of Native Americans, but then you come up, you come back home, you know, in Winnipeg, there's always that land opening. And it's the same thing at the Mount Toulouse games. Yeah, so yeah, it is very different in that aspect of just over the border, how that changes. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:41
Speaker
And it creates this dynamic that I know must be complicated for folks. It is helpful for me to hear and see and for it to be consistently present the words loudly spoken about.
00:21:04
Speaker
with land-focused Iran, not the trivial aspect or the repetition. The words are spoken that way. Thank you for that. The total absence is near total absence.
Storytelling and Fantasy Novel Project
00:21:22
Speaker
I also had a perspective shift on this. I was talking to
00:21:28
Speaker
Paige Pettibon is a Native artist up in Como, Washington. And when I had gone to, it was a Seattle, Seattle Mariners baseball game. And there was, there was a ceremony before the game and a traditional dance. And I was so excited about it. But it was like, so quick. And like, in my mind, I was like, like,
00:21:57
Speaker
I was like, that wasn't enough. And when I was talking to her, there was such much more of a subtle way of approaching it. It was like, that was our space. It's beautiful to have that space. And it's a good thing. So I found in my head, I was like, more. I'm an advocate. I'm just an advocate all that. I'm like, more. There should have been more.
00:22:20
Speaker
But it's, it's, it's good to see, but I think, um, you know, I think it not just that, um, the, the structures, um, that, that really impact, um, as folks in the, the shocking level of, of, of violence that, um, uh, uh, it could be subject to, um, I wanted to ask you about yourself and you as a,
00:22:48
Speaker
You as a creator, you as a, you know, a storytelling artist. I don't know if you like the term artist, but like creator.
00:23:01
Speaker
For yourself, embodying that space as a creator, as a storyteller, were those things that happened early on for you? Or at a point you felt you had more of a role? Or has there always been part of you?
00:23:20
Speaker
Um, I feel like it's always been part of me because I remember when I was about seven or eight years old, um, I remember grabbing like a pen and a pad in my living room and then starting my first triology. And I didn't like, I was like, this is going to be a novel series. It's going to be triology. And I only wrote like two pages.
00:23:40
Speaker
But just that creativity of wanting to share stories and wanting to storytell, I think just was something that just came innately. But my mom actually, on my mom's side, when I was doing the Mickey Wap teachings with the Treaty's Commissions in Manitoba, one of my relatives actually made a comment and they were like, oh, she's a storyteller just like for grandpa.
00:24:08
Speaker
and are her great grandpa. And so there's actually a video of my, my, my Japan, my great mushroom, my great grandpa, his name is Johnny McKay. And there's a video of him talking in Korean storytelling. And so I just feel like, I think it's just, you know, runs through the family. You know, our people have, are just great storytellers. And I think
00:24:31
Speaker
I think it just happens innately where some of us just kind of hone that gift a lot more, kind of focus on it. So I love, you know, telling spooky stories, like I've had so many experiences in my life and, you know, my family, we're very like spiritual family, you know, our culture also is very spiritual.
00:24:51
Speaker
So it's not taboo for us to talk about stuff like that. It's not something that is like different or weird. It's something that is like everyday conversation where, you know, someone has an experience and it's like everybody's talking about it and sharing information about it.
00:25:06
Speaker
I guess just being raised up in a culture that way I'm very open about sharing these stories. I don't feel shy about them and I just kind of come naturally. And yeah, so with my writing, now that I'm in my 30s, I'm actually starting to write a first draft of a novel.
00:25:29
Speaker
and that is a fantasy novel based on a lot of the great teachings and stories i grew up with but based on a fantasy element i just there's so much to it i have a bunch of characters and i've been sitting on this idea for
00:25:43
Speaker
I don't even know, like eight years or so. I finally have about 30,000 words. And I'm just kind of plugging away at it. But basically, it's a story about, like, Weetigo cons, we call them Weetigos, or like Weetigos, actually, but they're in Ojibwe, they call them Wendigos. And
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how to say it. Like, I feel like I want to talk about it, but I feel like I would give too much information and do a lot of spoilers because I get so excited. But essentially, I suffer. I suffer. I suffer from that as well. So yes, you feel. Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, about this young man. He.
