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Activists Around the World: Katherine Paul · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Come welcome to stuff
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  Speaker 1: when I never told your production of I Heard Radio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: And for today's activists around the world, we are talking
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  Speaker 2: about the works and art from Katherine Paul. So. Catherine Paul,
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  Speaker 2: also known as black Belt Eagle Scout in the music
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  Speaker 2: world and industry, is an Indigenous queer musician who has
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  Speaker 2: always been surrounded by music and now uses her talent
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  Speaker 2: as a way to celebrate her indigenous voice and culture.
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  Speaker 2: There was a part in one of our articles which
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  Speaker 2: I don't mention later, so I we've mentioned now where
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  Speaker 2: she talks about the fact that she's not afraid to
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  Speaker 2: be pigeonholed as a Native artist because that's who she is,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm like that. She said that there's not enough representation,
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  Speaker 2: not enough talking about it, especially those who are both
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  Speaker 2: Native and queer. So she is cool and happy to
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  Speaker 2: be a voice for that, and so are we. Because
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  Speaker 2: if you get a chance, you should definitely go to
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  Speaker 2: black Belt Eagle Scout dot com check out her music
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  Speaker 2: because it's incredible. So it kind of reminds me of
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  Speaker 2: some of that Portland slash West Coast sound that I
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  Speaker 2: grew up hearing. If you're a part of the alternative world.
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  Speaker 2: Very cool, cool sound as well as great message. It
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  Speaker 2: does feel like it speaks to you if you get
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  Speaker 2: a chance to listen. She's not gonna be a part
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  Speaker 2: of my rotation because I really do like her music.
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  Speaker 2: Her first song, soft SuDS, she calls it her qua anthem. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you gotta love it.
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  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it too.
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  Speaker 2: I think you're gonna put this in your like writing list.
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  Speaker 2: I have a feeling.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have playlists? Yeah, yeah, I probably will because
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  Speaker 1: it kind of has that like you can chill while
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  Speaker 1: listening to it, but also it's very emotional.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah but calm, but it feels like you're connecting to
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  Speaker 2: like the environment around you too. I feel like it's
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  Speaker 2: gonna definitely be part of your playlist. But so yes,
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  Speaker 2: if you want to take some time to go and
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  Speaker 2: listen to that before jumping in about who she is,
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  Speaker 2: or you want to do it after, that's fine. But
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  Speaker 2: either way, listeners, you should be listening to this music,
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  Speaker 2: so back to it. She is a part of the
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  Speaker 2: Swinnamish Indian travel community from her father's side, as well
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  Speaker 2: as the part of the native of Katsabou in Alaska.
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  Speaker 2: As her mother was from the Annabach community, so she
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  Speaker 2: grew up in the Swinnamish reservation in the northern Washington area,
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  Speaker 2: and her family has always been involved in music as well.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, she was a jingle dress dancer with them
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  Speaker 2: when they would go to the regional ceremonies or powows.
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  Speaker 2: A bit more about that from Audio music dot Com.
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  Speaker 2: Music was embedded in her upbringing. Her family taught her
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  Speaker 2: coastal Salis music, drumming, in jingle dress dance, and when
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  Speaker 2: she goes back to the reservation, the tight knit community
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  Speaker 2: is very proud of her in a lot of ways.
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  Speaker 2: She's paying this forward her music. I love that that's
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  Speaker 2: been a part of her culture and something that she
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  Speaker 2: always has taken to heart. And obviously, again we've talked
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  Speaker 2: about Native Indigenous dancing and how important it is in
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  Speaker 2: their culture and how important it is to tell stories,
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  Speaker 2: so obviously it's something that's been in her life. And
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  Speaker 2: she continued her musical journey by playing flute and piano
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  Speaker 2: in her school band and then going on to learn
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  Speaker 2: the guitar and drums by watching old VHS tapes of
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  Speaker 2: Nirvana and Whole and just teaching herself which Anye we
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  Speaker 2: talked about. You did this with Green.
