This week, we took The Conversation’s podcast, Don’t Call Me Resilient, on the road! We went to Vancouver to interview Indigenous media expert, Karrmen Crey, associate professor of communications at Simon Fraser University and the author of Producing Sovereignty: The Rise of Indigenous Media in Canada.

We spoke with Crey at Iron Dog bookstore in front of an engaging audience, many of whom were students of Simon Fraser University’s inaugural Amplify Podcasting School. (I was guest faculty at the school for the week.)

In our conversation, we explore the exciting growth of Indigenous media – films, television and reality TV – over the last 30 years.

Indigenous filmmakers, producers, and artists have had to navigate the complex and often unfriendly terrain of Canadian media institutions and media production companies. Their negotiations — and struggles — have helped make space for a generation of Indigenous media makers who are increasingly making shows and films on their terms, with greater control of their narratives.

Crey speaks about the ways Indigenous creators are using humour along with a sharp critique of pop culture to show just how different the world looks when decision-making power over how stories get told shifts and Indigenous media makers take control.

Crey, who is Stó:lō from Cheam First Nation and focuses on Indigenously produced and created media in Canada, says: “I’m hoping that non Indigenous people are seeing [this new media] and not only registering it as being funny, but registering it just how sharp and smart it is. There’s a lot of critical insight from those perspectives and I’m hoping it’s priming them to be more receptive and thoughtful about, looking at things from Indigenous perspectives.”

The audience has great questions too! Listen all the way to the end to hear them.

This episode was produced in front of a live audience at Iron Dog Books in Vancouver, in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology and the Amplify Podcast Network.

Also today:

• The planetary orbit in Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ is random and chaotic, but could it exist?
• As campus protests escalate surrounding the Israel-Gaza war, Ontario’s Bill 166 is not the answer
• Detaining migrants in prisons violates human rights and risks abuses
• Why the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service should be designated as a provincial police service
• Canada-wide child care: It’s now less expensive, but finding it is more difficult
• Protecting communities: The urgency of vaccinating to prevent a measles resurgence

All the best.