Indigenous high school students in Thunder Bay launch CBC Listen series

Students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School celebrated the launch of their own audio series on CBC Listen Wednesday in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Waa Nish Kaan  - or Wake Up - is a continuing audio series about the Wake the Giant music festival and the experiences of students. 

The festival is part of the Wake the Giant movement, which is a cultural awareness project developed by Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School (DFC).  Its aim is to support students who come from remote First Nation communities, as they get to know Thunder Bay, and for the city to become a more welcoming and inclusive city. 

CBC Thunder Bay has been working in the classroom to help the students produce the series where they learned about storytelling, writing scripts and recording interviews.

For the students creating the audio series, Waa Nish Kaan means many things. 

Students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School launch their own audio series

2 years ago

Duration 2:02

Students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School celebrated the launch of their own audio series on CBC Listen. They have been working with CBC Thunder Bay to produce the series -- learning about storytelling, writing scripts and recording interviews. The series is called Waa Nish Kaan which means Wake Up. The students say it calls on people to wake up to the realities of what Indigenous students face when they come to Thunder Bay for high school.

"Working on the project lets us show our love for school, the Wake the Giant movement, our friends and families, as well as the Indigenous communities that we come from," the students said in a group statement. 

"The title of the series was translated in our traditional language of Oji-Cree and means 'to wake up,'" said DFC student and series contributor Derek Monias. "A memory from my childhood is my mom always saying "waa nish kaan," in an attempt to get me out of bed before school!"

"The series starts with stories about the Wake the Giant movement and will continue as a space for future stories about the student experience in Thunder Bay," he said.

Year after year, Monias, along with hundreds of Indigenous youth, leave behind their family, friends, and everything they are familiar with in exchange for a high school education in Thunder Bay. Many often live with strangers and have never experienced a big city before. 

You can listen to Waa Nish Kaan on CBC Listen by clicking here.