Unreserved time travels through Indigenous history with This Place

This weekon Unreserved, we continue time travelling through Indigenous history with This Place, revisited.

Through re-enactments and author interviews, this 10-part series shares stories of Indigenous heroes, battles, triumphs and traditions.

These stories of resistance and resilience are based on the acclaimed graphic anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold published by Portage and Main Limited.

This week we visit Wabaseemoong, northwest of Kenora, Ont. The story of Nimkii was written by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and adapted for radio by Rosanna Deerchild. This powerful story traces the child welfare system and its devastating effects on Indigineous Nations.

In the wake of one First Nation's resistance against generations of stolen children, Nimkii shares her foster care past with her daughter and the promise she made to a little boy.

LISTEN |This Place episode:Nimkii

27:41Nimkii

It's 1990 on the Wabaseemoong Reserve, and a group has just blocked the Children's Aid Society from entering their community and taking any more of their children. After the confrontation, Sixties Scoop survivor Nimkii shares with her daughter the story of her life, and the promise she made to a little boy.

Then we zoom 330 years into the future for kitasknaw 2350, written by Chelsea Vowel and adapted for radio by Eva Grant. Three centuries have passed since the Great Truth Telling and 6.5 million people left for Mars, cutting off all contact. Now they are returning to Earth.

In a future shaped by Indigenous people, 15-year-old Wpanachkos must time-travel to the colonial past to understand how to walk with The Returners into their shared future.

LISTEN |This Place episode:kitasknaw 2350

27:26kitasknaw 2350

The year is 2350 and the future is Indigenous. 15-year-old Wpanachkos, a knowledge-keeper in training, is sent back in time by the Council of Elders to the 21st century. Her journey will shape Indigenous-settler relations on kitasknaw our Earth for generations to come.

We hope you join us as we journey through our shared history.