Recognizing the humanity of one another across generations

Thank you for sharing this transcript. It weaves together several deeply personal and political themes, and at its core it feels less like a news report and more like a reflection on memory, truth-telling, advocacy, trauma, and responsibility. A few major themes stand out: 1. The power of personal testimony One of the strongest parts of the transcript is the story about Marilyn Buffalo meeting the Prime Minister and speaking to him about his father. The significance is not just the encounter itself, but the way a personal memory connected generations. The narrator presents this as an example of how genuine, heartfelt conversations can have an emotional impact that prepared speeches sometimes cannot. 2. Intergenerational trauma and residential schools Throughout the podcast, the narrator returns to the lasting effects of the residential school system. The focus is not only on historical events, but on how those events continue to influence identity, mental health, family relationships, and feelings of belonging today. There is a recurring argument that the effects of colonial policies did not end when the schools closed, but continue through generations. 3. Truth and Reconciliation as an ongoing process The transcript emphasizes that Truth and Reconciliation Day can be both meaningful and painful. While the narrator acknowledges progress, such as greater public awareness and participation, there is also a strong sense that many Canadians still do not fully understand Indigenous histories or experiences. 4. Indigenous youth and accountability A significant section highlights admiration for younger Indigenous people who are reconnecting with language, ceremony, dance, culture, and governance. The narrator repeatedly praises young people who hold leaders accountable and participate actively in community life, viewing this as an important expression of sovereignty and self-determination. 5. Narratives and self-perception Another recurring theme is the importance of the stories people tell themselves. The discussion of Harold Johnson's ideas and the comments about self-defeating beliefs point toward a broader message: healing requires challenging narratives that reduce people to victims while still acknowledging real injustices and harms. 6. Concern about misinformation and political manipulation The narrator expresses concern about social media, identity claims, political movements, and outside influences shaping public understanding of Indigenous issues. There is a repeated call for critical thinking, accountability, and careful examination of who is telling a story and why. Central message If I had to summarize the transcript in a single sentence, it would be: Healing, reconciliation, and justice depend on truth-telling, accountability, cultural renewal, and recognizing the humanity of one another across generations. The transcript is also deeply personal. Beneath the political commentary, there is a recurring emotional thread: a desire for Indigenous people to feel fully human, fully valued, and fully at home in their own homeland, while creating better conditions for future generations. It's a passionate reflection that combines personal history, Indigenous advocacy, community memory, and hope for younger generations.

Marina Crane (00:01.602) Good morning. October fourth, Marina Crane from Sou Tina. And I'm hoping I can do this podcast without much difficult technical difficulty. But hey, Darcy if you're listening, Marie if you're listening, Wendy Wednesday if you're listening. Hello. and and other people, other people mind you. I'm just grateful that I could do this ep this podcast. Now, I've had f I've got a lot of childhood friends. Majority of them are female. I rarely I don't think I have male childhood friends that are still alive. so I got off the phone with a childhood friend and in Edmonton the prime the pr Prime Minister of Canada appeared. And so I'm gonna play you couple of YouTube videos on what happened. Now the reason I'm incorporating this is because of the story my friend told me. So when she was younger, she was like like like I was around political activists. I you know, like I was nineteen years old, we did sit-ins, we did protests. a lot of the people I hung around with, like one became an actor, two became lawyers, one was a artist, like just you know, just young people and yes a few of them passed away quite young and Some of my f friends went on to do a lot of activism. And now even though I might seem like I'm not an activist in the sense the true sense of w what my friends did, like we all we we were called the United Native Youth in Edmonton. Marina Crane (01:52.352) Now one of my friends and this is reason why I'm trying to do this podcast and I wanna be I want to be as specific as I can. And and okay. So Under the Indian Act, when a woman marries a non-indigenous person or someone who is deemed non-status, like Metis or Inuit, or or even Sioux, okay, because like understand this. Until three years ago, the Canadian government did not recognize Inuit, Métis, and Sioux people as indigenous. So when so when politicians today are talking about indigenous people and Métis, or indigenous people and Inuit, or Indigenous people. people and Sue. I'm saying no, the colon decolonize it's indigenous. We're under the same umbrella, but it's the government who created these labels. So my my my childhood friend married an Inuit lost her status and so she worked in the Northwest Territories. Now it just so happened that the place where she was working, the Prime Minister of Canada's father was working there. And she had disclosed to me that he was quite an influence on her. That's the Prime Minister of Canada's father was quite an influence on my friend. And she said he was quite an influence with me that I chose to have a career around adult education because he w he was an adult education instructor and and later on a professor at the University of Calgary. I mean Alberta, sorry, Alberta. And so the same with my my friend. They they worked together later at when like she was a a single parent, okay. Marina Crane (03:40.968) And we always c talk about our educational academic struggles. And the thing is like I when when I talk to my my elder friends, female elder friends, and we talk about our struggles and we're going, How did we manage? How did we manage? No, I can't even comprehend because I've never had children, but the reality of like my child my childhood friends who are elders now who went on to their careers as as single parents. It's it's it's amazing. So she's talking to me and she says, Yeah, I went to Fort Cal Fort Saskatchewan in Edmonton on September 30th for it Truth and Reconciliation Day. and, you know, there was a lineup for people who wanted to meet with the Premier Prime Minister of Canada. And she said, Well, okay, I'll I'll I'll stay in the lineup, I'll I'll meet him. It took about twenty minutes for her to get actually see speak to the Prime Minister. Upon talking to him, she mentioned that she knew his father, and she spoke about the influence sh he had on her and the career choice to look and and work with adults in adult education. now understand my my childhood friend was director Of Nietzsche Institute, which is geared to adult education and drug and alcohol addiction, which is a grassroots movement that happened in the 70s, which was cut off because of the PC, the the provincial politicians just recently. Okay, so there's a a lot to do with separatism in in c funding and also too, like other indigenous people who are cohorts with with the premier of Alberta. So anyway, my my my friend goes to talks to the Prime Minister, relay relays to him that when they were working in Ed when she was working in Edmonton with her dad. So understand this, she was in the territories, then she moved to Edmonton, like as her life journey, 'cause she also lived in Ottawa. So she's talking to the and she's and she's a brilliant public speaker. Marina Crane (05:57.888) So she and I'm gonna play, you know, the on YouTube w her her version of what happened. And the same with the Prime Minister of Canada because I I want to I want to the reason I'm put creating this pro this preface or this pro the the story, building the story up, is because when she was talking to the Prime Minister, she says, Yes, sometimes at the University of Alberta your