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  Speaker 1: Day, Yes, I did.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like this is the right of way, like
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  Speaker 2: the ride of passage for many young people who really
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  Speaker 2: get into music like that. This would eventually lead her
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  Speaker 2: to finding her artists and musician community like she would
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  Speaker 2: travel around. Eventually she moved to Portland, Oregon to go
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  Speaker 2: to school where she would get involved with rock and
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  Speaker 2: roll Camp for girls, which we have a version of that,
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  Speaker 2: the rock camp for young girls here who get a
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  Speaker 2: chance to play music, form bands together and really thrive
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  Speaker 2: in that type of culture. And of course she got
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  Speaker 2: involved in different bands around the area and through her
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  Speaker 2: growth and her continuing music career, always held fast to
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  Speaker 2: her indigenous heritage. She released her first EP album as
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  Speaker 2: Black Belt Eagle Scout in twenty fourteen, and then went
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  Speaker 2: on to release her debut album, Mother of My Children
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  Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen. Here's a bit from their site, black
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  Speaker 2: Belt Eaglescout dot com quote this land runs through Catherine
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  Speaker 2: Paul's blood, and it called to her in dreams that
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  Speaker 2: she saw the river, her ancestors, and her home. When
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  Speaker 2: the land calls, you listen, and KP found herself far
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  Speaker 2: from her ancestral lands during the time of collect the trauma,
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  Speaker 2: when the world was wounded and in need of healing.
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  Speaker 2: In twenty twenty, she made the journey from Portland back
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  Speaker 2: to the Scatchet River, back to the cedar trees that
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  Speaker 2: stand tall and shrouded in fog, back to the tide
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  Speaker 2: flats and the mountains, back to Swinnemish. It is a
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  Speaker 2: powerful thing to return to our ancestral lands, and oftentimes
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  Speaker 2: the journey is not easy. Like the salmon through the currents,
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  Speaker 2: like the tide as it crawls the shore. This is
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  Speaker 2: a story of return. It is the call and response.
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  Speaker 2: It is the outstretched arm of the people who came
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  Speaker 2: before welcomed her home. The land, the water, the sky.
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  Speaker 2: Is a celebration of lineage and strength, even in its
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  Speaker 2: deepest moments of loneliness and grief, of frustration over a
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  Speaker 2: world wrought with colonial violence and pain. The songs remind
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  Speaker 2: us that if we slow down, if we listen to
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  Speaker 2: the waves in the wind, through the trees, we will
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  Speaker 2: remember to breathe. There is a through line of story
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  Speaker 2: in every song, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a
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  Speaker 2: gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There is a
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  Speaker 2: reimagining of Sedna who was offered to the sea, and
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  Speaker 2: a beautiful rumination on sacrifice and humanity and what it
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  Speaker 2: means to hold the stories that work to teach us something.
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  Speaker 2: And even though this is more about her last album,
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  Speaker 2: this is obviously something that she holds tight even throughout
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  Speaker 2: her life, and the through line has always been a
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  Speaker 2: part of her She has talked about her past experience
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  Speaker 2: in music. Back to that audio music dot com article,
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  Speaker 2: here's what they wrote. Black Belt Eagle Scout sees KP
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  Speaker 2: embraced the creative freedom and control of being a solo artist,
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  Speaker 2: especially after navigating the predominantly white, male, straight music world.
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  Speaker 2: She honed her skills playing in a bunch of bands,
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  Speaker 2: including Genders and Forest Park in Portland. She moved there
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  Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven to attend Lewis and Clark
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  Speaker 2: College after also playing in Portland's Rock and Roll Camp
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  Speaker 2: for Girls, and learned the business side of things working
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  Speaker 2: for Mississippi Studios. In high school, she'd drive her parents
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  Speaker 2: car to nearby town and a court to catch DIY shows.
