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Feminists Around the World: Brittany Woods Orrison · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and SMITHA.
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  Speaker 2: I'm welcome to stuff. I never told your production of
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  Speaker 2: iHeart Radio.
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  Speaker 1: And today is October fourteenth, twenty twenty five. I think
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  Speaker 1: we're just gonna just timestamp as many relevant current affair
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  Speaker 1: things as possible, so you know what's happening at the
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  Speaker 1: very top. Because I've discovered when people don't do this
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  Speaker 1: like in articles, yeah, or social media videos, I get
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  Speaker 1: very confused. And that feels really mean because I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: did this just happen or it's just old news that's
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  Speaker 1: rehappening because it just feels that way. Anny, it just
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  Speaker 1: feels that way. But anyway, and yesterday, just in case
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  Speaker 1: you need to know, what's Indigenous People's Day, So we
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  Speaker 1: wanted to take a minute to celebrate another Indigenous activist
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  Speaker 1: because there are many out there. I feel like when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to activism, indigenous in itself is activism, so
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  Speaker 1: you know, just as a reminder of what Indigenous people
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  Speaker 1: do for us. But it was so we wanted again
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  Speaker 1: to celebrate another one, and this time we are celebrating
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  Speaker 1: Brittany woods Orson. So woods Orson is a part of
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  Speaker 1: the Koya Khan Denay from the Delectune Alaska, which is
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  Speaker 1: a small village on the Yukon River. And just in
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  Speaker 1: case y'all that't know what's going on, there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of things happening in Alaska. Several people have died or
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  Speaker 1: are missing because of the storms and recently due to
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  Speaker 1: a typhoon I believe typhoon Howlong, which has happened in
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  Speaker 1: Alaska and people are in chaos. We haven't heard much
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  Speaker 1: about it because there's so many bad things happening, but
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  Speaker 1: I feel like it's something that we do need to
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  Speaker 1: pay attention to, obviously, because there are many people who
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  Speaker 1: are talking about the fact that they are not getting help.
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  Speaker 1: They're not getting attention, they're not getting aid or services
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  Speaker 1: of any sorts because our administry she is decided to
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  Speaker 1: focus on fake wars in other places. But with all
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  Speaker 1: of that, yes, things are happening there, and so we
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  Speaker 1: wanted to bring attention to some of the activists there
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  Speaker 1: so we can know what's going on, because you know,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to be the people who are probably at
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  Speaker 1: the forefront telling us the truth of what is happening
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  Speaker 1: and what's Orison is someone that I would also pay
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  Speaker 1: attention to. So she has many titles under her belt
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  Speaker 1: including activists, digital equity advocate, filmmaker, athlete, and model like
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  Speaker 1: she is out there, she's also a culinary chef like
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  Speaker 1: studied in the Bay Area as well. I'm like, how
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  Speaker 1: do you have time for all of this, because, like
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the many times I'm just tired and
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  Speaker 1: researching people like her like, Wow, you're amazing. I love you. Also,
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  Speaker 1: are you not tired? You do you? You do you?
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  Speaker 1: You do amazing an amazing amount of things. But in
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  Speaker 1: her own words that she talks about her life as
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  Speaker 1: a part of a small village with her community, then
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  Speaker 1: a transitioning or adjusting to the transition of being a
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  Speaker 1: part of the sea life, but holding onto her heritage.
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  Speaker 1: So if you read through her story, she talks about
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  Speaker 1: being from that village with her grandparents and her people,
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  Speaker 1: learning to fish and learning about their own culture and
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  Speaker 1: not knowing anything different, and then schools being closed down
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  Speaker 1: or funding happening, and so she having to move into
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  Speaker 1: other areas, going to different boarding schools, trying different areas,
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  Speaker 1: moving to California, and things like that. So she knows
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  Speaker 1: a lot about this type of displacement. A part of
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  Speaker 1: this is allowing also for her to her passion and
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  Speaker 1: hard to grow and gain equity to continue to share
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  Speaker 1: for her people and the stories as well as preserving
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  Speaker 1: their culture. One of her important work is getting digital
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  Speaker 1: accessibility for areas around Alaska. So here's a bit from
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  Speaker 1: her Vokee interview. She was just featured in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: four I Believe with her cousin, which was really a
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  Speaker 1: sweet The article says, it's a matter of pressing importance
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  Speaker 1: to Woods Orson, who works as a broadband specialist bringing
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  Speaker 1: digital equity to Alaska natives. More specifically, her advocacy focuses
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  Speaker 1: on affordable internet access for all, including those in the
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  Speaker 1: most isolated rural areas. And I know, any you lived
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  Speaker 1: in Alaska for a while, so I'm sure you could
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  Speaker 1: kind of talk about some of the things that you
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  Speaker 1: had witnessed in the importance of equity as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I was very very young, so most
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  Speaker 2: of my stuff is like secondhand that my parents told me.
