Don’t Call Me Resilient

Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory; it represents home, your ancestral connection and culture — but also the means to feed yourself and your country.One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of terra nullius – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it.In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty — something they needed to “make bloom.”But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.Our guests on this week’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings, including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master’s degree in history.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of the episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

Every year thousands of migrants come to work in Canada. From harvesting the food in our stores to caring for the elderly, these workers form a vital part of the economy. Yet despite being critical, they often face harsh conditions, isolation, abuse, injury and even death as a result of immigration policies designed to leave them powerless.Documentary filmmaker and OCAD University professor Min Sook Lee has been documenting the voices of migrant farm workers in Canada for two decades. What she has to say about the treatment of these workers during COVID-19 shatters any remaining myths about “Canada the Good.” How do we treat the workers who put food on our tables?For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we take a look at the ongoing struggle for land rights and some of the women on the front lines of that battle. These women are the land defenders fighting to protect land against invasive development. Both our guests have stood up to armed forces to protect land.Their work is about protecting the environment. But it is much more than that: it is fundamentally about survival and about the right to live openly on what is stolen land.Ellen Gabriel has been resisting land encroachment for 31 years. She was at the centre of the 1990 Kanehsatake resistance, (known as the Oka crisis), a 78-day standoff to protect ancestral Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) land in Québec.It was a moment in history that many say helped wake them up to Indigenous issues.Anne Spice is a professor of geography and history at Toronto Metroppolitan University. Anne, who is Tlingit from Kwanlin Dun First Nation, was recently on the front lines in the defence of Wet'suwet'en land. After she was arrested on Wet'suwet'en territory last year, a viral video showed the RCMP pointing a gun at the land defenders.Anne can be heard shouting, we are unarmed and we are peaceful.These are the moments that capture our collective attention. But Ellen and Anne’s work goes well beyond what the cameras show.For more resources and information about this, go here: SHOW NOTESA full transcript of this episode can be found here: TRANSCRIPT

This week on the podcast, meet some of our amazing producers who work to put out Don't Call Me Resilient. We chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs. We also revisit some of our favourite episodes from the past.And then every two weeks this summer (starting next week), we’ll be sharing some of their picks as full episodes in our "Flashback" Don’t Call Me Resilient feed.To make this summer “Flashback” series, we listened back on our catalogue. In doing so, we realized each one of these conversations has a shelf life beyond its release date. The stories are timeless and explore complex issues in accessible ways, regardless of the news that may have prompted them.There’s a lot to revisit: We’ve produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons! And each one of them covers an urgent topic with insightful guests. By looking at issues through an intersectional lens, our guests help to unpack some of the major issues of our time: the uneven impacts of the climate crisis, the search for missing Indigenous children at Residential School sites, Black health matters, Gaza and policing.Our listeners are active and engagedOur recent listener survey confirmed that our listeners are engaged. You listen and take action, whether it’s sharing an episode or reaching out to a local politician, or in the case of university and public school educators, adding our episodes to your curriculum.Whether you’re a dedicated listener, a dabbler or a newbie, we’re glad to have you as a part of the Don’t Call Me Resilient community.Stay in touch and pitch us your podcast ideasPlease stay in touch: send us questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes at [email protected] — or on Instagram @DontCallMeResilientPodcast.We are thinking ahead to Season 8! If you are a scholar, and are considering sharing your research through podcasting, we’d love to hear from you. To find out more, read the criteria and fill out this pitch form (select Podcast from the drop down menu).

Can you believe we’ve now produced 65 episodes over 7 seasons?Every two weeks over the summer, we will be re-running some of our favourite episodes from past seasons on our podcast feed. Join us next week for a special bonus episode. You’ll get to meet some of our amazing producers who work hard behind the scenes to produce this podcast. We’ll chat about what motivates us to cover race and current affairs every week. We’ll be revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the past.There's a lot to revisit … so many great topics and guests and conversations.It all starts next week - and then every two weeks after, we’ll be bringing you the best of Don’t Call Me Resilient all summer long.

