Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast

In this episode we talk about the final three modules of the Indigenous Canada course including Indigenous in the City, Social Movements and Indigenous Art.

Wet’suwet’en: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Canadian_pipeline_and_railway_protests

@hesquiaht Carol Anne Hilton, MBA
@helen_knott Helen Knott
@KimTallBear Kim TallBear
@DecolonizeWealth
@Qchasinghorse Quannah Chasinghorse
@_IllumiNatives Illumi...

This conversation delves into the lives of Indigenous Girls, Women and Genderful People whose community status, societal roles and responsibilities have been irrevocably changed due to the heteronormative, patriarchal, and misogynist influence of colonial settler culture.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Genderful

https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2020/10/09/how-supercool-queer-owned-boy-smells-celebra...

In this episode of our ongoing journey to learn more about the Indigenous experience of life in Canada, we explore what Indigenous relationship to the land really means. It's a whole lot more than finding a dot on a map! We're referencing Module 8 in the Indigenous Canada Course.

From Indigenous worldview to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to the impacts of settlement on Indigenous people, and to key lega...

By the 1970's and 80's, whether settler Canada understood it or not,  the reality was that generations of Indigenous people had attended and/or been scarred by the residential school system.  Traditional gender roles and ways of life had been flipped on their heads. As more indigenous folks moved into urban areas, they were bumping up against Canada's political and legal structures in new ways.  In this episode, we l...

This weeks episode centers around the events that bring the Indigenous people from the late 1800's into the modern time. The focus includes economic enterprises that the Indigenous people could engage in, the movement from the reservation to the cities and factors that pushed and pulled people off the reservations. Inherent here are conversations about resource extraction, changing gender roles imparted by the colonizers and h...

The story of Indian Residential Schools is one of the darkest chapters in Canadian History.  Join us as we talk through the reality of Residential School: it's impacts on the children, parents, survivors and communities. This will give the background for what trauma experts are realizing is a pervasive influence on the health of the Indigenous people today.

Important  Links:

Indian Residential School Survivo...

Come with us as we delve into Week 4 of the Indigenous Canada Course all about Legal Traditions. We will cover how Colonial ideas of law are different than Indigenous legal traditions, and how settlers utilized Colonial law to disrupt Indigenous cultural traditions of justice, systems of government, and trade.

Find the Indigenous Canada Course:
Indigenous Canada via Coursera.org
Indigenous Canada via the Universit...

Susannah and Gillian cover week 3 of the Indigenous Canada course. This module covers the history of the treaty process in Canada from the Peace and Friendship Treaties all the way through the Modern Treaties. It is shown that the two sovereign nations involved in the treaties viewed the process of negotiation, and the content of each treaty very differently, giving perspective on the current land use conflicts.

Find the ...

We're diving into learning about Indigenous History and Culture in Canada with the Indigenous Canada course, developed by the University of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies. This week we cover a summary of what we learned in Weeks 1 and 2 of the course. We gain a better understanding of Indigenous Worldview and the events of the Fur Trade. These episodes are full of dates, and names, and events - chock full of learning, that...

Season 5 of the Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast is coming up in January 2022! This season, we're doing something a little different. We're dedicating this entire season to conversations about decolonization.  And we want you to join us!

Here's the plan:

Hosts Gillian McCormick and Susannah Steers are currently completing the Indigenous Canada course, created by the University of Alb...

These days, there is more and more evidence to suggest that strength training is beneficial for women of all ages. For a lot of women, that has meant going to the gym and training in exactly the same way a man does.  But what if the variable and changing hormone levels in a woman's body affect performance in ways we have not fully accounted for? What if strength training could look, and maybe feel different in a woman's b...

With all the election campaigning in Canada in recent weeks, we've heard a lot about affordable housing. What does that really mean for some of the more vulnerable people in our community?  In this week's episode, we get down to the nitty-gritty of housing and homelessness in BC.

With her vast experience in different countries, Sandra gives us a sense of what homelessness means in Canada and in different parts of...

Joins us for Part 2 of this eye-opening conversation with Dr. Dedeshya Holowenko about menopause.  In this episode we  discuss  the Women's Health Initiative  in the early 2000's and how it derailed the treatment of menopause for a generation of women and their healthcare providers.  Learn  what current research shows about different treatments and what they can do for women and their menopause symptoms.  And even with al...

Menopause. Traditionally, menopause has been something we don't really talk about. It has been something that women have had to deal with quietly and often on their own. Today - we're going to TALK about it!

Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Dr. Dedeshya Holowenko, a family physician with a special interest in women's health.  We dig into some important questions: What is menopause and why it is ...

Seniors in British Columbia  face a range of challenges, from healthcare to housing, finances and personal supports. The Covid19 pandemic exposed many of the ways that we need to think and act differently to better support our seniors in the later stages of their lives. 

Isobel Mackenzie, BC's Seniors' Advocate, joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about long-term residential care,  dementia care, elder abus...

Data is, by definition, the facts, statistics and information we gather for research and analysis. In our digital age, data is being produced, analyzed and used in volumes and ways that are difficult to imagine. Among other things, data is the stuff that health and public policies are made of;  the information that often decides where the money goes. We were curious to know where the data is coming from, who is looking at it, how i...

Trigger Warning:
In this episode, we discuss mature themes, including issues of violence, indigenous traumas and more. Please consider whether this conversation is appropriate for you and/or others in your environs before pressing play.

This episode is Part 2 of our in-depth conversation about trauma with  Registered Clinical Counsellor, Tyler Milley.  We pick up where we left off last time; as Tyler walks with us thro...

Trigger Warning:
In this episode, we discuss mature themes, including issues of violence, indigenous traumas and more. Please consider whether this conversation is appropriate for you and/or others in your environs before pressing play.

Trauma can be acute. Trauma can be chronic. Trauma is always overwhelming.  In today's episode, we're digging into what trauma is, how it manifests, and how it affects us, a...

Lost Immunity is the latest explosive thriller from international bestselling author and physician Daniel Kalla. In a story with some uncomfortable parallels to the Covid19 pandemic, an experimental vaccine is deployed to battle a lethal outbreak - until patients start dying of unknown causes. Are the deaths due to bad science, or is there something more sinister going on?

Join us for a conversation about the book,  and fo...