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  Speaker 2: The intimacies of place and sense of community among fellow
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  Speaker 2: indigenous and queer people and people of color are integral
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  Speaker 2: parts of her music. With the expansiveness of her melancholy sound,
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  Speaker 2: she creates room for intense grief and heartbreak and personal
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  Speaker 2: as well as generational trauma, and comes back to the
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  Speaker 2: ways the power of friendships and relationships ground her. And
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  Speaker 2: she talks about not feeling like she's a lyricist, but
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  Speaker 2: obviously just in her descriptors alone, she absolutely is. She
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  Speaker 2: is a storyteller in a modern way, in a modern take,
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  Speaker 2: which is what oftentimes is needed and is a reminder
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  Speaker 2: of where music began. Oftenimes where we see the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of how tradition and sounds come forward and who actually
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  Speaker 2: can carry these and I feel like represent it well,
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  Speaker 2: it's oftentimes the black and Indigenous communities and she is
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  Speaker 2: the prime example of that and they. As for her
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  Speaker 2: last album, Paul talks about returning home to the Swinhamish
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  Speaker 2: Indian tribal community. She spoke about this with Premier Guitar
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  Speaker 2: dot Com, saying the writing of this album, Paul's third
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  Speaker 2: full length release, started as far back as twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 2: when she moved back home to the Swinhamish Indian travel
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  Speaker 2: community in Skatget County, Washington, from where she'd been living
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  Speaker 2: in Portland, Oregon. She says, I tend to write about times,
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  Speaker 2: and this record has a lot to do with the
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  Speaker 2: last couple of years of moving from one place to another,
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  Speaker 2: says Paul, particularly moving back home to where I was
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  Speaker 2: born and raised and where my people have been since
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  Speaker 2: time immemorial. There's the theme of a journey. It was
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  Speaker 2: this journey of coming back home. When I was there,
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  Speaker 2: just being in my community, being with theatre, I had
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  Speaker 2: this epiphany where I was like, this is where I'm
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  Speaker 2: meant to be. I'm meant to be here in this
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  Speaker 2: exact moment, in this exact place. It kind of rejuvenated
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  Speaker 2: the awareness of how my mental health and how I
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  Speaker 2: live within this world is linked to that connection I
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  Speaker 2: have to where I'm from, to my homeland. And there
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  Speaker 2: was a moment in her life that she had a
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  Speaker 2: really scary experience where she was hospitalized near death and
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  Speaker 2: had to even do a whole GoFundMe to raise and
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  Speaker 2: get all of the help that she needed. And so
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure returning home for her in this time was
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  Speaker 2: very important to healing both mentally and physically. So we
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  Speaker 2: definitely know there's a lot. She is still touring and
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  Speaker 2: making music. I think there's a couple of shows coming
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  Speaker 2: up if you're in the Portland area as well as
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  Speaker 2: a British Columbia area, So if you get an opportunity,
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  Speaker 2: I think this is a show that's worth seeing. She
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  Speaker 2: is fantastic and making sure she's acknowledging the indigenous and
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  Speaker 2: queer people that attend her shows, because again, to be
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  Speaker 2: represented means everything, and she knows that and recognizes that
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  Speaker 2: to highlight that during our shows and sees that as
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  Speaker 2: something as being important, and we love that and kudos
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  Speaker 2: to that. Again, if you need new music, here's a
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  Speaker 2: recommendation right here. Even though her last album was released
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three, still worth listening. I think it
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  Speaker 2: holds over time.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, and listeners as always, If you have any
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  Speaker 1: music recommendations, any thoughts about this, we would love to
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  Speaker 1: hear from you. You can email us at Hello at
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Stuff Fromneverteld You dot com. You can find us on
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: blue skot at mom Stuff podcast are on Instagram and
• 9:35
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• 9:38
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• 9:40
  Speaker 1: book you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to our super producer, whoever they may have been. We're
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in a period of transition, but thanks to the team
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Casey Chandler and Darima who were excited to introduce Yes,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Yes because they've all helped during this time. And as always,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: thanks to our executive producer Maya Yes, thank you, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never Told you his
• 10:07
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