Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Feminists Around the World: Siku Allooloo

Transcript

Feminists Around the World: Siku Allooloo · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm good to stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome for today's activist around the world, we decided
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: to extend our coverage on indigenous activists with an Inuit, Haitian,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Taino artist, activist and so much more. Ciccu a Lulu,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: which is a really fun name. Mm hmmm, I just
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: want to put that out there. It's very like melodious.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: It is it is right, which is fitting because she
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: is a very amazing artist and it just fits her.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: But she is currently in Canada, but Alulu graduated from
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: the University of Victoria with degrees in anthropology and Indigenous studies,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: which is a fitting educational background for the amazing works
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: that she has done and continues to do. Not only
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: has she work to uplift Indigenous stories and voices and
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: preserve the cultural depth of her community, but she has
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: done it through her beautiful storytelling. Y'all, There's a lot
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: and there's so much to her. Even though we're focusing
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: on her specific artwork, we'll mention briefly about her activism,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: but there's a lot there, so you should know, of course.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So let's get started. So from her site cicku Alulu
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: dot com. Cicku A Lulu Enuaitian Tao is an award
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: winning interdisciplinary artist, writer, and filmmaker from yellow Knife and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Tea by the way of Miti, Metalic or in You
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: and Haiti. Her poetics and sorial work weaves the intimate
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: and intangible with archives and cultural materials to represence and
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: cistrial trajectories. And that disciplinary includes film, poetry, art, and
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: so much more. Everyone should go and look at her
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: side as well. Her work is incredible. She does have
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: an Instagram but it is private, so not sure why,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: but you know private, so maybe you can request to
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: see her artwork. So this is also from her Wikipedia page,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: which we know. We love to see a Wikipedia page
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: on women. They should be in there, they write. Ciku
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: A Lulu explores a wide range of themes throughout her work,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: with a strong focus on reclaiming and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and traditions. She is particularly dedicated to addressing the patching
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: of ancestual gaps caused by colonialism, working to restore cultural
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: continuity and strengthened Indigenous identity. Her work also emphasizes land
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: based education, teaching from a cultural perspective that reconnects indigenous
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: peoples with their ancestral lands, languages, and ways of knowing. A.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Lulu has employed a diverse range of artistic techniques, including
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: traditional and contemporary practices such as intricate traditional beaedwork, evocative poetry,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: handcarved stamping, and documentary filmmaking, which we are focusing a
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: bit more on just a Again, her work is gorgeous
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: and she is pushed to honor her people, her family,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and her community through her works. Her twenty twenty two
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: award winning film Spirit Andmulsion captured the beauty and history
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of her family, specifically her mother, in such an authentic way.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: The film, which was shot with a Super eight camera
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: and for those youngins, this is an old school camera
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: way back when, and you can tell the difference in
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: the artistry of it. But you know, for those of
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: us who were born in that era, we know it's okay.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: But it follows her Teano indigenous mother in her life
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: as an activist and co founder of a bilingual indigenous
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: paper titled Indigena, which was published in North America, which
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: was one of the first, by the way to do so.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So this is from her website and the synopsis of
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the film. A connection to My mother in the Spirit
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: World reactivates Teano culture and presence, revealing a realm unseen Meanwhile,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: amidst a backdrop of flowers everywhere, and in act of sovereignty,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: extends into the future. Filmed on Super eight and developed
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: by hand with plant medicines and botanicals, Spirit Emulsion evokes
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: a language for tane of filmmaking in relationship to the
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Earth and cosmos, breathing an ancestral connection into new form.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: And yeah, if you have a chance to go look
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: get any of the trailers, you should because it is gorgeous.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Her words and storytelling is amazing, and it is an
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: amazing backdrop to her digging into her mother's past who
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: has passed by the way. So here's what she told
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: CBC News about the film. My mom passed into the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: spirit world about twenty two years ago, and I'm actually
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: working on a feature length documentary to represent her activism.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: She was a very important indigenous activist back in the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: nineteen seventies with the Red Power movement, both in the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: United States and in dinn and day Tano. Indigenous people
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: are the people originally other Caribbean who encountered Columbus set
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a Lulu, and she continues, my mom was one of
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the early advocates to assert the tane of people still exist.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: There's a moment now for Tana across all the Caribbean
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: and also the diaspora to regenerate our culture and traditions
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and practices. There's a lot of energy there that my
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: mom helped to start back in her day that's actually
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: flourishing today. This whole process for me in the making
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: of the short was really like an opening prayer for
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: my practice as a filmmaker and my preparations to make
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: this feature link documentary about her. And it was really
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: beautiful because she continues to guide me. I feel her
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: presence in a daily way all the time. And yeah,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: she is currently working on this film with a current
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: project which was awarded the grant from the Sun Dance Institute,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: so it should be released I'm guessing the next year
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: and it's titled Indigena Again from her site, here's the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: synopsis for that. To fulfill a dying wish, a filmmaker
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: retraces her mother's work as an activist and journalists during
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the Red Power movement, bringing to light five hundred years
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: a day, no resistance, and igniting her own journey of reclamation.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: So there is a trailer out for that. She's talking
