Beyond Fires & Floods, Pt 1
MEDIA INDIGENA 366 // Synopsis
In Part 1 of Beyond Fires and Floods (BFF), the formal kick-off to our extended series, we present the first half of a panel recorded last October before a live audience in the Great Hall of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. The opening, public component of our 3-day gathering of journalists, scholars and experts, the panel assembled four seasoned storytellers—Judi Kochon, Paul Seesequasis, Tanya Talaga, and Mark Trahant—embodying decades of experience, for a wide-ranging conversation which served as a microcosm of the overall event.
LISTEN > https://pod.fo/e/3e3a56
PANELISTS
A member of Behdzi Ahda First Nation, Judi Kochon was raised in Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories until 6 years old when she attended residential school in Inuvik (with some time on the land with family over that time). One of two voices behind a CBC Radio pilot program entirely in the Dene language (where broadcasters previously spoke just English), Judi felt she did poorly her first time out, but happily “got my language up to par with help from my listeners.” At CBC Inuvik and Yellowknife for 33 years, she’s worked the past 15 as the Sahtú Language announcer and Director of Radio for CKLB–FM (“The Voice of Denendeh”) in Yellowknife.
Paul Seesequasis (Willow Cree), a member of the Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree Nation, is a curator and writer based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Author of the award-winning book Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun (Knopf, 2019) and People of the Watershed: Photographs by John Macfie (McMichael, 2024), his curated exhibitions include “People of the Watershed” at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (May–Nov. 2024), selected as “one of the 10 best things about visual arts in 2024” by The Globe and Mail.
Tanya Talaga is a writer, documentary filmmaker and founder of the media company Makwa Creative. A Member of Fort William First Nation in Robinson Superior Treaty Territory, she has maternal familial ties to Treaty #9 and a Polish-Canadian father. Author of three non-fiction national bestsellers—Seven Fallen Feathers, All Our Relations and The Knowing (the latter a finalist for the 2025 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize in Political Writing and the Indigenous Voices Awards)—Talaga co-directed and co-wrote “The Knowing,” a Canadian Screen Award winning limited series (available on CBC Gem in English and Ininimowin), and executive produced the CSA nominated episode, “War For the Woods,” for The Nature of Things on the ongoing battle to protect B.C.’s old growth forests. A Toronto Star journalist for 20+ years, she’s now a columnist at The Globe and Mail.
Formerly editor of ICT (previously Indian Country Today) as well as editor for Seattle P-I’s editorial page, Mark Trahant has worked as a journalist for more than 50 years. A writer and producer based in Phoenix, where he serves as board chair for IndiJ Public Media (ICT’s publisher), Mark creates content for Indigenous House’s YouTube channel and the Breaking History Substack. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Trahant was awarded the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence in 2025 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. He is a citizen of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.
GRATITUDE
Special thanks to Mitiana Arbon, Pacific Curator at MOA, for their assistance and support with planning and staging the evening’s live event at the Great Hall.
To learn more about BFF: Beyond Fires & Floods, including our core sponsors, visit our BFF home page.
