Fifteen months.
That’s a lot longer time than I thought it would take to finish the project that I embarked on with CBC Radio and DayBreak host, Carolina DeRyk, in February, 2022. But, it is done, and I’m very happy with the result.
First dubbed “Gathering Indigenous Voices of the North Coast,” it was a general idea that would see me interviewing numerous people and would have two results: a bank of interviews with notable indigenous people in Rupert, and a podcast using some of those interviews.
When Carolina first asked me what I thought of my being involved, I said it was a good fit, with me being an “urbariginal,” a word that is a relative of the more insulting term, “apple.”
Calling someone an apple is suggesting that he or she is a sell-out who embraced white culture and turned his back on his own. An Urbariginal is someone who was raised in an urban setting and, as a result, knows little of their village and culture. I first heard it at a provincial Friendship Centres meeting many years ago.
The word got a “huh” look from Carolina that day but she would circle back around to it, and it would form the nucleus of the project.
I hit the ground running at the 2022 All Native Basketball Tournament which, due to COVID-19, had been canceled the previous year for the first time in 60 years. I did numerous interviews and saw that we could break them into topics, like residential schools, development on indigenous lands, and survival of the culture.
But then something happened along the way: I opened my big mouth.
Prompted by some of the stories I was hearing from people, many of whom knew my family and particularly, my dad, I started telling Carolina about my life; about how I came to be a reporter, how I grew up, and the role my father played in all of it. Her eyes sparkled. “That’s it,” she said.
We were still going to use most of the topics we had boiled it down to, but now they would have a personal angle, about me and my relationship with my dad and my culture. This led to additional interviews, with people who knew my dad well and our family history, which spanned Lax Kw’alaams, Port Edward and Prince Rupert.
I knew very little about my parents’ life in Port Ed and even less about their life in Lax Kw’alaams. The information I got about those times was enlightening, surprising, humorous, and heartbreaking.
I knew some of my father’s background but had many questions, including who he was raised by and how he was raised. The picture was murky, as it is with many indigenous elders. Since tribal roots (we follow our mother’s side) are paramount, uncles and aunts play as large a role, if not larger, than parents.
So, for my dad, his nieces and nephews were more his responsibility than we were – and they were treated much better. As a kid, you can imagine how confusing and hurtful that was to me and my siblings. If only we knew.
Besides my dad and family, the podcast explores my life, my demons, the decision to go to journalism school, and my efforts to work with my village. It also looks at larger topics, like the environment vs resource development, the role of the church and the impact of residential schools, and the significance of the All Native tournament.
Throughout the series, I explore how I have tried to find my place between the white and indigenous world, and accepted being an urbariginal rather than feeling inadequate in both spaces. A central theme in the series is the internal tug of war between the traditional and modern.
My education and hard life have made me pragmatic but I am also a romantic. So, while I see the value of development, I mourn the decline of the salmon and fret about the environment. I understand the efforts to preserve the language and culture but, when I look at the results, wonder if it’s working and worth the investment.
This project has been a long and difficult road, with many twists and turns, and so many questions still unanswered. It is a journey that, for me and so many other urbariginals, is far from over.
For more info, check out the audio trailer for The Urbariginal and subscribe at CBC Listen, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Wai Wah!