I listen to a lot of podcasts and some of those are pure leisure while others inspire critical thinking. Last year I came across The Henceforward, a podcast that “considers the relationships between Indigenous peoples and Black peoples on Turtle Island.” The podcast aims to “reconsider the past and reimagine the future, in the henceforward.” It also addresses inter- sectional relationships and “how these relationships can go beyond what has been constructed through settler colonialism and antiblackness”. The podcast is part of the Indian & Cowboy podcast network, which is a network dedicated to Indigenous podcasting and storytelling.
So far The Henceforward has created seven episodes all with different guest contributors and tackling a range of topics including reconciliation, land, DNA/identity, and decolonization. The podcast is produced by Eve Tuck (Unangax) a writer and scholar in Toronto and the University of Toronto. Contributors have included Stephanie Latty, Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing (Naawakwe giizhigookwe), Hunter Knight, Faith Juma, Lynn Ly, Christy Guthrie, Karima Kinlock, Deanna Del Vecchio, Sefanit Habtom and others. The podcast has also been mentored by Chelsea Vowel (âpihtawikosisân). It evolved out of a Ontario Institute for Studies in Education course titled Decolonization, Settler Colonialism and Antiblackness offered by Eve Tuck. The recording of the first season coincided with the #BlackLivesMatterTO public protest.
So far I’ve loved this podcast for the range of topics it has addressed but also for the multiplicity of voices. Each episode has had a slightly different format but all have emphasized conversations and dialogue while centering Indigenous and Black voices. The podcast addresses fundamental questions such as what does reconciliation look like. But it also dives into scholarly debates of both historical and contemporary relationships on Turtle Island. I could easily see a number of episodes from the first season being used as teaching tools or resources for post-secondary classes when discussing Indigenous communities, blackness, and settler colonialism. As a note for any new listeners: the sound quality of the episodes gets substantially better as the podcast season progresses and the content is well worth listening past the few segments with poor audio quality.