VOICES OF THE RESURGENCE
Voices of the Resurgence is a podcast led by four Indigenous hosts, all young adults – James, Sarah, Tai, and Sheilina. It started in July 2019 and is ongoing. The podcast has a loose and conversational format, with the hosts speaking to a variety of topics central to the Indigenous experience.
Episode Discussion | audio | transcript
“Cultural Resurgence and Dance Me Outside”
The episode originally aired in December 2019 and features the hosts touching on the revitalization of Indigenous culture through various forms of popular media alongside new opportunities for Indigenous cultural engagement in schools.[1]
The hosts start the conversation discussing memes and TikTok, two forms of popular contemporary social media. They then move into a discussion of how these forms of communication allow Indigenous creators to control their messaging while reaching a large audience. We see this trend across different forms of popular culture, with platforms elevating Indigenous culture through things such as food and music.
For example, Sean Sherman is an Indigenous chef who founded the Sioux Chef, and organization focused on promoting engagement with Native American cooking. Sherman’s organization was elevated with a high production value video in collaboration with the popular food platform Eater, allowing him to integrate education on Indigenous cooking into a popular form of media consumption.[2] Another example in the musical arena is Indigenous rap. Artists such as Nataanii Means, Frank Waln, and the Snotty Nose Rez Kids center Indigenous perspectives in their raps, contributing unique voices (with noteworthy streams) to hip-hop – one of the most popular musical genres in the world. [3]
The hosts also touch on their lack of access to Indigenous culture in school. Sheilina attended a Catholic school, and notes the pressure to code switch when moving between Indigenous spaces and dominant culture spaces. They then optimistically note that younger children are now beginning to have opportunities for Indigenous cultural engagement in school spaces, something we see taking place in other Indigenous spaces as well. For example, Bertilia Yamasta is a teacher in Guam whose profile in the Guardian highlights her efforts to teach the CHamoru language to students at PC Lujan elementary. CHamoru is the indigenous language of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific and suffered from a campaign of active destruction by the US Navy, who banned speaking the language and went so far as to burn dictionaries for the language. The ban was recently lifted in the mid-1970s, as CHamoru was on the verge of going extinct, Yamasta’s class serves as just one example of the cultural revitalization taking place via Indigenous cultural immersion for young students.[4]
Voices of the Resurgence is an insightful podcast well served by its hosts - James, Sarah, Tai, and Sheilina. The podcast provides plenty of opportunities for ongoing engagement, and would be loved by anyone who appreciates personal narratives woven into Indigenous centered topics.
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WacTucju_PE&ab_channel=Eater