Jordyn Burnouf grew up in Ile-a-la Crosse and is from Black Lake First Nation. (Danielle Stasiuk Photography)

By Derek Cornet

indigenous voices

New podcast empowers communities to contribute to global climate action

Apr 10, 2024 | 4:39 PM

A new podcast is inviting listeners from all walks of life to join in a transformative journey empowering them to bring dialogue to their communities and contribute to global climate action.

The podcast is called Nôhcimihk/Into The Bush and is hosted by Black Lake First Nation member Jordyn Burnouf, who also grew up in Ile-a-la Crosse. The first three episodes were released on Wednesday with an aim to captivate listeners throughout Canada and engage a global following to support Indigenous voices.

“I started this podcast, conceptualizing and developing it a few years ago and I have just been slowly chipping away at it,” she said.

“David Suzuki Foundation is the show partner, so they have been helping me on the learning side of things in terms of the structure of the podcast and building it out. That’s been a really great resource and support to have. The podcast itself is meant to provide a platform and opportunity for kind of varying degrees or levels of people to get involved in the climate and environment and energy conversations.”

The first three episodes feature interviews with Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Tawhiao McMaster and Danii Kehler. Laboucan-Massimo explores her experience growing up in northern Alberta, discussing the barriers communities face in the energy and environmental sector, while McMaster discusses the impacts of colonization and the resiliency of Indigenous nations around the world.

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The third episode featuring Kehler highlights the importance of granting personhood to Antarctica and the need to protect the environment for future generations.

Burnouf explained she has been fortunate in her work and life to be surrounded by some truly brilliant people. She noted she enjoys hearing stories and telling them, so she wanted to use some of her passions and skills to be able to provide a platform to others to be able to share the work that they are doing.

“The idea came from seeing a need to bridge this gap around the whole idea of Indigenous knowledge systems and the intersection of academia or western science, and I just found that the credibility and merit that is due to the trappers and hunters, people who live off of the land and who know the value and the teachings, especially from an Indigenous perspective,” Burnouf said.

“They don’t get the credit they deserve or have the platform they deserve, so I really wanted to level the playing field so to speak to be able to provide opportunities for all of these voices to be heard.”

Burnouf mentioned unless someone is a researcher, has a degree or entitled job, they don’t usually have access to such opportunities like a podcast.

“There’s a few different drives that led me to this, but mainly the value in the story is something that is truly so inspiring and important for us to harness as Indigenous people,” she said.

“One of my mentors and a person who I truly respect and honour and miss dearly is the late Harold Johnson. We had so many discussions and he really instilled this sense of pride and honour around our ability to share stories and our ability to see how those can really change the world.”

Nôhcimihk/Into The Bush can be found on Apple Music, Spotify or online here on its website. Burnouf added a future episode will feature a centenarian Elder from Ile-a-la Crosse who refuses to speak English and who lives off the land. She hopes people will follow along and listen to some of those stories.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com