dad and I would go out for a coffee break or or play like a I don't know if was volleyball or basketball, like sort of with a ball anyway, a little recreational and the Prime Minister was he says, My dad did that and she's says yes. So so she's making a connection with the Prime Minister of Canada about her relationship with his late dad and how inspiring he was to her. Okay, so again my friend is seventy I think she's seventy six. And anyway the reality of it is like after she had s sh sh said what she said in in public During Truth and Reconciliation Day at Fort Saskatchewan in Edmonton. She had numerous calls and she said, What what did you say to the Prime Minister of Canada? Like he's like he's almost in tears. Now that's the buildup. So I'll I'll let you listen to what she said, and then I'll also play what the Prime Minister of Canada said with regards to truth and reconciliation. Big round of applause as well. Marina Crane (07:34.39) At this time, I'd like to acknowledge another one of our matriarchs and community that has helped us along through prayer, through many of our endeavors and our events. I'd like to welcome Elder Marilyn Buffalo to lead us in a prayer this morning to guide our thoughts and hearts today. So the stairs are over here, they're Cook, Maryland. So with that, we will start with a prayer. Of of course, we invite all our delegates to take their seat at this time. You may be seated. So while we acknowledge this prayer, we're gonna again invite Elder Marilyn Buffalo. So let's give her a big warm welcome or a big round of applause. Marina Crane (08:18.584) Good morning. I want to teach you one Cree word today. Say dance. Repeat again louder, please. That's good, not bad. You're okay. I want to welcome all of you to Treaty Six. Especially I want to welcome our Right Honorable Prime Minister back to Treaty Six, your hometown. Marina Crane (08:52.074) All the lovely dignitaries, Her Excellency, our Lieutenant Governor, thank you so much for joining us today. You're a champion. I want to welcome all of you. I'm a residential school survivor. And Orange Shirt Day is not a day I look forward to. And let me tell you why. We were I'm s I'm seventy-six years old. I'm a great grandmother of thirteen. So for that I'm very, very grateful that I survived. But we were punished for speaking our language. We were taught very poor English by French clergy and teachers that spoke French to each other, but never taught us how to speak French. So very culturally confused as children. And so many of us defied the authorities and and suck to the guns of our great grandmothers and and continued to speak our language. And so we have in our midst of our generations of many survivors that have continued on to do the work and advocacy in making sure that we revitalize The languages of all our ancestors and all of the cultures and the celebrations that we have, many of you have witnessed. And I want to thank each and every one of you for coming and joining us on this very special day. All my children, and many of you, many of you may have known or heard of my son, Joe Buffalo, who is a skateboarder. He also has well documented his healing journey. So I ask all of you, in all your positions, of whatever it is you do, as teachers, as sports coaches, as school principals, professors, please support our children because they need healing, they need guidance. I have worked. Marina Crane (11:14.712) Many years in that field of addiction counseling and trained many and also in mental health. It is very, very important. So with that request I make to all of you, it's a big responsibility, but all of us have an equal responsibility as treaty partners. We must learn to work together, even more so now, in peace and harmony. So I wish your home fires. A lot of peace and a lot of kitchen table discussions on how we can instill pride in future generations going forward. Your children, your grandchildren, and mine. We must live in peace and harmony. So, with that, ladies and gentlemen, let's have fun today. Okay? Let's celebrate because our ancestors came. A hundred and fifty years ago, together, by boat, by horse, by wagon, and they s they signed Treaty Six a hundred and fifty years ago. I went on a retreat for six days in Fort Pitt in Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, when a rain we thank goodness I had rubber boots on, I don't think I would have survived. But we reflected in the grandmother's sacred lodge all of the teachings that we had every morning in a pipe ceremony. So it's very, very important. And I want to share with you that this robe that I am that I made is fifty years old because I made it at a a hundred years. And honest to God, with all the work and advocacy, I'm very proud to say I don't have a criminal record. I've never been arrested, at least not for advocacy. And with all the work that we've done, it is so so important. Please let's all live in peace and love and harmony. Thank you very much. Marina Crane (13:33.314) Now, Marilyn, like I said, she's just brilliant in the way she speaks and I'm grateful that we've you know we reconnected after decades. The reality of it too is when we're talking you know, she's talking about her experience in Indian residential school and the fact that the federal government had pe teachers and administrators who were speaking French, like the the Catholic bishop nuns in the fathers or you know, like the clergy. And and they never taught they never thought to teach the indigenous kids French and yet in Quebec indigenous people speak French. Understand too that even in Quebec Quebec francophones, they just the re ignorance and the reality of how they don't even understand indigenous history. And yet they fight so hard to keep their language and their culture. That's the reality. So I like I I I sometimes when I when she says let's do this or let's do that, like in terms of what Canada should do or ought to do, it's a very hard struggle, especially when you know actively that that people don't really care to you know, make the e extra effort to understand Canadian history, especially indigenous history. And the very fact that the here's the Prime Minister's father, you know, like like what, say fifty years but maybe forty years ago? Like like really, like there there were people, cohorts that were their avoc like advocacy for for indigenous people, especially being an advocate for for my friend Marilyn. And and so she said to me, Marina, I should write something. Marina Crane (15:33.966) She said, What do you think? And I she says, because the Premier of Alberta didn't even show up. She says, Well, I think because the Chiefs wanted, you know, had put her under a legal notice for treason. Like, because she's not recognizing our treaty rights. And and she says, So I I think that's part of the reason she didn't show up to the rally. But at the same time, too, Friends of hers like a like again, my Marilyn knows quite a few politicians. This is her life's work. I like I said, I I'm just grateful that I know her and that we can talk. And but I the reason I'm doing this podcast too is that to bring awareness to to the struggles, like her struggle, my struggle, indigenous women's struggle, their children, the advocacy to help children like have feel pride to to know like they're not they're not savages, like we're but yet even then this is twenty twenty six And and the fact that we've got thousands of people walking wearing orange shirts is a big accomplishment. But like she said, she doesn't look forward to this day because it triggers and we were talking about this. I so I told her how it triggered me. And and I told her I said I said just knowing that white politicians or or people outside of indigenous communities, that's outside of First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities don't understand that shadow effect. And I said I said so so say in a b a black American goes to Ghana, totally black country, and it takes at least a week to two weeks for them to acclimatize and feel human without having to walk in that shadow or or double the double whammy of like using like like I always say eroti limerence in terms of using those tools to communicate Marina Crane (17:36.536) cross-culturally of what it's like to feel systemic racism. And that's a very flowering, that's a very flowering way of I'm how I'm describing it. I'm I'm I'm paraphrasing, I'm I'm a