imagineNATIVE

All radio selections will be available for listening throughout the festival in the Radio Lounge. Radio and new media works are available for viewing in the Mediatheque. For access to the Mediatheque, please check in at the Guest Services desk in the Miles Nadal JCC lobby to gain entry to the lower level studio. The Mediatheque is open to festival delegates and is open from 10am – 7pm, Thursday, October 19 – Sunday, October 22.

Apocalypto
Harlan McKosato
USA, 2006, Radio

The reviews of Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto are mixed and controversy is rising. Some claim the movie is a total fabrication and racist while others see it as a spiritual experience with a prophetic message. How does the storyline compare to the true story of the Mayan people?

Harlan McKosato is a member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. He has worked at Native American Calling as a producer, director, and managing editor since 1996.

Good Medicine Radio Show: Tobacco Show
Rita Chretien Wanbdi Wakita
Canada, 2007, Radio

Interspersing the latest in country music, the Tobacco Show explores the issue of traditional and current use of tobacco for ceremonial purposes by First Nations people, compared with the current use of tobacco in cigarettes.

Rita Chretien (Cree) began her career in media four years ago as the News Director for for CKLB Radio. She is currently a health columnist, Music Director and the host of The Good Medicine Radio Show, which won the Best Talk Radio Award at imagineNATIVE in 2007. Wanbdi Wakita is a Dakota Elder and Medicine Man. For 17 years he acted in the role as Elder at the Stony Mountain Prison in Manitoba. His role as co-host of The Good Medicine Radio Show is the first time he has reached out to people in this medium.

Native Radio Theatre Project
Frank Blythe
USA, 2006, Radio

The Native Radio Theatre Project consist of three original plays: Melba’s Medicine, The Best Play to Grow Pumpkins, and Super Indian. Melba’s Medicine, written by Rose Yvonne Colletta, features a Native Grandmother who hosts her own radio talk show and gives out sage advice. The Best Place to Grow Pumpkins, written by Rhiana Yazzie, tells the story of a young girl who helps her grandfather fight his diabetes through a magical pumpkin patch. Super Indian, written by Arigon Starr, is about an Indian with super powers and his sidekicks General Bear and Diogi.

Frank Blythe is a founding member and Executive Director of Native American Public Telecommunications, a national producer and distributor of American Indian film, video and radio programming to PBS and AIROS. For over 30 years, Frank has developed projects that impact the reach of Native people in the media.

Native Radio Theatre Project:
Why Opossums Tail is Bare
Frank Blythe
USA, 2006, Radio

Why Opossums Tail is Bare is an adaptation, performed by a ninth-grade theatre arts class at a Cherokee High School, of the Cherokee story by James Mooney.

Racism on the Radio
Harlan McKosato
USA, 2007, Radio

Racist and sexist remarks made by radio talk show host Don Imus about the Rutgers women’s basketball team sparked uproar, setting off a national debate that led to his firing. A city councilman and radio talk show host from Houston made derogatory comments about Native Americans with little fanfare. Where do Native Americans stand on the issue of racism on the radio?

Harlan McKosato is a member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. He has worked at Native American Calling as a producer, director, and managing editor since 1996.

Red Moon
Dawn Dumont
Canada, 2007, Radio

Red Moon is an Indigenous adaptation of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Dawn Dumont (Cree) is a comedy writer for television, theatre and film. She is also a stand-up comedian who has toured Canada and the United States.

Road to Reclamation
Wilma Green
Canada, 2006, Radio

The Road to Reclamation is a 30-part documentary on the brief history of the Six Nations people and the facts surrounding the reclamation of land by Six Nations residents. The documentary gives us information on the Plank Road, the Two Row Wampum, the Great Law, Warriors and Land Claims and how it connects with current events in Caledonia.

Wilma Green is a former curator of Chiefswood, the birthplace of Mohawk poetess, E. Pauline Johnson, and was a member of the Chiefswood Restoration Committee. She has also been a volunteer since 1993, with the Phone-In Radio Show on CKRZ, handling the telephones, doing research and writing several plays presented live, on-air by local community members.