00:26:27
Speaker
There's a curse that runs in his family, and he ends up inheriting the curse. And that's already a spoiler already. But anyways, he ends up kind of going on an adventure trying to get rid of the curse. And at the same time, while he's doing this, there are different court politics that are going on. There are different treaty relations that are breaking between different nations.
00:26:50
Speaker
And there's like a rebellion that happens. So he's just doing all this work and then around him, there's a bunch of these very court things going to happening and then.
00:27:04
Speaker
you know, spread of war and just kind of things like that. I wanted to be very, very high fantasy, but also in like Cree base. So there's a lot of cultural like spiritual beings that we have as Cree people that I put in there. We also have this one really powerful entity who's really awesome. His name is Big Brother, we call him Big Brother, but
00:27:30
Speaker
in our languages, he's known as Wasagi-Chak. It's kind of like an ode to Wasagi-Chak. And it's really cool because before I started writing the story, I, you know, this is like a thing I don't really ever talk about online, but I made sure to put something forward for Big Brother, like Wasagi-Chak, and I actually had a dream about him that night.
00:27:53
Speaker
And so I took that as like a go, like he's like, do it. So yeah, so ever since then, I've actually sat down to with a good friend of mine, his name is Isaac Murdoch. He's a really well known storyteller. He's from Trinity Three territory. And like I've talked about some of my ideas with him and
00:28:14
Speaker
He was like, these stories need to be told. And so he was one of the ones that really motivated me to write and to share. Um, yeah, but Isaac Murdoch, you can search him online. He's also has really amazing stories. He has two books out on, on their Anishinaabe stories. And he's just really awesome too. So yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited for you. Thank you. No, that's super.
00:28:42
Speaker
Appreciate it. I'm excited to have some Kind of alternate, you know like alternate history Native record BL Blanchard doesn't You know, it's like as if colonialism that didn't exist and then one of the most amazing parts of her books is kind of like the restorative justice aspects as like
00:29:12
Speaker
justice system developed out and imperfect like other things are, but a justice system that you kind of inhabit and move through and be like, wow, what about this? So yeah, oh my gosh, well, good luck.
00:29:34
Speaker
Take your time. I want like once it's on like paper, I want to grab at it. So talking about creation, I wanted to ask a question I asked on a show, art, philosophy, etc. What is art? What is art for you?
Art's Role in Indigenous Culture
00:29:55
Speaker
Oh, I feel like art is so many things. I feel like art is just the most powerful, amazing thing.
00:30:02
Speaker
And art is just in all different aspects. I can be art, maybe a painting, drawing, writing, storytelling.