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  Speaker 2: But it was a big deal. My dad was a
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  Speaker 2: professor there. I don't remember those, but according to my parents,
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  Speaker 2: they would send home VHS's of classes because you couldn't
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  Speaker 2: always get to the school. And so I can only imagine,
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  Speaker 2: you know, who's to say back then, who had a
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  Speaker 2: VCR and who didn't, who had working TV and who didn't.
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  Speaker 2: And I can only imagine that when you add in
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  Speaker 2: the Internet and the technology required for that, because we've
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  Speaker 2: done an episode on the internet. Gender gap means yeah,
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  Speaker 2: but it was definitely a thing that my dad, as
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  Speaker 2: a professor, talked about, was how to get information out
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  Speaker 2: to people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, we haven't, Like we had that one episode
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  Speaker 1: and then I know, we did an interview with a
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  Speaker 1: running in activist who talked about accessibility as well. And
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about activism, when we talk about protests,
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  Speaker 1: when we talk about keeping governments accountable, how important digital
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  Speaker 1: access is. And then again we talk about medicine, we've
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  Speaker 1: been talking about telehealth all of that and how that
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  Speaker 1: slow goes away. We just had an interview with doctor
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  Speaker 1: Sharon Malone who talked about that as well, and how
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  Speaker 1: we really need to learn to embrace some of these
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  Speaker 1: things because it can be life saving. Accessibility and broadband
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  Speaker 1: is one of those. And I've seen that term coming
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  Speaker 1: more and more. I feel like I'm still behind and
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  Speaker 1: knowing that it's been there, but it's not given the
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  Speaker 1: name and the credit that it deserves today, including her,
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  Speaker 1: and she's been working with Alaska Public Interest Research Groups
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  Speaker 1: or a kpi RG as a broad and specialists. From
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  Speaker 1: the same Vogue interview, they write wod Orson herself grew
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  Speaker 1: up without internet access at home. The importance of the
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  Speaker 1: initiative was clear to her. She has vivid memories starting
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  Speaker 1: circle middle school of waiting with her cousins outside their
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  Speaker 1: tribal council building hoping to get online. Quote, surrounded by mosquitoes,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a bear was walking behind us. And still to
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  Speaker 1: this day you'll see people outside in like negative thirty
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  Speaker 1: degree weather trying to get on the internet. This is
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  Speaker 1: the current context. Oh oh, my gosh. And Alaska has
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  Speaker 1: been in need of digital accessibility for a while, which
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about again. When it comes to assets like
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  Speaker 1: medical and educational social needs, it's a must. It's something
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  Speaker 1: that we need nowadays. From Alaskamagazine dot com, they write, quote,
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  Speaker 1: Alaska ranks last among US states for internet access. The
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  Speaker 1: most service is the southeast and south central Alaska, and
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  Speaker 1: the least, which often means none, is in southwest in
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  Speaker 1: interior Alaska. But even where access is high, like in
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  Speaker 1: southeast Alaska. As some rural communities go without, urban residents
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  Speaker 1: can lack affordable access too. Statewide, Alaska Native people are
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  Speaker 1: twice as likely as Caucasians to lack access and according
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  Speaker 1: to Broadband Now research, and that is unbelievable. Don't remember correctly.
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  Speaker 1: I believe the current one of the current representatives from
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  Speaker 1: there had all of this as a part of her
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  Speaker 1: agreeing yes to the big beautiful bill, and that got
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  Speaker 1: shut down. Just pause in that respect, and of course,
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  Speaker 1: with access to the Internet, it helps bring a bit
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  Speaker 1: of equal footing when it comes to the arts and
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  Speaker 1: film industry. Woods Orlsen is a filmmaker herself and knows
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  Speaker 1: the importance of internet access with her experience in her background.