In this episode of 'Don't Call Me Resilient', Nisrin Elamin, Assistant Professor of Anthropolgy and African Studies at the University of Toronto, paints a grim picture of life in Sudan today. She says the current war, which exploded on April 15, 2023,  is devastating both rural and urban communities. Elamin also identifies small pockets of hope. In the absence of a properly functioning government and looming famine, grassroots groups are stepping in to help people survive.Since last April, Sudanese people in both rural and urban areas have been caught in the middle of a violent conflict between two warring military regimes - the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).Human rights groups say the RSF and allied militias are responsible for large-scale massacres targeting specific ethnic groups in the capital Khartoum and the region of Darfur.As a result of the war, more than 10 million people have been displaced from their homes, making Sudan home to the largest displacement of people in the world. A new report by a Dutch think tank says that if no changes occur on the ground, 2.5 million Sudanese people could die of famine by September.Elamin explains how the current war is part of a long legacy of corrupt military rule and land dispossession that have plagued Sudan since its independence from British rule in 1956. She also urges Canadians to pay attention to Canada's possible role in Sudan's war. "This is big business," she says. In fact, she says Canadians are likely complicit in most wars occurring in 2024. "We are complicit...through our pension funds, our university endowments, some of our personal investments. This is big business. I think a lot of people aren't paying attention to what's happening in Sudan because they feel like it's so far removed and it has nothing to do with them. But that is a lie. It does, and it might be closer than you think it is. "Credits Associate producer, Ateqah Khaki and freelance associate producer, Latifa Abdin are co-producers of this episode. Other team members include: Jennifer Moroz (consulting producer) and Krish Dineshkumar (sound designer).

We’re bringing you an extra episode this week. This episode comes from The Conversation Weekly,  our sister podcast from The Conversation UK. The episode, which we're running in full, centres around medically assisted dying. In Canada, medical assistance in dying (Maid) became legal in 2016. And the government intends to extend eligibility to people whose sole reason for ending their life is mental illness. But that planned expansion, now twice delayed, is deeply controversial. In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, Gemma Ware speaks with Karandeep Sonu Gaind a leading psychiatrist from the University of Toronto about why he's a vocal opponent of the law’s expansion. Canada's expansion of its medically assisted dying law to people whose reason for wanting to end their life is mental illness. Gemma starts the episode with The Conversation Canada’s Health and Medical editor, Patricia Nicholson, who explains how assisted dying works in Canada. In this conversation, Professor Gaind explains the intersectional factors around this issue, including race, class and gender.If you’re interested in hearing more conversations like this one, subscribe to The Conversation Weekly wherever you get podcasts.  

Currently the largest electorate in history is heading to the polls in India, where - of course - politicians and political parties are trying their best to influence voters.  Film and popular culture have always provided a reflection of the country's political culture, but  in this election, they are being used more than ever to *sway* voters - especially by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing, Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP.  Vinita sits down with two scholars who look at the intersection of politics and popular culture to uncover how Bollywood is creating storylines that support Modi's BJP - and how big a role it might play in the outcome of the world's largest election. Political scientist Sikata Banerjee is Professor Emeritus of Women’s Studies at the University of Victoria She looks at Indian politics through the lens of cinema. And Rakesh Sengupta is Assistant Professor in Department of English and Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto. 

Collectively, the global student protests demanding university divestments from Israel are one of the largest mass protests in recent history. Student protesters are risking their futures as they demand their institutions financially divest from Israel and companies connected to supplying weapons and technology to Israel’s government.Last week, in Calgary, police descended on the University of Calgary campus with riot gear, using shields, batons and rubber bullets, to forcibly remove a group of protesters from an encampment set up on campus.On today's podcast, Vinita speaks with Pratim Sengupta, professor of learning sciences at the University of Calgary. Sengupta was there the night police engulfed the protesters and says the violence he saw shook him to his core. Also on the podcast is Sarita Srivastava, a university leader of a much smaller arts and design campus in downtown Toronto. Srivastava (sister to Vinita) is a sociologist by background and author of the recent book, "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" Together, they look back on what's been happening on campuses amid this mass protest but also plot out a new - gentler - way forward than the one we've been witnessing.

As we approach the start of gardening season, we figured it’s a good time to bring you one of our most talked-about episodes  about the complicated, colonial roots of gardening - which have affected what we plant and who gets to garden.How we garden is deeply tied to colonialism — from the spread of seeds and species around the world to the use of forced labour and slavery that went hand in hand  to the collection and commodification of plants. But there is a growing shift away from the  status symbol of the lawn and manicured gardens, in favour of pollinator-friendly native plants. And there is a growing understanding that centuries-old Indigenous knowledge and practices — like controlled burns — can help foster a more resilient landscape. With concerns about our climate crisis growing, one of the possible avenues for creating more sustainable cities may very well lie in our gardens. Could we have an impact simply by thinking a little differently about the seeds we sow and the "weeds" we pull?Vinita gets into it all with researcher Jacqueline L. Scott and community activist Carolynne Crawley, who leads nature workshops that integrate Indigenous teachings into practice.