When part of your cultural composition is oral history, it's no wonder a radio show came to mind for a local aboriginal performer. What surprised even him was how few models there were out there in Canada for him to draw on.
In many ways Jeremy Pahl - a Tsimshian (Gitga'ata) singer-songwriter attending UNBC's aboriginal studies program - is creating his own mould as he pours the best First Nations spoken word he can find out into the local airwaves. His show is Indigenous Airwaves and is devoted to the poetry, comedy, stories, rap and lyrically endowed songs of Canada's many nations within the nation.
"I find material everywhere. Everywhere I go I interview people, and there is a lot of stuff already recorded," he said. In recent times he has gathered on-air conversations with Sliammon First Nation child actor / songwriter / artist / activist Ta'Kaiya Blaney, with Secwepemc poet and academic Garry Gottfriedson, with Penticton-based Cree rapper Kasp, and others.
"This is really an experiment by the station. It's never had a show dedicated to First Nations content, and it's the first time I've had a position in radio, so we are learning as we go," said Pahl. "It's part of a cultural transformation. Storytelling is still alive in indigenous culture but that can also move into documentary, recordings, and radio. Aboriginal storytelling isn't static and it isn't just for displaying in a museum. It is alive and growing and great."
Pahl intermingles snippets of documentaries, news of the day, spoken word / poetry and music. As a member of the acclaimed all-aboriginal death-metal band Gyibaaw, he would look for fellow indigenous musicians and artists as he toured the world. The radio show now gives him an outlet for that personal research.
"I have things I want to make sure I cover like homelessness, aboriginal-RCMP relations, the Highway of Tears, but also things just develop suddenly like the Tsilcotin winning their Supreme Court Case, the federal government decision on the Northern Gateway Pipeline, the acknowledgement by Vancouver's city council that their city is built on unceded lands, things just come up."
He also listens carefully to the CBC program Tribal Clef with host Janet Rogers because it, too, has a focus on aboriginal cultural content.
"This whole project has definitely sparked some interest in me for radio," Pahl said. "I just finished my degree so now I have to make some choices. I'm looking at journalism and broadcasting. And there is a dream of mine to turn this radio show and the research that goes into it into an aboriginal media course at UNBC, but that is far from being built.'
Pahl hosts a second show as well, that one called Lasso Leonard's Country Blues focused on pre-1950s country music.
Indigenous Airwaves can be heard Sundays at 1 p.m. and rebroadcast on Wednesdays at noon. CFUR Radio can be found at 88.7 FM on the radio dial.