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  Speaker 1: She's been busy working to achieve as much as possible
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  Speaker 1: and get connected with as many others as well. Again
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  Speaker 1: back to her Vogue feature quote. Seeing what she needs
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  Speaker 1: so achieve, she dove in connecting with as many organizations
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  Speaker 1: and people as possible. Her approach was straightforward. She told them,
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  Speaker 1: this is who I work for. These are the goals.
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  Speaker 1: I'm an Alaska Native. I grew up without the Internet.
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  Speaker 1: I have this vision for the Internet in Alaska. The
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  Speaker 1: vision that woods Orison shared was of Alaska Natives being
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  Speaker 1: able to live in their homeland, to move back from
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  Speaker 1: the places they've had to relocate to for work and schooling,
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  Speaker 1: and to reconnect with their cultures in old ways and
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  Speaker 1: new because a lot of us we move out of
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  Speaker 1: state and we get completely cut off. The first time
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  Speaker 1: I heard my language spoken fluently was on zoom at
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  Speaker 1: a class when I was in California. Affordable fast internet
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  Speaker 1: is also central for climate crisis related economic reasons. Not
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  Speaker 1: only does it expand across to opportunities, but it can
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  Speaker 1: fundamentally change what those opportunities are. And they quote woods
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  Speaker 1: Orson saying I dream of diversifying our economy, and she
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  Speaker 1: goes on to talk about the industry and so much more,
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  Speaker 1: and how this is kind of really taken away obviously
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  Speaker 1: from her community and from many of the natives of Alaska.
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  Speaker 1: And I think there's so much to this conversation that again,
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  Speaker 1: we need to delve into. When it comes to a
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  Speaker 1: lot like if we did regional episodes, that would probably
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  Speaker 1: take us five years any and then we would have
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  Speaker 1: to come back and revisit each one because it'd be
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  Speaker 1: new things every time. Oh yeah, oh yeah, anyway, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: all that just hit my mind. I was like, wait,
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  Speaker 1: because when we talk about the accessibility for Alaska, I
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  Speaker 1: don't think we talk enough about what they contributed, what
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  Speaker 1: they're lacking, what they need, and how often they are ignored,
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  Speaker 1: and how they are a big community that have been
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  Speaker 1: colonized and yet left alone, much like Puerto Rico. Is
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  Speaker 1: such an odd like dissonance in this conversation. And she's
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  Speaker 1: been working hard to bringing as much attention and credit
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  Speaker 1: to the practices and principles of indigenous cultures with her
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  Speaker 1: own works with different independent filings fils, and her continued
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  Speaker 1: work and advocacy. She has been busy. From her website,
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  Speaker 1: she writes in twenty twenty five, I'm transitioning into full
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  Speaker 1: time freelance work. I've become a Tanning High teacher. I'm
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  Speaker 1: making my own films, taking on multiple different roles in
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  Speaker 1: film work, writing, interviewing, teaching Native games, being an international
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  Speaker 1: Native Games athlete, and engaging in all the cultural community
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  Speaker 1: work that I can dream of. And she talks about
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  Speaker 1: relearning her language, which we've talked about that importance, how
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  Speaker 1: native languages are so important and oftentimes overlooked. Purposefully We
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  Speaker 1: know that colonization wants to acclimate everyone into one specific
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  Speaker 1: type of hierarchy of culture, and that is appalling and
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  Speaker 1: disgusting and is genicidal. But in all of that, she
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  Speaker 1: continues to work hard to get these attentions. She was
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  Speaker 1: featured in Vogue wearing her community jewelry and necklaces and gear,
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  Speaker 1: and I love that. We love all of this, and
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  Speaker 1: we do want to see what's going on in Alaska.
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  Speaker 1: And if anybody knows that information, has more information about
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  Speaker 1: what's happening, please let us know.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, please do. You can email us at Hello at
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Stuff Onnever Told You dot com. You can find us
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: on Blue Sky at mom Stuff podcasts, on Instagram and
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: TikTok at stuff I Never Told You. We're also on YouTube.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: We have some new merchandise at Cotton Bureau, and we
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: have a book you can get wherever you get your books.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks as always too, our super producer Christina, executive producer
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: for listening Stuff Never Told You, the production of My
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: can check out the heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: wherever you listen. To your favorite shows,