51社区黑料

by Sharon Mah 

Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) associate professor Lyana Patrick has released a new podcast, , that hosts conversations with Indigenous court workers, counsellors, scholars, and health and wellness providers about their experiences and perspectives on health, justice and Indigeneity.

In the three-part mini-series, Patrick and her community research partners from the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC (NCCABC) deeply explore the joys and challenges podcast guests experienced while working within colonial systems of health and justice. The series features diverse Indigenous understandings of health and justice and illustrates what it means to take a strengths-based and decolonial approach to this work.

鈥淚鈥檝e long incorporated creative practices into my research and education,鈥� says Patrick who has previous presented her research work through video and film. 鈥淧odcasting is a natural extension of this work.鈥�

The podcast is a form of knowledge mobilization for Patrick鈥檚 PhD research in community and regional planning. She worked with NCCABC and realized that while the organization has justice and health workers operating in the court setting, they were also connectors to health counsellors and detox support workers and other community service providers. 鈥淚 really started thinking of the work that they were doing as being community planners because their model of care is really a continuum of care model which means that you meet people wherever they're at and you provide a whole range of supports.鈥�

From Ceremony Up covers a lot of ground with its guests, addressing and examining topics such as: how Indigenous peoples are both deeply impacted by and resist historical and ongoing colonial violence as they carry out critical health and justice work; exploring how Indigenous healing and wellness is created and supported in urban settings; and, discovering how ceremony and land-based practices support transformational change for people who have experienced incarceration. Each episode also features show notes for additional reading and resources that will help listeners enrich their learning.

Patrick was supported in the creation and production of From Ceremony Up through a residency offered by the (CEC). This group is co-founded and co-led by Coco Nielsen, Dr. Emilia Nielsen and FHS researcher Emily R. Blyth, who successfully defended her PhD earlier this year. CEC takes a relational approach to working on issues of health, illness and disability through engaging in creative activity and critical scholarship. Their projects take an expansive approach to narrative and storytelling, ranging from individual artistic practices to community-based art, to public scholarship.

鈥淚 knew that [Patrick} had been working on this podcasting project, and invited her to become the CEC鈥檚 inaugural Podcaster-in-Residence,鈥� recalls Blyth. 鈥淥ur goal [with this podcast series] is to share the understandings that our guests brought to our interviews widely.鈥� The CEC actively seeks to platform and amplify the voices, storis and artistic productions of those who are frequently silenced in Western systems of academic knowledge and arts production.

Patrick noted that she was grateful to CEC for their support on finishing the podcast 鈥淔rom the very beginning, what I鈥檇 hoped to achieve with the podcast was to carry forward some of the complexities of this story.鈥� The podcast was also generously supported in its early days through an Indigenous Digital Media Grant from the 51社区黑料 Library, and through Patrick鈥檚 Research in Residence position with the Community Engaged Research Initiative at SFU.

Although the podcast guests do tell some stories about experiences of crises and trauma that are challenging and harrowing, Patrick says she found herself being inspired by her guests鈥� ability to continue to do the work and maintain a sense of humour. 鈥淵ou'll hear a lot of laughter in the podcast, so I just hope that it inspires people to know that if [the podcast guests] can continue to do this work, then we all have a responsibility. So that's why we say [at the end of each episode], if you're curious, remain so. Seek out information. Find your allies, find other people who are doing similar things. There are people doing amazing work all across Turtle Island.鈥