00:30:08
Speaker
Um, you know, and I'm always reminded of Lou Ariele. It was actually just Lou Ariele Day here in Manitoba. I think across Canada they call it a family day, but, um, you know, he said a quote like a hundred years ago where, uh, the spirit of his people will be brought back alive by the artists. And I just feel that, yeah, you know, and it's such a beautiful time period right now, especially within the Indigenous
00:30:33
Speaker
community. I feel like we're really in a sprouting renaissance period now. You know, a lot of our truths of our ancestors and what have happened to our relatives is coming out and now a lot of our people are starting to create and have joy, starting to dance and sing and draw and paint and write and story tell. And so I just feel like it's such an amazing process
00:30:59
Speaker
and the Indigenous art is something that is just booming here, especially in Winnipeg. You know, we have Indigenous creators in film. I also do film work also, so I actually wrote my first episode
00:31:12
Speaker
So we have a TV show here through APTN, which is Aboriginal People's Television Network. We have a show called 7Gen, and I'm one of the co-hosts. So now we're on season three. We just finished doing the host standups. And I wrote my first episode on an Indigenous author. His name is David A. Robertson. He has amazing, amazing works of art. But he talks about that too, the Indigenous Renaissance, how it's like we're now in that period of flourishing
00:31:42
Speaker
and celebrating. And a lot of that is expressed through arts. So yeah, I just I really love and appreciate art. So exciting is particularly with the round, you know, the empowerment of like the arts, it's like, um, you know, obviously, I think artists like
00:32:01
Speaker
maybe believe that or feel that but like that pronouncement of like how do we get through how do we get you know up and over and um it's a real uh really powerful idea um yeah excited to hear um about about your writing and with film within film too uh gosh like i i i was reading about a lot of things you
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to I wanted to ask you I'm gonna ask like the big philosophical question now I want to say get out of the way but like the the the name of the show is Why do you think there's something rather than nothing I
00:32:55
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, I feel that yeah, there's something rather than nothing because you know, we need something to strive for. And I feel that there's, you know, just so many beautiful things that have taken place to bring us to where we are today. You know, and a lot of our creation stories, they talk about a lot of the processes and actions that were taken for us to be here today and who we are. And so I feel that
00:33:23
Speaker
You know, to have something rather than nothing is a lot better than having nothing, because then if there's nothing, then what is there really, like, to be alive for, I guess, in a way. Yeah, that's how I feel about it. Yeah. About the arts, too, mention the flourishing indigenous arts telling us
00:33:46
Speaker
in Manitoba. And popular culture wise, I've been excited to see things like TV shows, reservation dogs. Yeah. I would say more, more exhibitions of indigenous art in my area that I've seen in Oregon. And I've had the sense of oh, even like science fiction, like the movie
00:34:13
Speaker
Like the movie, Pray, with indigenous-based story. I don't know how to ask this exactly, but it feels like that is gaining root and taking hold. And I think about culture and art and about
00:34:37
Speaker
exposing in the stories and reckoning with things. Do you think we're seeing a new stage or new era in Indigenous artists and creators?
Recognition of Indigenous Voices
00:34:52
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I feel like a lot of the artists that were doing film already in the 80s and 90s, I think like I feel that there's a lot more and a lot of people are taking inspiration on some of the older movies, like even, what's the one where I say, hey, Victor, Smoke Signals, and a lot of those directors and a lot of those actors and actresses. It's just really like amazing to see
00:35:20
Speaker
how Indigenous voices are now being more highlighted and how our worldviews and our ideas are starting to get those platforms. Because I know back in those days, the 80s, 90s, you know, it was like,
00:35:33
Speaker
very few and far between because there wasn't really as they say like a market but really it's like our people are so valid regardless there was a market or not so now it's today it's just amazing to see all the funding coming in that's available for different avenues like podcasts you know along
00:35:51
Speaker
writing, film, directing, whatever that is. It's really, yeah, I just feel like it's just taken off and I think it's just going to be super cool to see where everything is in like five to 10 years. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, I get it.
00:36:09
Speaker
I get excited about it. And I think there was a time, I think, you know, just seeing that, you know, TV shows for Crying Out Loud, right? Like Rutherford Falls that was on for a couple of seasons, Janish Meeting, who's ridiculously hilarious. Just really, really fun, really fun stuff. I
Ivana's Projects and Collaborations
00:36:31
Speaker
wanted to ask you,
00:36:36
Speaker
You do a bunch of things. I think they're important. Can you kind of convey to like listeners like where you find like your teachings and the show and them to that?
00:36:49
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So one of the ones you talked about earlier was the Treaty Education. So that work I do through Treaty Relations Commissions in Manitoba, so you can search it up on YouTube. There's a lot of folks that get brought in to share teachings and we actually get requested and we travel across
00:37:11
Speaker
Like, sometimes Manitoba or within the city with various school divisions to talk about treaties and some of those teachings. So that's Treaty Relations Commission in Manitoba.