novice in how I explain this. But but when we're t when Meryl and I are talking and I said For me I just felt entrapped on September thirtieth, like like I couldn't breathe. I said, yet I live in my First Nations community with people I like over two hundred elders over the age of sixty and yet I still feel trapped and I said the reality of it is like and I'm breaking up and emotional because I'm talking to Marilyn and I'm saying to her, I can't even imagine what my parents felt like. If I am seventy f me being seventy four as an elder Feeling triggered because of September 30th, I and because of all these thousands of people actually acknowledging acknowledging what happened to my parents and my grandparents. And and just to to have this flight or flight response because there's this shadow That you just don't feel like you're ever gonna escape this systemic racism. So that's why my my friend in Hong Kong, when she's talking about black Americans who go to Ghana and it takes a week for them to feel human be like a human being. And she says, Marina, you're she says, they feel like when they come to Africa, it's like the homeland. They feel like human beings. And she says, But Marina, you're in Canada and you can't e this is your homeland. You should be able to feel like a human being. And I said, That's what I'm trying to tell. you like I said, I woke up and I didn't even feel like I was a human being because it was so triggering. And so you when Marilyn talks about her son and all the things, the healing journey he's going through, and I talk about all the social influencers on TikTok and Instagram and everything that our youth are doing. Marina Crane (19:40.282) It it's important. It's an important revelation. But at the same time too, understand this. There were so many people who had contacted Marilyn and said, What did you say to the Prime Minister? He was emotional. He was like like the emotion that he had, you you must have said something to him. And and the reality of it is from and why wasn't the Premier of Alberta even there? Because understand this that same day the two of them, the Premier of Alberta. Alberta and the Prime Minister spoke about the pipeline that's going through. Okay, now I'm gonna play the Prime Min Prime Minister's talk on truth and reconciliation. They say I have a tough job. They have a tough job keeping them there. Thank you. thank you, Alan. thank you all Crawford. Thank you, Elders, Marilyn Buffalo, and Ron Janvier. Yes, the best speeches are not the ones written, but the ones that come from the heart. There are so many leaders, dignitaries, chiefs, lieutenant governors, mayors, MPs. Marina Crane (21:03.085) Presidents, presidents, educators that I should acknowledge. But I'm gonna begin by acknowledging the children who were here and to thank you and your parents for bringing you. I used to come here as a child. I live not far from here. I used to come to Fort Edmonton. It was quite different. The lessons it left were very different, incomplete, partial. Today is about all the truth. And it's for the children. Those children, those survivors, those who didn't survive, but the children who bring forward. So to the survivors here with us. And to your families near and far, we're here to honor you. Today's ceremony calls on us to hear your stories and to reflect on a dark chapter in Canada's past and to commit to move forward together. Marina Crane (22:24.627) In Elder Marilyn's prayer and blessing and reflection, we see and hear the traditions, and in the music and the dance we see the traditions that can be carried forward through generations. Traditions that somehow have been protected and preserved. Despite the fact that for more than a century this country ran residential schools, over a hundred and fifty thousand First Nations Metis Inuit children attended them. So many were taken from their homes, their families. All were separated. All were separated from their culture, their language, their identities. Some never came home. And this is not a distant chapter in Canada's past, but a truth that endures. And truth is the foundation of justice. We shouldn't choose, as we used to here, Fort Edmonton, we shouldn't choose which parts of our history to remember. We shouldn't admire the beadwork and forget the children that were forced into uniforms. We shouldn't honor the drum and ignore the years that it was made to fall silent. And we should not hear the truth of residential schools and fail to act on it. Honor l'Estrodu Canada se la regarde en face dans toute sa verite, sa beaute et ses pertes, sa force leto cause. the naissance of our pay to Canada and the political adopted to disparate. It has that verity. The nations are toujours. The language, the ceremony, the enseignment accompany the matter. Marina Crane (24:34.487) Survivors carried the truth that this and carried this truth when this country would not. More than six thousand six hundred brave women and men told the truth to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, told the truth to people like Ron Janvier, who had to hear the stories and relay them. And because of that, courage is now on the record. And responding to these truths is now our responsibility. We are responding. The gaps are still large, but we are responding. We're closing gaps in education to ensure children on reserve have access to high quality education that respects and embraces their culture. We're building homes for families on reserve and throughout the country. We're improving access to drinking water. We put this put in new legislation. investing billions to maintain and operate drinking water and wastewater systems, building healthier communities, an emphasis on mental wellness, primary care, culturally relevant care for First Nations. In Canada who nous unissant no force pour Africa à la prochaine generation une meilleure vie in vie plus equitable. But we know in all this building, and you hear a lot about me or from me about building. It's not just what we build, it's how we build. And it's building sustainably, and sustainably means embedding indigenous knowledge and leadership in our conservation efforts. And it means building in true partnership with Indigenous peoples, meaningful opportunities, meaningful opportunities to develop, operate, and own major infrastructure, to share truly in the prosperity that's created. My point is we are making some progress, but we know the work of reconciliation is far, far from finished. Marina Crane (26:53.249) The wounds are still too deep. The gaps are still too wide. Reconciliation is a journey, not a destination. It's an attitude, not an achievement. Our job is to move together as far and as fast down the path as we can. So Elder Buffalo, you gave us permission, you encouraged us to celebrate today. I'm gonna leave with a different message, but consistent. When we leave here today, make lets the work of reconciliation continue. And when this ceremony closes with a performance from perfect storm. Our joy will be to listen. That's the celebration. Our responsibility, certainly the responsibility of government, is to reflect and our task will be to act together. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup. So the reality of it is like yes, there's gonna be a pipeline and again to I want to play a few other things that like I hope will strike a chord in you because it like when we talk about young people, I want to also put a warning out there for social media young people. There are a lot of people who are trying to reconnect and they're choosing the narrative. Like they're choosing the narrative. So when the premier talks about Marina Crane (28:32.969) like Marilyn just telling the truth speaking from the heart because there you're not controlling the narrative, it's coming freely. Whereas people who are pretending to have some connection to to the homeland when they don't are are are controlling that what truth is being said. So so when I talk on my podcast and I talk about mental health or I talk about just the struggles to articulate and create a narrative It it's not something it's not something that I'm like not h like I I I know it. I've I've lived it. I try to I try to explain it in particular and struggles. I try to explain it and to breathe. Much much of the time to like boots walk toward him. I'm I'm trying to He holds in here. Get this done so that Like I said, I have I have some technical difficulties. But let me there were there there there are some things too that I think in terms of social media I just wanna reiterate this and as a cautionary tale. Susanna Glucart, who's in indigenous, she's Inuit. When she talks about you know being a survivor of Indian residential school, I want you to understand this. The Inuit, so anybody who claims to be Inuit, I I want people to understand their their first generation Indian residential school. That meant Susana Glucart's family lived off the land. They lived off the land. Now When I was a child I my I lived off the land but but it wasn't the same as as Inuit living off the land. 