Rhizome Podcast

In our final episode of this series on the Rhizome Podcast, we explore what it means to collectively resist and heal together in effect of the ongoing displacement and cultural erasure of Chinatown. Especially with the rise of violence towards Asian people during Covid, we wanted to highlight how a local force in our community have been responding to anti-Asian racism, neoliberal capitalism, and colonialism. 

In this episode, we talked with Shawn Tse 謝兆龍, a member from aiya哎呀 collective. aiya哎呀 is an intergenerational group of artists and cultural workers offering spaces to remember the emotional and geographic loss of amiskwacîwâskahikan -- particularly in its Chinatown. aiya哎呀 works to form openings for liberation and belonging. Although we only hear from Shawn in this episode, the core members of aiya哎呀 collective include: Grace Law, Lan Chan-Marples, Wai-Ling Lennon, and Shawn Tse.

In this two part dive into the sexual health education system in public schools, we hear directly from students in high school. When planning our sexual health episode, we set out to do anonymous Streeter interviewers with high school students. And you folks had so much to share! From experiences, to identifying problems, to finding solutions. Huge shout out to everyone that shared their thoughts with us! We hope these conversations inspire you just as much as it inspired us.

We would like to acknowledge the lack of male perspective in this episode. This was not an intentional choice, unfortunately we just had no masculine youth step up for the Streeter interviews. However, tune in next episode to hear the convergence between masculinity and sex ed.

This episode of the Rhizome Podcast, we explore how food insecurity has major impacts on the lives of immigrants and refugees here in so-called, Edmonton. 

D and Wen chatted with Julia Tran, a youth doing food justice and dignity work with migrant populations. Her work is inspired by her personal relationships and lived experience as a first generation Chinese-Vietnamese-Canadian. Julia is the Food Dignity Program Manager with Multicultural Health Brokers. Julia's role is tied to responding to the urgent food needs of ethnocultural families experiencing chronic poverty through the Grocery Run as well as advancing food security strategies tied to socio-economic inclusion and wellbeing. She is currently working in collaboration with Multicultural Health Brokers, community members and community partners to build a business case for a social enterprise for a Cultural Grocery Box and to explore food security strategies tied to Urban Agriculture.

Be sure to go follow Multicultural Health Brokers: 

Meet Elaine Tran, Reese Kurian, Ruth Hopkinson, D Santos, and Wen Chan - the producers behind The Rhizome Podcast from Roots4Change. 

In this episode, Elaine, Reese, Ruth, D, and Wen introduce the Rhizome Podcast, themselves, and talk about the upcoming episodes.