Saving the Klingon Culture
Harlan McKosato
USA, 2007, Radio

Due to leaving their home planet of Kronos and intermingling with outside cultures, Klingons are now facing losing their race, culture and language. Saving the Klingon Culture is a hilarious piece that explores the similarities between Indigenous people and Klingons.

Harlan McKosato is a member of the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma. He has worked at Native American Calling as a producer, director, and managing editor since 1996.

Trickster vs. Jesus Christ
Dawn Dumont
Canada, 2005, Radio

The Trickster takes Jesus to court to sue him for stealing the soul of an Indigenous woman, Wanda Daywalker, who is preparing to become a nun.

Dawn Dumont (Cree) is a comedy writer for television, theatre and film. She is also a stand-up comedian who has toured Canada and the United States.

The UrbaNish
Billie Jo Tabobondung
Canada, 2006, Radio

A spoken-word piece that incorporates music and characters to explore identity through an urban mixed-blood perspective, The UrbaNish creates characters in reference to the different ideologies of Indigenous peoples.

Billie Jo Tabobondung (Ojibway) is a fine artist working in various mediums. She won the Charles Street Video art prize for proficiency in audio production.

An Indian Act: Shooting the Indian Act
Archer Pechawis
Canada, 2007, CD Rom

An Indian Act: Shooting the Indian Act is an interactive CD ROM that documents Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun’s performance. It includes videos, photos and essays on the performance.

Performance artist, new media artist, filmmaker, writer, curator and educator, Archer Pechawis (Cree) was born in Alert Bay, BC in 1963. He has been a practicing artist since 1984, with particular interest in the intersection of Plains Cree culture and digital technology, often merging "traditional" objects such as hand drums with “forward engineered” devices such as Mac PowerBooks. His work has been exhibited across Canada and featured in publications such as Fuse Magazine and Canadian Theatre Review. Archer has been the recipient of many Canada Council and British Columbia Arts awards, and won the Best New Media Award at imagineNATIVE in 2007 and Best Experimental Short at imagineNATIVE in 2009.

Four Directions Teachings
http://www.fourdirectionsteachings.com
Jennifer Wemigwans
Canada, 2007, Website

Four Directions Teachings celebrates Indigenous oral traditions, honouring the process of listening with intent, as each elder or traditional teacher shares a teaching from their perspective on the richness and value of cultural traditions from their nation. In honour of the timelessness of Indigenous oral traditions, audio narration is provided throughout the site complimented by beautiful animated visuals.

Jennifer Wemigwans is an Ojibwe from Wikwemikong First Nation. She takes pride in inverting the conventional use of media and revealing the potential for Indigenous cultural expression through education, e-learning and the arts.

Plain Truth
http://www.stormspirits.ca/plaintruth/
Jason Baerg
Canada, 2007, Website

In the Plain Truth we navigate through a unique virtual gallery floating in a virtual sky. As unexpected sounds provide ambience, one can experience visuals by Jason Baerg over the Great Plains.

Toronto-based Aboriginal visual artist Jason Baerg graduated from Concordia University with a BA in Fine Arts and completed Graduate Studies in New Media from George Brown College/Ryerson University. He has exhibited internationally and remains dedicated to community development through the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective and the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition.
www.jasonbaerg.com

unsettled
http://www.stormspirits.ca/unsettled
Jenny Fraser
Australia, 2007, Website

unsettled is a series of nine stories celebrating the lives of the Yugambeh family members that first survived outside of their traditional homelands in South East “Queensland”, working on pastoral properties. The project highlights an era of late 1800s/early 1900s colonial Australia and explores the prickly issues of Native policing, dispossession, displacement, massacres and survival.

Artist and curator Jenny Fraser (Yugambeh) works in film and technology and was the founder of cyberTribe, an online gallery that encourages the production and exhibition of Indigenous art. She received an Honourable Mention at imagineNATIVE in 2007 for her new media work Unsettled.

Program & Schedule