'Cause my parents went to Indian residential school and the same with my grandmother. Okay it's striking. So he has off words is so sorry, so why I'm saying that is that is that'sn't true. Marina Crane (30:39.181) Sorry. So why I'm saying that is that withdraws and he chops off the side. So when I when I talk about people who who are on social media and they're they're saying like they're any wit relatives and however old they are. So they'd have to be like the first generation like my age, Susan Glucart's age. That means like my parents would have lived off the land. That means they didn't go to Indian residential school because they lived off the land. But my parents did and my grandmother my grand grandmothers did because we were in southern Canada. So so the Southern indigenous people have had generations of of children like people living off the land like going to Indian residential school. So even though people might say, well my grandmother, my gr you know, my descendants, like that, yes, in a s in a sense, but it's just one generation. So that's where the pretendian comes in. So if you understand the legacy of Indian residential school and what generation came through. Even even that as indigenous people, like I I will I will like I I try to be as open minded as I can and support advocacy. But but the reality of it is a lot of the advocacy is is pick and choose. Whereas my friend Marilyn it it's not it hasn't anything to do with pick or choosing because i it's like an everyday everyday just to just to survive and like I talk about that I talk about Marina Crane (32:26.141) battle fatigue. The battle fatigue that indigenous people, especially women, have live through. And the and not just that, what like when they're talking about mental health, like when when the premier is talking about well we're bridging this gap, we're tr we're gonna try and do curriculum like restoration of languages and mental health. See for me actually going and living through the system of mental health and and being like living living in the environment, like how it triggers me. These things a white or foreign person who doesn't understand or who've never experienced or even understand racism. It it's not the same as being a white person going to Iran or India or you know like like My friend in Hong Kong, she's lived there for over forty years. Like so there's there's a difference when you actually live in the environment and you can f see, you know, different cultures. But but people who sort of just s globally hop and skip through diff the world, it's different. It's totally different. The attitude is totally different. Now I I I don't know if if I'm going to have technical difficulty, but I wanted to to make sure that at least you get the gist of what young people are going through. And I want to play this. This is APTN news and we'll see. Oops, it's not happening. Sometimes I'm I know the reason why. Heck. Sorry sorry about that. Marina Crane (34:11.565) Let's try this again. A lot, especially online right now with, you know holding cheap. Oops. Sorry. I'm sorry for the technical difficulty I have. But let's keep the councils accountable and all of those like really complex parts that come with dealing with like these really heavy systems. But I want to remind Canadians that like we're doing that. And because we're younger and we we understand, you know, advocacy and how do we hold these bodies accountable, that's that's democracy. That's us already engaging in the systems that we've unfortunately been handed with, but we're doing a lot of that work, you know. We're we're holding our chief accountable chief and councils accountable where we need to, and yeah, there's a lot of learning that needs to be done, but we're we're learning the positive side. Of who we are as well. There's people reconnecting with their cultures. There's people learning powwow dancing for the first time. There's people going to ceremony for the first time. Like it's it's coming back, and I think there's a lot of positive to focus on too. And and I I do think people should be paying attention to how educated and smart our young people are. There's a lot, especially online right now, with you know, holding chief and counsels accountable and all of those like really complex parts that come with dealing with like these really heavy systems. But I want to remind Canadians that like we're doing that. And because we're younger and we we understand, you know, advocacy and how do we hold these bodies accountable, that's that's democracy. That's us already engaging in the systems that we've unfortunately been handed with. But we're doing a lot of that work, you know. We're we're holding our chief and council chief and counsel accountable where we need to. And yeah, there's a lot of learning that needs to be done, but we're we're learning the positive sides of who we are as well. There's people reconnecting with their cultures, there's people learning powwow dancing for the first time, there's people going to ceremony for the first time, like. Marina Crane (35:54.868) It's it's coming back and I think there's a lot of positive to focus on too and and I d I do think people should be paying attention to how educated and smart our young people are. There's a lot especially how educated our young people are. So understand too, there are also indigenous people who don't go to powho dancing, don't learn the language, but then they're online avoc choosing what to advocate. And and say this young woman, she's you know, she's saying we're keep holding the chief and counsel accountable. You that's you have to look at the fact that when somebody is an advocate, the connection they have with their local govern like the governments, Inuit First Nations and Metis governments, that's that's the clear boundary when you're investigating and you want to know if this indigenous person is is actually truth telling. And some of it is partially truth telling. Because understand this, this social media and the addiction to the attention that people get on social media and the way people are hungry to learn information, it's it's different than when when it's it's like a prepared speech. It's different from somebody who just speaks from the heart. And and that's why I'm using the analogy that are young people are the ones who actually are advocating, like really holding accountable the leadership. Those are the actual people that aren't pretending. Those others who are pretending live in urban areas who've never lived in their community and they'll use the excuse well there's violence. But even to have accountability for the leadership, there's no connection. They pick and choose the advocacy of what they want the narrative they want to create. And a lot of times those narratives are over exaggerated. Like say, yeah, my mother is Inuit and she went to Indian residential school but that's it. Marina Crane (37:54.432) Understand that because after that the grandmother would have been living off the land. They weren't in Indian residential school. So the truth telling is like you cannot go beyond that second that other gen like the grandmother and the great grandmothers. So in the narrative it's being exaggerated. I'm just saying that. I'm just saying I know. And bless people's hearts. They want to be advocates, but like I said, my friend Marilyn and I, we were rallying fifty years ago, having sit ins, like b wanting clean drinking water in northern communities because the schools didn't have clean drinking water. Things like that. These things I've lived through and a lot of people who who are indigenous who've gone gone through all this, all under the law of Canada, we understand. Now, truth and reconciliation, time for facts. This is Truth and