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: to her uncle about her mom's work and the presence
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: of her mom in this movement and how how powerful
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: she was, how outspoken she was about the Taneal culture.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Now we've kind of talked about them before. We talked
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: about them with our cross episode with Margaret Kiljoy. It's
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a fascinating conversation and I love seeing the overall look
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: of the Talanal people coming to reclaim their culture as
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: because they were forgotten or at least silenced for a
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: long long time. And yeah, it does cross everywhere, so
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: it's hits like Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, all of those areas.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: So it's really important that we talk about that because
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: we don't want to lose a whole group of people
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: to white supremacy, to anything, but especially that. So again,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the trailers alone are incredible. You should go and check
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: it out. And she's produced these films through her own
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: production company, Akia Films, which she writes is quote an
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: avant garde indigenous film production company centered on artistic, culturally
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: grounded storytelling, rich audio visuals, and sovereign narratives. The word
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: key means the other side in innukdata and also refers
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to her mother's nickname. There's also a reference in her
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: father's culture saying that it kind of talked about the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: mountainous waters. So like a lot of reference here and
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: on the site. They have several key things that is
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: important to them and their work, including their missions which
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: they write is this. Akia strives to create films that
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: lovingly and profoundly reflect the power of Indigenous stories and
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: people while actively fostering decolonization and resurgence by working in
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: a highly relational way, embedded in culture and community, engaging
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: appropriate protocols, ethics, processes and frameworks, creating innovative project strategies
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: that amplify grassroots work, collaborating with trusted partners, and centering
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: community care, consent, and narrative sovereignty, which I thought was
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: really important that we put that in there, because it's
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: such a label of ethics that we don't often see,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: especially if people are trying to do Indigenous stories that
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: are indigenous, they don't understand all of that. I think
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Alulu's work also goes hand in hand with her advocacy work,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: including her work with Indigenous Nations, which calls for the
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: indigenous nations to become more independent and work through their
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: own government affairs and freedoms. So they're trying to separate
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: themselves from the colonization that still stands in place and
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: try to create their own country and nationalism, which I
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: think is really important. She also worked with Human Rights
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: Watch to help investigate the human rights and issues that
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: are occurring against the Indigenous women of Saskatchwan, so she
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: apparently did a lot of investigation for them as well.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: And of course, again these are just a few. We
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: didn't highlight all of the works that she's continued to do.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: There's so much. She's like many of our activists that
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: we talk about have so much under their belt that
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: it's it would be we would need to we need
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: to run it as an interview, honest, like, that's what
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: we really need to talk about all this work. But
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: with that, we wanted to talk about her poetry because
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: she is an amazing writer, has some amazing essays on there.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I wanted to include so much more work, but I'm like, no, no,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: everybody needs to go look at her site, and if
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: you need to spell our names s I k U
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: A L L l oo, you should definitely go and
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: check out her site. But this is one of the
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: poems that she has featured on there, and I thought
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: we would read it for you. And it's titled Interface.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of words in here that I'm pretty
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: sure is indigenous in her language that I could not
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: find the pronunciation for. I feel like you might already
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: know this, and Christina is wonderful editing all of my
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: mistakes out, so apologies if it's wrong. It's really hard
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: to find if you know the correct pronunciation. Let us know.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: We want to know, we want to be educated. So
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: this is the title interface, an interface between my ancestral
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: line and the world that seeks to eradicate us. I
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: so invoke adorn connection as protection through spiritual gaze, the
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: potent double space where future and past coalesce reveals the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: invisible thread by which we span eternity. I'll reach back
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: to know you anana tinuk stitching tracing, embracing these spiritual
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: lines a prayer across time. I find you waiting for me,
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: smiling gently with wordless grace, you unearth the nuance of
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: our strength, quiet power from the realm, beyond the words
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: in sight, where truth is stark and fearless, armored in
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: our innate love, with arms of generations wrapped darkly around me,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I am free to celebrate our existence persistence with joyful,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: sovereign madness.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I like that one, and.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: There's so many more that you should check out. Yes,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: if you have a moment, go look at our stuff.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling that we will be coming back
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: to indigenous any on our list when it is released.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely well in the meantime, listeners, Yes, please go
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: check out her work. And as always, if you have
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: any suggestions for this segment or anything else thoughts, resources,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: we would love to hear from you. You can email
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: us at Hello at Stuffannever Told You dot com. You
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: can find us on Blue skyte Mom Stuff podcast, or
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've Never Told You.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: We're also on YouTube. But we have some new merchandise
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: at com Bureau and we have a book you can
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always too,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: our super producer Christina, our secretive ducer My and a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: contributor Joey. Thank you and Thanks to you for listening
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: stuff I Never told you. Instruction of iHeart Radio. For
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: more podcast from my heart Radio, you can check out
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: your favorite shows,