Heritage Voices

Heritage Voices, hosted by Jessica Yaquinto, explores the intersections of Indigenous heritage, archaeology, and cultural preservation. Each episode features conversations with Indigenous professionals, culture bearers, and allies working in heritage, language revitalization, tribal historic preservation, and collaborative archaeology. The show highlights Indigenous voices and perspectives in a field historically dominated by Western narratives. Whether you're a heritage professional, archaeologist, or simply passionate about inclusive storytelling, Heritage Voices offers meaningful insights into how Native communities are leading the way in preserving and interpreting their own histories.

Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Tamamta (all of us): Transforming Western and Indigenous Sciences together - HeVo 89

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Dr. Jessica Black (Gwich’in; Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Professor in the College of Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Dr. Courtney Carothers (Professor of Fisheries in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks). Dr. Black and Dr. Carothers discuss their work, alongside student colleagues and Alaska Native peoples, to highlight Indigenous fisheries knowledge, Indigenous fisheries science and governance practices, and the structural inequities that keep Indigenous peoples in Alaska from their deep traditional cultural practices, livelihoods, and relations. All of this deeply relational work lead to the birth of Tamamta (a Yup’ik and Sugpiaq word meaning 'all of us'), an organization focused on connecting Indigenous and Western sciences and supporting graduate students deeply connected with Indigenous communities in Alaska on research around fisheries.

Interested in the Accountable Allies group? Keep an eye on the Tamamta website or sign up for their mailing list for resources that this group has been developing.

Transcripts

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Sámi Land Protection - Ep 88

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Tuula Sharma Vassvik (Sámi activist, land protector, musician, podcast host, and freelance contractor in Heritage and Indigenous Methodologies) about their journey through archaeology to Indigenous methodologies and land protection in Sápmi. Tuula’s work focuses on solidarity across cultures and class, as well as community building and future building within Indigenous ways of life. We talk about their time at Standing Rock and how that shaped not only their Masters thesis, but their life trajectory. We also discuss their involvement in protests against wind turbines on reindeer herding areas, the destructive impact of farmed salmon on the coast and coastal Sámi people, as well as topics they have explored with their podcast guests, including Indigenizing queerness. Today’s takeaway: Don’t buy farmed salmon from Norway!

Links

Additional Good Sámi Artists

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Nuxawiš: unwilling to give up - HeVo 87

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Maura Sullivan (PhD student in Linguistics at Tulane University; Irish-American, Chumash and Mexican heritage, and an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation). Maura gives Jessica a crash course in many different language topics such as the difference between language work and linguistics, what is a minoritized language, and how you can revive a language in ways other than with fluent speakers (such as the Breath of Life program). She emphasizes the need for structural changes to support language work, but also some ways that we can all be better relatives and give back on an individual level. Maura also described varying creative methods to support language work, including how she incorporates her art, provides intra-community language materials, as well as making the Šmuwič language more visible where appropriate.

Transcripts

Links


Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Relational Engagement with Indigenous Communities through the Heritage Lands Collective - Ep 86

On today’s episode, Jessica goes more in depth with Joseph Gazing Wolf (Executive Director, Heritage Lands Collective [formerly Living Heritage Research Council]; Lakota, Nubian, and Amazigh) from Episode 84 on the Boulder Ethnographic-Education Project. On this episode, Joseph talks about how his childhood in Egypt and on the Standing Rock reservation inspired his interest in land, heritage, traditional ways of life, and working with elders. He talks more about his work with his buffalo relatives and how that led him to academia. He discusses how the settler-colonial context of academia is harmful to Indigenous scholars and how people in academic settings can engage with Indigenous communities in a relationally respectful manner. Finally, we conclude by talking about the work Heritage Lands Collective is doing and where Joseph would like to take it in the future, including Indigenous youth internships and youth-elder camps.

Transcripts

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More
Rachel Roden Rachel Roden

Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis - Ep 85

On today’s episode, Jessica chats with Eric Pinto (Assistant Director at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis; Descendant of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Pueblo of Zuni). The Buder Center is part of the Brown School of Social Work, Public Health, & Social Policy that offers the only social work program in the country with an American Indian/Alaska Native concentration. The two talk about Eric’s transition from personal training to getting a Master's in Social Work and how the social work program led him to cultural projects, archaeology, and land/cultural resource protection efforts through the Buder Center. We also discuss the Buder Center’s Indigenous community and Tribal Nation engagement efforts, including an ongoing trail marker tree initiative, as well as their student practicums, scholarships, and events. Additional topics that came up during our conversation include land acknowledgements, the Urban Relocation Program in the 1950s, enrollment, and blood quantum.

Transcripts

Links

Contact

ArchPodNet

Affiliates

Read More

Search the Heritage Voices Podcast here.

Heritage Voices RSS