reconciliation matters. Time to travel. This is the day, September 30th, that us Canadians have to think about this and talk about this. And find a way to move forward. Now I think we are as a country starting to move forward. But I reflect back to Jonathan Kay and Jordan Peterson and Tom Flanagan, who I actually had as a professor at university, who try and deny the fact that the Canadian government, through the Catholic Church and the Anglic, committed cultural genocide and murdered thousands of Indigenous youth. Now, this is a fact. I am fifth or sixth generation Albertan, about as far back as you can go as a settler, and that means my great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents settled. On land that belonged to other people. I really recommend you read the book Clearing the Plains. But, you know, we come to terms of this, come to terms with the fact that I grew up with a huge amount of racism towards Indigenous people. And we have to own that. We have to own that, and we collectively have to move forward together. And it is so exciting to see real indigenous leadership in our country like Wab Canoe in Manitoba, as opposed to the fakeness of saying. Marina Crane (40:02.463) Daniel Smith saying she has bloody Cherokee roots. I mean, Cherokee are nowhere near Alberta, so you're just making that up as well. And you can do the Indigenous Studies course online for free from the University of Alberta and start to come to terms with the history of this country. So I was just recently up in the Arctic and I can see reconciliation happening. I see it the school in Dawson City, I see the new hotel in Tuktaiaktuk. There is hope, but it's about being honest about history and. Modern history. Like I was still in university when the last residential school was still open and operating in this country. So we need to honor the survivors, we need to respect and remember those who never came home. Somewhere between four and ten thousand Indigenous youth never came home from those schools, and that is a fact. And when you try and deny that this occurred, you just look at the roles of names and numbers, and they never came home. Home, of course, the bodies aren't always found because they weren't buried in proper graves. So truth and reconciliation matters. And I'm sorry I'm overseas at the moment. I wish I had my own shirt on today, but I felt I had to make a post. So let's be honest, let's move forward, and let's learn from Indigenous Canadians because there's so much to learn from those cultures and so much to share. s and his handle is two E underscore travels. And so when he's talking about the Northwest Territories and he sees the the progress, it's because there's only one generation from Indian residential school. Their culture and their language is is intact because they're only one generation away. Whereas like when in southern in southern Canada and even in eastern Canada they're over a hundred years ahead in in t in terms of systemic racism. In Western Canada, we're we're f like when I talk about holistic and collective ways of thinking in terms of family and tradition is because we're we're like like Marilyn said, a hundred and fifty years the signing of Treaty six. Next year it's gonna be a hundred and fifty years for the signing of Treaty Seven. So Alberta was was settled from northern Alberta down to southern Alberta. So again when Marina Crane (42:27.534) we're doing the history of Inuit and and and Metis, you you also have to look at the timeline of of co first contact with Indian residential school. So that's why I'm saying Metis and in and First Nations w we had more interaction with Indian residential schools because we're in the south. Whereas in the north, when you see economic development in Inuit, it's because they're only one generation. That means like for example, that mean that would have meant my parents, my parents, I'm seventy-four now. My parents would have been living off the land. Okay. How how do you how do you get people who are living off the land into residential schools? So understand how the settlement w was in the Northwest Territories. The impact of Indian residential school existed for my generation because it would have been they would have taken me away. But when I'm talking about southern southern population of indigenous people and even people in the United States of America, we're talking longer periods, like 150 years earlier like generations of indigenous children being taken. and understand this too when we're talking about the impact, like the mental health, we're talking about revitalization of language, it's because it's generational. Marina Crane (43:50.947) Whereas the Inuit it's just the like would be would be my parents spoke Inuit. And then if I lost anything, I'm still learning I'll I've learned I I have more I have the tenacity for me to know in the Inuit language is greater because my parents were still living off the land. And I want to make that distinction. So when you have social advocacy and and you're listening about the history, that's why I say you can't you when you're looking at indigenous people, we're saying First Nations, Inuit and Metis, and even the Sioux people who were exiled from the states, the tribes in Canada, there's so much history that was not taught in these schools and and so like this fellow who's talking about you know, like his his like the responsibility of of indigenous peoples. So I just want to also play this and hopefully this is coal dot not coal. That's C-O-L-E dot not N-O-T-C-O-L-E. Alberta separatists went down to Washington, D.C., offering up Alberta's fresh water and our oil resources in exchange for American support for separatism. This is all a part of this bombshell report in the Globe and Mail this morning. This article lays out in part how separatists and American Republican operatives have been working together to advance the separatist movement. I'm gonna read you this one piece from this article. It's a little long, so bear with me, it is important. Quote A Globe and Mail investigation has found that Republican political operatives were on the ground in Alberta this year to assist the Separatist campaign in its bid to leave Canada while harboring their own aspirations for the province to secede. The Globe also found that when Alberta Separatist leaders went to Washington to meet with the US State Department, they offered up key assets from the province's resource portfolio, including access to fresh water and royalties on crude oil in exchange for help transitioning to independence through interesting Marina Crane (45:54.753) Interviews with the globe on both sides of the border, people involved in politics, the corporate sector, and Alberta's pursuit of separatism have described persistent efforts by figures in the U.S. administration and conservative political establishment to support groups seeking American expansionism and independence for Alberta. The article also talks about the app or website that was sold to separatists by Republican operatives from the US in order to get out the vote for separatists. That is the app that exposed the personal information of nearly three million Albertans. One of the people mentioned frequently in this article is Mitch Sylvester, who is still a president of a UCP constituency association. The UCP is the governor. You're an Albert. One thing that I think is interesting to note is that Danielle Smith and the UCP frequently talk about how they are like the only party that can advance the resource sector in Alberta when quite literally this article confirms that people within her own party are trying to give away our resources to the Americans. Anyways, this is quite literally one of the craziest stories I've ever read. Alberta Sound. So when we're talking about just the way things are, the reality of white supremacy, like them getting a corporation, having their membership pay monthly to to their their business. I mean it's it's like cultish. Or again, we have more in common than than than you know, we gotta look at it. We d we don't know the lifestyle of billionaires, but they're there they are. They're using their billions of dollars to make more money. Make more money. Marina Crane (47:46.648) Behind me are the greatest new varieties of plants that are coming out of the pipeline. Let's do this here because I just want people to understand like the severity of what's