Sierra Youth Podcast

Hello everyone and happy National Poetry Month! This month, we are so excited to be chatting with Selina Boan. Selina is a white settler-nehiyaw writer currently living on the traditional and unceded territories of the thexʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. Her debut poetry collection, Undoing Hours, was published in Spring 2021 by Nightwood Editions. Her work has been published widely, including The Best Canadian Poetry 2018 and 2020. She has received several honours, including the 2017 National Magazine Award for Poetry, and was a finalist for the 2020 CBC poetry award. She is a poetry editor for CV2 and Rahila’s Ghost Press.

Today’s episode is a really special one that includes intimate performances of three poems from Selina’s book! We dive into so many themes throughout this episode, from language, to education and decolonization, to the intimacy of poetry and so much more. This is a joyful, deep, and loving conversation about celebrating who you are and celebrating others and their joy. Plug in your earphones and get listening!

How to Support Selina’s Work:

Follow Selina on Instagram and Twitter @selinaboan

Today’s episode features Myia Antone - a proud youth from Squamish nation. Myia is a teacher of the Skwxwú7mesh language, the founder of Indigenous Women Outdoors, and also a wicked mountain biker, skier, and paddler.

Together we discuss the evolution of outdoor recreation in Squamish and beyond. We touch on how colonialism and climate change have affected the spaces that have been stewarded by Myia’s ancestors since time out of mind. We also explore the role of language and culture in revitalising these lands, and how non-Indigenous folks can help share the load of radical change.

As new wilderness attractions continue to pop up across the country to promote tourism and outdoor recreation, there can be many negative and long lasting effects on wildlife and Indigenous communities.

In this episode, we focus on the Kootenay Boundary region where a proposal for a ski resort has been gaining government approval despite warnings from locals on how this resort will negatively impact the wildlife living on the land.

Biologist Wayne P. McCrory, Autonomous Sinixt Campaign and Project Coordinator KL and Wild Connection spokesperson Nicky Blackshaw provide us with insight on how important it is to protect our wildlife, how to amplify the voices of Indigenous communities who have historical ties to the land, and why a “Tesla of ski resorts” does not automatically mean it is good for the environment.

If we don’t preserve and value the limited spaces our wildlife have, our human impact on nature can become irreversible.

Today we speak with linguist and anthropologist Dr. Luisa Maffi about the concept of biocultural diversity.

In 1995, Dr. Luisa Maffi and David Harmon explored the idea of how cultural diversity, language diversity, and biodiversity are all interconnected. If we were to lose a culture or language then we would see the negative effects in our biodiversity as well. Ultimately, this understanding led Dr. Luisa Maffi, David Harmon and some team members to create Terralingua - an international non-profit dedicated to sustaining the diversity of life in nature and culture.

Dr. Luisa Maffi is now the director of Terralingua and continues to explore the “connections between language and the way language expresses the way of thinking and acting of a given culture. In particular, the way it expresses and codifies the ways of thinking and acting towards the environment.”

Hello everyone and happy new year! We are so excited to be back and kicking off our first episode of 2022 with a special guest; Janelle Lapointe. Janelle is an Afro-Indigenous climate justice and Indigenous rights activist from Stellat’en First Nation, currently working in communications for the David Suzuki Foundation as a guest on the lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples.

Today’s episode starts off with Janelle’s journey to becoming a climate and Indigenous rights activist. We then dive into an important conversation about the events taking place on the West Coast with respect to the Wet’suwet’en peoples, the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, and the ‘national myths’ that surround perceptions of so-called ‘Canada.’ Today’s chat is one that you don’t want to miss so plug in your earphones and get listening!

This week the team tackles a beeeeeefy topic! We’re talking all things food and sustainability. Liiiiiiike... how does our collective food consumption impact the planet? How can we fuel our bodies more sustainably? What does systematic change in our food supply look like?

IN NO WAY does this podcast endorse, promote, or prescribe a particular diet. We touch on our own relationships to food and how they have evolved over the years, and ultimately encourage our listeners to listen to your body and take care however you see fit :)

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts!

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Hey folks! 

We asked you what you wanted us to talk about this week… and you answered GREENWASHING! So today, we demystify what the heck it is, what the different types are, our own experiences with greenwashing, and what we can do about it. Join us for this fun chat with the crew of Sierra Youth. 

Please follow us wherever you listen to your podcasts and interact with us on Instagram - we love hearing from you!  

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Join us for an in-depth and multi-faceted discussion about capitalism! What is it? How’d we get here? Is it a lost cause? What other options do we have? In this episode, we attempt to demystify capitalism and reimagine our society’s future. Let us know what you think 🌿 

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Our very first guest! Corinne Rice-Grey Cloud met with Sierra Youth to discuss land acknowledgements and how to ensure they aren’t a performative action. Corinne walks the team through the process of crafting a thoughtful acknowledgement with the input of local tribal nations. From there, we discussed how to contribute to reconciliation with the sovereign nations whose land we live on. We could not have asked for a better first guest - Corinne is a gracious and incredibly knowledgeable educator. We are so excited for you to listen to all that she shared with us!

What's an environmental footprint? How does low-waste living contribute to it? In today's episode, Sierra Youth have a conversation on easy and reasonable lifestyle changes that you can adopt today to start lowering your impact on the environment. The team shares their own personal experiences with adopting a lower waste lifestyle and their journey towards being more conscious about their lifestyle choices. We know it can feel overwhelming in the beginning, so we hope this episode provides you with some inspiration and ideas to lessen your footprint on the planet! We love  low-waste living!

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