Conversations with Feminists: The Very First Set of Discussions

In episode 7, Lydia Ayame Hiraide speaks to Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson about Indigenous modes of resistance against settler domination across Turtle Island. Leanne and Lydia talk about transnational social movement organising, land, solidarity, and creative strategies for resurgence. 

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics,  story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity. Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and the United States and has over twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba and is member of Alderville First Nation.

Leanne is the author of eight books, including A Short History of the Blockade and the novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies which was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Dublin Literary Prize. This Accident of Being Lost was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award. Her new project, a collaboration with Robyn Maynard, Rehearsals for Living, is a National Best Seller and was short listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Leanne is also a musician. Her latest release Theory of Ice was named to the Polaris Prize short list, and she is the 2021 winner of the Prism Prize’s Willie Dunn Award.  

Lydia Ayame Hiraide is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice.

Interviewer: Lydia Ayame Hiraide
Interviewee: Dayna Ash
Produced by: The Feminist Centre for Racial Justice
Recording, editing: Lydia Ayame Hiraide
Additional editing, transcription, design: Ellan A. Lincoln-Hyde
Music: Broken RNB Instrumental by The Audio Way, freesound.org; ⁠⁠Inn Ann⁠⁠ by Daboor; ⁠⁠Snoopy⁠⁠ by Sandy Chamoun