happening. Like 'cause this vote's gonna be coming up too. Marina Crane (48:08.268) You need to understand that there is an organized, well-funded effort to get you to hate Indigenous peoples. Whether it's the disgusting chuds at Rebel News selling orange shirts mocking dead children, or the Nazi fucks showing up with signs that say got bones, or BC MLA, Dallas Brody releasing a feature-length residential school denial documentary full of lies and bullshit. You don't think they would have noticed that some of their people went missing? That got over six hundred thousand views on YouTube. This is all happening because People with money see indigenous rights that are enshrined in our constitution, by the way, as getting in the way of them making even more money. Both the Rebel and Juno News have monetary ties to the fossil fuel industry. And guess who wants to build a pipeline through indigenous territory? Yeah, that's right, the same people denying the climate crisis also deny residential schools were bad. What a coincidence. And let's not forget, Dallas Brody holds almost $50 million in real estate investments, so I'm sure land back scares. The shit out of her. These rich shitheads want you to see indigenous folks as the cause of your economic pain. If only they didn't have rights, then I'd be rich, they want you to think. But hey, whatever stops you from sharpening those guillotines. And this is how it's always worked. If you want to take other people's shit and still think of yourself as a good person, then you have to convince yourself that the other people are less than human. There were over 4,200 documented deaths at residential schools. These were children, snatched up by By an institution whose whole purpose was to kill the Indian in the child. Denying this was bad is a cope. Because I'm sure you could imagine what it's like to have your child leave your home and never come back. This isn't about guilt. This is about shared humanity. Because you have much more in common with the average indigenous person than the average billionaire stoking hate. That's why like when I when I think about white supremacists and I think about how uneducated they are. Marina Crane (50:13.9) And the parallels of anger in terms of like indigenous youth who who need mental health counseling, need the support because of the trauma they experience. And I look at white supremacists and I'm going look at their hate. What what in their childhood have they been traumatized by and why are they so vulnerable to coercive control in in white supremacy, like people who have money who are funding these organizations? It it's no No d like like like the one young lady says, we have to keep our chief and council accountable. And these are young indigenous educated people. So why is it that these you know white supremacists, these young people, like they're they're they're organizing under like it's not even a political party, it's a business. Yet you know, like the wherewithal to have critical thinking skills and understand the whole notion of what's happening. It it's not it's not grassroots people. Like they'll say, well we're living in poverty and look at these indigenous people, the you know, these indigenous people, this didn't happen, this never happened. Like like I'm saying Excuse me, we've had over a hundred and fifty years of advocating and avo and saying, hey, you this is what you're doing to our children and nobody listened. So as much as white supremacy and the sins of anarch anarchy or whatever the hell they want to call themselves, KKK The reality of it is like for hundreds of years we've been fighting this battle and so when my friend Marilyn says we've got to learn to work together, my late uncle used to say that too. He died when he was thirty-five. You know, it it's the reality. People, yeah, your your your uncle, you know, really was so it was so profound, like my listening to him and the fact that, you know, it changed my life and Marina Crane (52:17.784) But the but the the the thing about it is like He was I like I said, my my uncle my uncle and my father were victims of trauma. My my uncle died at thirty five, the same with my younger brother and my father at fifty two. And when we talk about intergenerational trauma and and like the the the whole notion of trying to have speak and have a dialogue and support that these things are happening with within our own within our own communities and how we how we either choose to l live with it or closer look at take a court or like be in denial of what what what hap what's been happening. I like even like I'll I'll reply I'll play this one too. This is the again bear law and he talks about this mindset. Okay, so so that's why I'm saying we've had this mindset for a hundred and fifty more years than say the people up in the Inuit. It's the amount of time that you had systemic racism indoctrinated or programmed into our Indigenous youth so that our n indigenous youth came out of those places with so many mental health issues, borderline personality disorders, whatever happened in those places. Like I when I think about ritual abuse and I try to anal think about it and I try to have my audience think about rich what ritual abuse is and the repercussions of what happens to children when they've been Marina Crane (54:02.011) Ritualistically abused, and the outcome in early childhood development in t as a teenager, as young adults, and then in your 30s and 40s. Because it's important. That's why I'm trying to say the ritual abuse that was inflicted on indigenous children ha happened a lot longer than than people in the northern communities, like in the Northwest Territories. Because again too there's oil found in Alberta, there's all this land grab. All all this they they ritualistically abused our children and the repercussions of it and what was seemed as normal trying to like revitalize your language and teach your children to have pride. When I think about my parents and traveling to South American India, again this again this is programmed. They there were rich people, just like what's happening now with with the separatist movement. Don't don't white people understand like I was eight years old when when my parents were indoctrinated into a organization of Americans, 250 of them traveled into South America, into into third world countries talking about capitalism. And and that it's okay for a communist country to become Christianized because look at what the Christians have done to the indigenous peoples in the Americas. And there are my parents talking about religion. And they were getting paid to do that. So a lot of these companies like in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru where they had oil and where they're look where Americans were looking to incorporate an established industry there, especially even in India. 'Cause my parents went to India as well, where where, you know, the governments were colonial settlers and and they established US companies, just like the same as the United States putting money into the Alberta separatist movement through social like media, software, everything. Marina Crane (56:09.196) That bombardment that's happening in Alberta was happening in South America and India when I was eight and ten years old. That technique to have control. I forget they said how many US Army bases are are around the world in countries. Countries. So so this pollifer this this network, this spider web that is created just for money. So like I said, my parents went to they were in India when I was eight or or South America when I was eight and then when I was ten they were in India. And and just the the the amount of financing that billion millionaires, billionaires were were in were paying to get these organizations all under the guise of religiosity to to say, Well, we've got to work together. We've got to work together and and you know, work towards peace. But at what cost? It it like I said, white supremacy can say, well look at us, we're poor, we haven't had the same advantages of indigenous people. At what at what cost? You know, as we struggle to try and have balance in terms of mental health, in terms of our cultural values, in terms of trying to articulate what it's like to live in First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, actually live there and hold our leadership accountable. That's what it means to be indigenous. That's what it means