00:37:21
Speaker
And then I also do work with Indigenous Leadership Development Institute. We are an Indigenous owned and created organization that does executive training, workshops and facilitation across Canada. So Indigenous awareness trainings, Indigenous life skills, coach trainings, facilitator trainings. They also do like board trainings and just various like goal setting, et cetera. So I do work in that capacity.
00:37:51
Speaker
And then creepy teepee, which is to work the essay and I do we have an Instagram name creepy teepee. We're actually working on a project coming up this summer and we actually have some amazing news that she's going to put forward soon that we're going to announce.
00:38:08
Speaker
So that's on Instagram. And then 7Gen is a TV show series that I co-host. We have three seasons. So the third season will be out either this fall or next year. And we have two seasons and they're available on APT and Lomi.
00:38:28
Speaker
Or you can go on the APTM website and check them out. You can also Google 7gen.ca. And then there's also, I was also involved in Little Bird. So I did a principal character on that series. There's six episodes. I believe it's on PBS now. We're also on APTM Loomie and Crave. So Little Bird is about a woman who was taking away from her family in the 60s scoop and reunites with her family.
00:38:58
Speaker
So there's that. And then my family and I, we also are a singing group. There's so many things. We're called Kai Heart Woman Singers. So we sing all over. We're actually going to try work on recording soon.
00:39:15
Speaker
And then my cousin and I, the work that we do that folks are interested in is called Meteatoski. You can just search up my name or Raven Heart, and that's how usually people connect with us. We have to get a website still up and going for kind heart women singers and then Meteatoski, which encompasses the program that make you up, which is the 15 week. Yeah, so that's pretty much all of some of the stuff that I do, but I can talk about and connect folks to that.
00:39:45
Speaker
have, you know, there's a social media presence of each of those ones. Thank you. Thank you for, you know, for you, honestly, to, you know, your work and spending time with me on the show. I just want to let you know there's a deep appreciation of that. Thank you. One question before I let you go.
00:40:10
Speaker
Uh, it about, uh, uh, hockey, uh, you know, I don't know if I have a great, uh, like understanding, um, I've read stories of, you know, hockey as, as, as, uh, as a sport and some of the deep stories of indigenous, uh, players. And I think famously by Richard Wagamie's, uh, Indian horse. Yeah. Yeah. And, um.
00:40:40
Speaker
I found the stories just so powerful. And I just want to have a sense, like within... Does hockey have that role?
Hockey's Cultural Significance in Indigenous Communities
00:40:56
Speaker
I noticed indigenous players within hockey and the stories that I read, it seems to be maybe important culturally in a way that I don't understand that. Does hockey have that
00:41:08
Speaker
power amongst some of the indigenous youth playing it, male or female or other. Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely. I know like in Manitoba here, like just from personal experience, my nephew is actually at a hockey training camp currently. He's there for like two months, three months.
00:41:25
Speaker
um and so yeah like hockey is such a huge thing in our communities there's so many of our young people that play it i know up north in my community uh god's river there's broom hall hockey um a lot of people play broom like broomball hockey and there's like whole tournaments that are based on broomball or hockey and we also have um
00:41:45
Speaker
Once a year, we actually call it our Vegas. It's so funny. But it's in Brandon, Manitoba. And they have a huge tournament and it's actually called Winterfest. But before it was the Dakota Ojibwe Tribal Council days. And they get a bunch of folks all over Manitoba from different reserves that play various sports and they win tournaments and championships. And it's all indigenous. So we call it our Vegas days because they have like a powwow, they have like all these
00:42:13
Speaker
tournaments going on, they have like vendors and food vendors. You know, there's a lot of like memes that are shared about Winterfest. But yeah, like it's such like sports are huge on our on our communities, especially hockey, like there's, we all have hockey players in our families. Yeah.
