24 Comments

Thanks so much for boosting this JB. Jason's story is so important, and so moving, it deserves a much bigger audience than my little pod can give it.

And thanks again to Jason for being willing to share something so deeply personal and painful for the greater good ❤

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you can definitely hear the generational hurt in Jason's voice. Its so hard to not be angry about it all. And the parallels across the world are heart breaking. I like your little pauses to put exposition around something being said, like with the one drop rule etc

Like Bill said, you both deserve congratulations on a good talk that i wish more people would hear and not just listen to (i'll send it around to a few people i know)

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Elana did a fine job. I was just along for the ride.

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and what an accent you have! Brilliant :)

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Laughs!

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haha you almost sound like a Wisconsinite Jason!

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Laughs- not enough nasal for that, brother!

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That was excellent, and an amazing story. White people have so much to answer for.

It was also the first time I'd heard either of your voices. I don't know but I thought they'd sound different. You have this image, etc, etc...my bad.

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Yeah, it's weird for me to hear my recorded voice, too. This was a new experience for me. Elana's voice sounds pretty amazing- one of these days when life slows down a bit I'd like her to do some audiobooks for me.

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Not at all, when I was doing the edit I was still surprised by how Jason's voice differed to my head canon from our chats online, and it wasn't the first time we'd spoken!

You can definitely hear when I put my "radio voice" on too 😂

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One day you'll make a great audiobook narrator. When the day comes that you're not killing rats and putting out fires.

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That's still on my list of things to do! Hopefully a job for the Christmas break, I've definitely not forgotten 🥰

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Bravo to you both. I’m not aware of all of the issues involved by the Voice vote but even a cursory look spells out the treatment they’ve received including forcible removal of children to” assimilate “. Sadly a refrain from indigenous people all over including here of course. Good luck on the vote. Small victories

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Yeah Bill, as I was unraveling the deliberately vague family story, I learned that Grams had been in some horrible Indian School and, given all the info that's come out about them, it gave me one hell of a lot of sympathy and understanding for her later choices. As Elana's podcast title says, "Who are we to judge our ancestors?" I don't, and I won't. They were hard people in hard times- and it's too easy for us in the age of Netflix and Burger King to sit around and run our mouths about how they should have acted.

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Totally agree . Judgements on history, familial or in a broader terms , without context is in fashion. It’s a ridiculous farce. One generation plants the tree and the next gets the shade but damn if this new bunch can’t stop bitching about how the trees were planted.

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Thanks for posting this, JB, and thanks for everything, really. This podcast discusses some very personal, painful stuff and I agreed to do it because I think Elana's work is important. If we can move the needle a micrometer, then it is worth it, cost be damned.

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I just listened to the pod. You can find it here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2ba0UKGtU3VSIsPCIKDD6M .

When I was his house-guest last year Jason told me his story. And indeed who are we to judge our ancestors? Great work from the both of you!

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Thank you so much Dirk!

It's available on all the leading podcast platforms 😊

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As a kiwi who grew up in a small town in the middle of the North Island, with many Maori and PI classmates and friends, I wouldn't say that that culture is second nature to me, but I have been immersed in it and respect it. Sure there have been times when Maori have had to fight for their rights and recognition, but having it is only a good thing. I really struggle with the attitude of what I hope is only a very vocal minority of Australians. What's your fucking problem? The Voice will make next to no difference to many of our lives. I like to equate it to marriage equality, and I've seen comparisons to the Apology, where none, absolutely none of the shite put forth by the rednecks and god botherers has come true, and so too with the Voice, if it succeeds. I'm hoping, but I'm not hopeful. It will be a sad, sad day for Australia on Sunday.

And re the ASB post, if that's the only bit of news getting through, Australia will be dogshite internationally, even more so than Morrison could ever have made it.

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Echo the thanx JB. And to Jason for his story and insights . I myself am an Oglala Lakota fromPine Ridge South Dakota. I also have Oneida blood Most definitely an Independent politically. I abhor parties and most politicians. My distrust of gov’t is damn near genetic. As Jason has stated it goes back over a couple hundred yrs. That being said I love our experimental republic . Many of the founders were influenced in their thinking by Native thinkers and ideas. At any rate thanx again J B hope you’re having a great time galavanting on your world pastry tour

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My family is voting yes this weekend. But i have that sinking feeling that i had over the last couple of decades of voting and not seeing any change because i'm not the majority. And it begs the question "why do i have a different view point. Am i looking at this wrong?" but i think we've done a lot of reading and discussion about what we are voting on, including the history of our First Nations people. We know maybe more First Nations people personally and through our jobs than the majority of people so maybe that is why. Its crazy we have to vote on it! We have good friends/neighbours who the husband (a normal, intelligent guy who is a good friend) is voting no even though his wife and children are First Nations and his next door neighbour (in between our blocks) is also First Nations and good friends... blows the mind.

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p.s. listening now to the podcast

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Thank you! Let us know what you think 😍

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Thanks JB, will have a listen to this a bit later. There are a trucktonne of resources here in Straya which would help people learn about forced assimilation and loss of language. My father and my grandmother were two of the last fluent speakers from their region but had to try to hide that for me for fear of reprisal and of having me removed from my father's care. Results from the referendum seem to indicate that Australians who voted yes had a good understanding of Australian history and of the forced assimilation policies of the colonial/White Australia era. Meaning 60% have little knowledge of this. There are so many resources to fill in those gaps. I would suggest reading books like * The White Girl, by Tony Birch * Growing up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss (50 short memoir peaces which provide a potted history of all that was left out of the national curriculum and 'Nowhere People' by historian Henry Reynolds. If all of these books were on the national curriculum for high school students, people would have had the education that was necessary to know when they were being lied to and fed a crock of goonya.

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