to be sovereign. So even if you ha you're an advocate and you have a status card and you've never held your leadership accountable, you need you need to validate that. Because there are a lot of people out there who think that you're a real First Nations person because you have a status card. But yet you don't understand sovereignty because you've never held your leadership accountable. No excuses, well there's violence there. No. The reality of how you ablicate Marina Crane (58:14.766) For children, for young people, for people who actually live in these communities that are governed under the laws of the Indian Act, especially in Canada. Especially when people come in and indoctrinate people who are poor to do their task work. That's why I have issues with mental health. I like indigenous mental health workers and and black mental health workers, they have to go into the states to get their works published. We have we have like it's like the the flavor of the month. How many white people, how many people, even indigenous people, all of a sudden they're they're in their sixties, going on to seventies, and they want to be therapists for f you know, they want they want to help the noble savage. You know, I I I've like I've been I've studied psychology, I've been in therapy myself. I even even how these people who who programmed or indoctrinated my parents to travel, th th some of some of these people had had PhDs in psychology. Like they sure as hell knew what to do. But you know, like again, when when does systemic racism stop when you have mental health workers who are doing more damage to to to to the environment, like the actual people who are living in the indigenous communities? Sure, I put out my podcast and I talk about it because it's a real threat. It's a real danger. That's why like when I house this thirty year thirty-eight year old young woman, mother of three, goes off and abandons her children to be with a white guy. Everything white society says to her about her she believes. She so she grew up isolate in an isolated community. Everything white people are doing and saying she believes. So when a white person says this is incurable, she believes it. When she thinks like, you know, you're you're ashamed and she says, Yes, I'm ashamed. No. Like there has to be a a tipping point. And that's why like when I look at white supremacy and I look at their tipping point, we have a lot more in common. Marina Crane (01:00:31.81) We have a hell of a lot more in common. But yet I don't see I don't see the advocacy for your mental health. Like if you're a white supremacist, I don't see you advocating for your mental health. I don't see you, you know, talking and having a narrative of what it what trauma you went through as a child to make you who you are to have so much anger and hate that you could end up be you know, like like th it's a crime. It's a crime. I know I talk about different peop the way people think and what what's criminal. But that's that's the way it is. And we live in we live in this system. But I I just wanted to like put put that there because it it's an important reality of how we deconstruct and how we talk like and learn helpless talk. We that that energy that we that we keep on in like If we don't step back and put boundaries and we have and we take away that that mindset that has been indoctrinated for over 150 years, these things these things are important to understand because it has to do with enriching the vital the vitality of thousands of years of cultural practice, of rituals and ceremonies. What if every time we call ourselves survivors of residential schools, we are actually training our nervous system to stay in survival mode? Something I learned from the late Harold Johnson is that our reality is created by the stories we tell ourselves. So when people would say that he was nothing but a drunk, he quit drinking and became sober. When people said he was a stupid lumberer, he went to Harvard law and became a crown prosecutor. Our nervous system is constantly finding evidence of danger in order to protect us, and it's easy for us to find Marina Crane (01:02:34.596) Danger in the healthcare system, in the education system, in the justice system as indigenous peoples, because violent salar colonialism is evidently ongoing. So for today on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, I invite you to reflect on the story that you are telling yourself and how that can really empower you to the person that you want to become. So not only are you a survivor, but you broke the cycle and you now have. the power to accomplish anything in this world that you could dream of based on the story that you are now telling yourself. That's why when I talk about eliminating self-defeating behavior, it's the narrative that you're telling yourself. Shoulda woulda coulda or I'm I'm I'm I'm insane. Like this young lady said that to me. I heard her And I it and I'm going, how can you s say that about yourself? But I couldn't intervene because she's just a guest and and the negative self-talk, I don't want to use negative self the word negative. It's learned it's that learned narrative of self-defeating, self-defeating everything she's saying is so self-defeating. And I'm going, How did she who taught her to be that self-defeating? Who is she listening to and saying, Yes, I'm that way? Like We have to change the narrative. And and so like when I when I talk about the resilience of youth or or like I I'll use an example. I said, you know, there was a like even my nephew, he he was a dad at fifteen and the things that he's accomplished today and there there are other fifteen year olds who like one had children two when he was fifteen and became a a surgeon. The potential and the human ca ab ability to change the narrative of of the self talk that we we are engaged in is so vital. And if we don't empower our youth or ourselves, if we can't break the cycle and and my brother used to say, Well, the curse ends here. The the reality of it is like Marina Crane (01:04:49.71) It doesn't end it doesn't end because we're we're we're never gonna be we're not we're never gonna be human beings in our homeland. So even when we say land back, we're talking about, hey, treat us like human beings. You know, when people say, they want to land back. This is our homeland, but we don't even feel like human beings. And and to be triggered with truth and reconciliation and people not understanding us still confusing. Confusing themselves under the guise and umbrella of white supremacy or systemic racism. It it it's so profound and yet the reality of how our young people absorb this type of misinformation about themselves. You know, my my parents did the best they could and blessed their hearts, you know, going to Machu Picchu, seeing the seven foot tall English talking about the brain surgery, seeing all those those structures that humanity, how did they do that? Civilizations in the Americas do and accomplish so many things in in tech just just advanced civilization. And here we are today still wrestling with with European standards of of what is based on just emotion, not based on scientific fact or or the reality of like living off the land. We are so dependent on oil. We're so dependent on fast foods and economy. And and and to what extent you know, we're we're we're on a planet that's spiraling through this multiverse. And at any moment a a big wind, cosmic wind could come and shift or the sun or something. Every day is it's amazing that we're alive. And and just the great mystery of it all and how we're all connected. I do my podcast and when people think and I want people to think about this. The documentation of how long indigenous people have been in the Americas. Marina Crane (01:07:13.272) Thousands and thousands and thousands of years. Who did this? The creator, the grandfathers and grandmothers. When I s grandfather, son, grandmother, moon, you call them grandfathers, grandmothers, they're even my grandparents. Generation after generation of narratives, of walking away of life, how we treat each other, this whole notion of this great mystery how Having that instilled in our spiritual growth. That we have to have this internal we'll call it it I don't know, it's a strength. We all have it. We all have this gift. And whoever you're connected to on this planet, that's connect that's the great mystery of love. We cannot