00:42:33
Speaker
That's so exciting, thank you. And one of the things I found really exciting is I've been following the professional women's hockey league, PWHL, and they like each week they bust attendance record. They had like 13,000 then 15,000, I think the last one was. That's amazing. And I'm like, oh, shit, I know it's numbers, but I'm like, something's happening, folks. You get these
00:43:02
Speaker
and some crappy teams baseball games down this way, you don't get seven, 8,000 people in those stands. And I'm like, almost 20,000 showing up for that. Super exciting.
00:43:18
Speaker
women's sports on the rise. And it's good to see the hockey league progress in there. So anyways, go Jets. Yeah, they're doing pretty good. Yeah, I'll fairly keep it up. I'm going to say that they're going to do it regardless.
00:43:38
Speaker
One question about the Jets, you're up that way. I'm as goofy as a I'm an obsessive Jets fan who's never been to Winnipeg and my other team's Boston Bruins. I grew up on the East Coast, but
00:43:55
Speaker
Winnipeg, I say it's because of their travel schedule and how much they have to travel and they have to travel more than any other team where they're located. And so I make the excuse for the Jets. I do because I think it's real. Yes, totally. It's exhausting. Yeah.
00:44:12
Speaker
worn down uh this team is really good but i'm really shaky and afraid here in february what what do you think about the jets like this year is this is i'm not saying Stanley Cup but let's say Stanley Cup yeah it i'm worried about the falter i'm worried about the late season fatigue and falter should i be
00:44:36
Speaker
I would say no, because a lot of folks were worried about, oh, what was the week that they have off? I can't remember. It was in Toronto this year. Yeah, it was the All Star. All Star, yeah. So a lot of people were worried about the All Star break because the last few years, I think since 2018, they've had like after the All Star break, there was a little bit of
00:44:59
Speaker
kind of struggles there. However, this season they've actually been doing really good. Compared to last year, I know last year there was a lot of rumors of locker room kind of troubles and things like that. Whereas this year we have a new captain, there's been trade ins and trade outs. We have amazing guys coming on the team and honestly they're playing really good. It's just been really fun to watch them and to see.
00:45:28
Speaker
Yeah, so I feel like I feel like they're gonna keep going like we're already slated for the playoffs. All right. I'm not great Yeah, they came out of the they came out of the all-star break and they got the mollest question, Ron I was like, I mean, yeah No way not not again. Not again. So they got back on track Yeah, I I gotta tell you it's it's been a thrill for me I found out to talk to you and into thank you. I
00:45:57
Speaker
Yeah, and for all the different things that you do and appreciate your thoughts and kind of like helpful ways of thinking about things, just hearing about them and the possibility of healing, naming grief.
00:46:20
Speaker
get more muscles in that way as well. Every human tries to name it and deal with it. But I just want to thank you for that deep work that you do with folks to help in that process. And a shout out to SA Lawrence Wells, who joined the show quite a while back, as Ivana had mentioned.
00:46:44
Speaker
creepy teepee, and though you can't see me, I got the Winnipeg Jets hat on for myself and for Ivana, and got the S.A. Lawrence Waltz designed shirts, which you can get by finding S.A.
00:47:02
Speaker
on Instagram and get some beautiful designs. Ivana, when that book pre-order date comes out, hit me up with that pre-order date. No pressure, but congratulations for working on that and it is writing.
00:47:26
Speaker
Everybody's going to say something as artists and creators, but I'm going to say writing's the most difficult thing. Oh, yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah. A bit of luck and a happy Indigenous hockey weekend, I guess. Thank you. Soba and Winnipeg. I'll be watching the game. And again, thank you so much for your time and for everything you've had to say.
00:47:54
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you for inviting me. Happy to be here. Thank you. Bye, Ivana. Awesome. Good to see you. Take care. This is something rather than nothing.
00:48:19
Speaker
and listeners to stay connected with us in our guests, visit something rather than nothing.com. Join our mailing list for exclusive updates and access to guest created art. If you enjoyed this episode or any episode, please like subscribe, leave a review on your podcast platform. People really read that shit.
00:48:40
Speaker
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00:49:07
Speaker
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