New podcast aimed at elevating and celebrating Indigenous women debuts in November

By Rick Garrick

FORT WILLIAM — Indigenous journalists Jolene Banning, Tanya Talaga, and Kim Wheeler are featuring the voices of Indigenous women from across the country on their Auntie Up! 10-part podcast.

“It’s a podcast for, by, and about Indigenous women to elevate and celebrate our voices,” says Banning, a host and producer of the Auntie Up! podcast and Fort William citizen. “It’s an opportunity for women from coast-to-coast to share their knowledge and celebrate women’s knowledge in the work they are doing.”

Banning says they have completed five podcasts as of Nov. 23 — information about the Auntie Up! podcast is available online.

“We’ve talked to land defenders, we’ve talked to entrepreneurs that are doing [business] their own way, following Indigenous world views and values,” Banning says. “We’re going to talk to beaders, we’re going to talk to artists that are using their work as political statements, and then we’re going to get into some heavier topics like MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls), calling out lateral violence without being laterally violent. And then we’re going to have some fun too; talking to authors and talking about bannock, from bannock to urban restaurants.”

Banning says there has been a good response from the audience, noting that they have received comments on how the podcast is “really needed.”

“It sounds like a couple of aunts sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea and beading, like our original forms of Indigenous governance with women sitting around the table talking about what needs to be done, talking about the important [events] happening in their communities and their lives and families,” Banning says. “We really aim to elevate Indigenous women’s voices because for far too long, I think, they’ve been silenced.”

Banning says the Auntie Up! podcast is available on all of the podcast streaming apps, such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

“We have a video podcast companion that is on Youtube,” Banning says.

Banning says they currently have two sponsors for the podcast, Know History and Animikii Innovations.

“We’re quite grateful that we have sponsors and we also have partners that are helping us with this podcast as well,” Banning says. “Our other partner is Antica Productions — they’re a podcast company.”

Wheeler, a host and producer of the Auntie Up! podcast and Sagkeeng citizen in Manitoba, says they decided to create the Auntie Up! podcast after working together on another podcast project.

“The podcast is just women who are the hosts and guests,” Wheeler says. “It’s about giving them space to really share their story more fully than they would on say the six o’clock news.”

Wheeler says the podcast has featured a range of Indigenous women, including Ellen Gabriel, a Kanehsatà:ke activist from Quebec; Kahanus Manuel, a Secwepemc and Ktunaxa land defender from B.C.; Christi Belcourt, a Michif artist from Ontario; and Rosanna Deerchild, an O-Pipon-Na-Piwin radio host from Manitoba.

“We have been talking about writing, so we just did a podcast about Lee Maracle [a Sto꞉lo poet, writer and teacher from B.C.] and her work,” Wheeler says, noting they also did a podcast on entrepreneurship with Patrice Mousseau, founder and CEO at Satya Organic Skin Care and Fort William citizen, and Sage Paul, English River artist and designer from Saskatchewan. “It’s really great to be able to speak with other Indigenous women weekly about their passions and their life work — it’s a space of learning, so we get to learn something really informative and cool every single week.”