walk away from it or be afraid of it. We have to embrace it. live with it every day and at at the same time release it. Because we know creator, grandfathers and grandmothers will is being done. Even when I do this podcast, it's amazing the the things that happen on a daily basis that give me information to give out there on my podcast. And and the fact that like my friend Marilyn would call me up. or or things that have happened to me just in this past year of of giving up friendships. I I made acquaintances and I use as much as I can to keep keep friendships. But there are times when creator says, no, gotta walk away, release them as friends. It's okay. You can do it. You've done it before. So when I I look at how old I am and I I I look at the amount of things that I've had to do in my lifetime and the changes I've seen in human beings, the potential for young people, instead of instead of saying like, no, you know, they've done this and they've done that and they're different because they they have different color skin, that that's not like that's not what aging and living is all about. Marina Crane (01:09:27.116) The human potential of people and the capacity to do h humanitarian things is so profound. But we need to be open about it and accept it. Like I said, you embrace it and then you release it. So with that I just wanted to put that out there. my my friend Marilyn, I said to her, you know, Marilyn, I said, when the Prime Minister is emotionally talking and you s and everybody sees him at the verge of tears, I said, i everything is guided, Marilyn. You being there, having to be invited to talk, to actually talk to him about his father and and just to, you know, the the realization that he's a leader of Canada. And the decisions and the the progress that he has to make and the things he holds within him. He needed he needed her to be there. Because we're all human beings trying to work and be understanding of each other. And the things that we have to do just to to exist. So, like I said, I'm I'm just amazed sometimes the of the people that I've met in my life and that I continue to meet. And the people who who like like I I like we always talk about the third eye and how people see each see how we see each how we see ourselves. There is a part of us that we don't see that other people see. And and a lot of times when I meet people and they try to show me this third eye of myself, it's very hard for me to see it because again it has to do with self defeating self talk. And and the more I process and the more I release and and have closure, the more I get to see that third eye, that image that that people have commented to me. And and even though it might seem time consuming, it eventually happens. So I'm grateful and at the same time too just h hopeful. Hopeful our young people Marina Crane (01:11:47.853) the ones who hold our leadership accountable, I hope you as an audience listen to them. I hope you understand like those are actual indigenous people, First Nations, Inuit and Metis, who are holding their leadership accountable. If you listen to indigenous people who are registered in Ottawa because they they're they've already they've got their status back, if they're not holding their leadership accountable Then then what is it that they're creating? What narrative are they creating when they don't have that backbone, that foundation of a sovereignty and what it's like to live in an indigenous community that's First Nations Inuit and Metis? No excuse of it's violent. there's g this and that. No. I lived in another country and I came home to heal. I came home to face the man who sexually assaulted me. And I stood in front of the court and I told him, You hurt me. And then to tell my story, because nobody was telling young people, young women and men, that there are no statute of limitations to charge people, perpetrators, of hate and anger. So yes, there's a similarity in terms of the anger and the hate that people hold for other people. that's related to trauma. And even if people who belong to sense of anarchy want to hide their faces, Josie Niponak, the chief, the grand chief, was in Kamloops and they took the license plates of these people who who masked themselves. They're holding them accountable. We have to hold people accountable. We we need to. We need to we need to do these things. We need to challenge these people and we need to say we're we're holding space. We want to hold space. We want we want you to challenge us. We want to challenge you as well and we want to hold space together in in conflict resolution. Marina Crane (01:14:05.484) Because we're yes, we we're all human beings and whatever conflict it is, we need to hold space. And at the point when we're holding space, then we need to bear witness of the injustice. The injustice. That's what's so triggering. Four thousand to ten thousand children, a hundred and fifty years? Even understand this, the first one hundred years of colonization, that's five hundred years ago, settlers in the Americas killed over a hundred and twenty million children, indigenous children. Does pe do people talk about that in truth and reconciliation? Do people understand just the devastation of genocide that happened just in a span of 500 years? And it still permeates. It still exists. It's the the fragment fragmentation of Indian residential school, that mindset, that inability to be civilized, learned helplessness, self defeating talk in legislation, in government. At what point, at what point do we release it? We have to because our children depend on it. Artificial intelligence, they say it's going to destroy our civilization. At what point do we understand how we treat each other? At what point do we say, no, we have the capacity. We have the capacity. To eliminate our self-defeating talk. I leave it with you, I leave this with you. Understand the indigenous history of the Americas. Understand your the state or the province you live in. Understand your community and hold your leadership accountable. However you see it and however you advocate. Marina Crane (01:16:13.556) Really take a look at what the narrative is and why the person who's talking about it is leading you in that direction. I'm just grateful for my friend Marilyn and the way she talks from her heart and the advocacy and when she jokingly says I haven't I don't have a criminal record, you know, especially when you're you know you're holding sit-ins and you're rallying and you've got the RC and P, you know, checking up on you. I mean I was right there when they broke into our hotel our motel room and and you know it's just it's amazing like that we didn't get a criminal record for protesting and advocating for safe drinking water. And this was like fifty years ago in northern Alberta. All these things that I've lived through and continue to live through in my podcast and I talk about Marina Crane (01:17:22.85) Well, I'm going to end it there because Marina Crane (01:17:29.834) I know I sound passionate about everything, but yet at the same time too I have to be cautious. 'Cause there's a lot of people who who aren't indigenous who who listen to my narrative and and and try to you know get take the information and use it the way they want. And I know young people say, Don't give out information because people are gonna use it for their own means, like their own advocacy. And yet and yet The story needs to be told. because there are a lot of people, educated people who who who who want to use this information and get away with it. They get away with it because they they want to become social workers, therapists, politicians, you name it. But, you know, I'm advocating because they did that to my parents and my grandparents and so on. Like I come from a very political family. I come from a family that has been traumatized through Indian residential school. I'm only one Understand like t like the the man said four thousand to ten thousand children. Marina Crane (01:18:45.196) The sense of anarchy Where are your ancestors? Marina Crane (01:18:53.602) Did your ancestors were your were your ancestors killed? Were there thousands and thousands of children killed? And even then you're trace your ancestry five hundred years ago, were millions of children k killed. Marina Crane (01:19:16.29) Have a good day. Marina Crane (01:19:21.036) And for those of you Marina Crane (01:19:25.282) Thank you for listening.