Radio·Reclaimed

Take it All Back: Indigenous music for a time of reckoning and resistance

Take it all back! Land, culture, language, power — reclaiming and reckoning with everything that was stolen.
Pictured left to right: Bobby Sanchez, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Ascxnsion, Dakota Bear. (Collage by Reclaimed/CBC)

These are not ordinary times — we're living through a time of reckoning. Things that have been buried deep down for a long time are coming to the surface, and coming to light.

It's a week of colonial anniversaries in Canada and the United States. And whether you're just learning about the hidden histories that built these countries, or you've been living with those stories all your life — get ready for Indigenous songs to shine a light on truth and to give voice to resistance. And even when the legacies of violence, dispossession and displacement feel like they're everywhere you turn, when you turn inward, you can find a different kind of strength — one that comes from spirit.

It's time to tell the stories of what happened, what's still happening and where we might be headed as we face the future together.

As legendary Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie says, "The genocide basic to this country's birth is ongoing, and we need to face it together."

Join Reclaimed host Jarrett Martineau as he shares songs that cut through colonial noise like a blade, and take back the power of language and culture. Get ready for tracks of resistance from Xiuhtezcatl, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Status/Non Status, Samian, and many more. Including world premieres from the godfather of pow wow step DJ Shub, hip-hop artists Drezus, Ascxnsion, and Dakota Bear, and Muscogee poet and musician Joy Harjo, the U.S. poet laureate.

It's all about celebrating Indigenous artists reckoning with history and calling on ancestral power to guide the way forward. Reclaiming everything that was stolen!


Broadcast schedule:

CBC Music: June 30, 2021 at 6 p.m. and July 3, 2021 at 5 p.m. 

CBC Radio One and Sirius XM 169: July 4, 2021 at 8 p.m.