ʔasqanaki: to tell two versions of the same story (Ktunaxa)
The ʔasqanaki Podcast by Smokii Sumac honours connections between Indigenous storytellers through the Ktunaxa concept of ʔasqanaki: to tell two versions of the same story. The podcast features a rich line-up of Indigenous guests from multiple nations including “Uncle of Indigenous Literatures” Richard Van Camp (Tłı̨chǫ), Educator, Poet and Author, Tasha Spillet, (Cree/Trinadian), Poet and Photographer Tenille Campbell (Dene/Métis), Poet Janelle Kasperski (Nisga’a), Juno award winning musician G.R. Gritt (Anishinaabe/Métis), award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, filmmaker Christa Couture (Cree/Scandinavian) and musician Meisha Louie (Secwépemc).
The first season of The ʔasqanaki Podcast explores themes of adoption, gender and sexual diversity, residential schools, reconciliation, and so much more! Tune in to hear Smokii and his guests share stories of how their work came to be, what inspires them to create, and which pieces of their work resonated so deeply with Smokii's experiences that he decided to create a whole show about it! Honouring Indigenous oral traditions through a modern podcast format, the podcast is a heartfelt journey of Smokii Sumac's self-discovery as an Indigenous adoptee, two-spirit, transgender person, and poet.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
ʔasqanaki: to tell two versions of the same story (Ktunaxa)
The ʔasqanaki Podcast by Smokii Sumac honours connections between Indigenous storytellers through the Ktunaxa concept of ʔasqanaki: to tell two versions of the same story. The podcast features a rich line-up of Indigenous guests from multiple nations including “Uncle of Indigenous Literatures” Richard Van Camp (Tłı̨chǫ), Educator, Poet and Author, Tasha Spillet, (Cree/Trinadian), Poet and Photographer Tenille Campbell (Dene/Métis), Poet Janelle Kasperski (Nisga’a), Juno award winning musician G.R. Gritt (Anishinaabe/Métis), award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, filmmaker Christa Couture (Cree/Scandinavian) and musician Meisha Louie (Secwépemc).
The first season of The ʔasqanaki Podcast explores themes of adoption, gender and sexual diversity, residential schools, reconciliation, and so much more! Tune in to hear Smokii and his guests share stories of how their work came to be, what inspires them to create, and which pieces of their work resonated so deeply with Smokii's experiences that he decided to create a whole show about it! Honouring Indigenous oral traditions through a modern podcast format, the podcast is a heartfelt journey of Smokii Sumac's self-discovery as an Indigenous adoptee, two-spirit, transgender person, and poet.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In our final episode Smokii is joined by Cree/Scandinavian performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, filmmaker Christa Couture. Smokii and Christa share their grief stories and Christa reads from her book How to Lose Everything Christa’s song "Hopeless Situation" is also featured on the episode.
The ʔasqanaki Podcast by Smokii Sumac honours connections between Indigenous storytellers through the Ktunaxa concept of ʔasqanaki: to tell two versions of the same story.
Tune in to hear Smokii and his guests share stories of how their work came to be, what inspires them to create, and which pieces of their work resonated so deeply with Smokii's experiences that he decided to create a whole show about it!
Christa Couture
Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, filmmaker and broadcaster. She is also proudly Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandinavian), queer, disabled, and a mom.
Over the course of her acclaimed career, Christa has become known, unenviably, as an expert in loss: singing, speaking and writing about the childhood cancer that led to the amputation of her left leg, abortion, and the tragic deaths of her two infant sons. When it came time to make her fourth album, 2016’s eclectic, upbeat and twangy Long Time Leaving, a more run-of-the-mill loss, divorce, provided inspiration.
Those years of loss are revisited in her debut non-fiction book How To Lose Everything, published September 2020 by Douglas & McIntyre. But Christa’s most recent recording Safe Harbour tells a different story. Safe Harbour’s six songs were written during a thankfully tragedy-free, joyful time in Christa’s life that saw her leave Vancouver, her home of 17 years, and relocate to Toronto to start anew. During this time, Christa took a step back from recording and performing music to write her memoir, take on a daytime radio host job, and welcome a third child.
Content: Grief, Loss, Death of close relations including children, Amputation, Cancer, Birth, Adoption, and Adoption trauma, Disability and combating ableism, Anger, Therapy, Gratitude, Struggling with hating parts of ourselves, “Holding the Complexity,” Divorce, Memoir, Grief symptoms (and a critique of the “5 stages”), allowing space for all kinds of feelings, challenging binary thinking, sorrow, numbness, Survivorship, Luck, Sadness, public versus private experiences, moving, patience, the pandemic, growing around our grief, and becoming “okay.”
Thank you to our guest, Christa Couture and to Michael Ayotte at the National Music Centre in Calgary, for recording the episode.
Thank you, also, to our team, Sound Designer, Audio Engineer and Editor Greyson Gritt of Minotan Music Inc. and Producer Krystal Strong of Osum Artist Management.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.