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CKMS Community Connections, Shows

CKMS Community Connections for 23 May 2025 with Amy Smoke and Bangishimo of O:se Kenhionhata:tie

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Show Notes

A woman with dark hair smiles into the camera
Amy Smoke
A man with a Mohawk haircut and wearing glasses smiles into the camera
Bangishimo

Amy Smoke and Bangishimo of the Willow River Centre join Bob Jonkman on a web conference to give a lesson on the Mohawk language, explain what is meant by “Land Back”, provide some breaking news for CKMS-FM listeners, and make a pitch for tenants in the Willow River Centre.

Bangishimo talks about their photography; Amy and Bangishimo give a run-down of upcoming events, and Amy talks about Indigenous and Gender intersectionality.

The interview starts at 3m12s.

The Willow River Centre was on CKMS News on 20 June 2024 in Kitchener’s Willow River Centre celebrates National Indigenous Month and calls for more substantial action.

Online:

Upcoming Events

  • National Indigenous Peoples Month & Pride Kickoff
    National Indigenous Peoples Month & Pride Kick Off Sunday June 1, 2025 10 AM-2PM Kitchener Market Food, craft vendors, live music and more! Rain or shine! (colourful photo of a man performing a Hoop Dance)
     

  • Indigenous Peoples Day Sunrise Ceremony
    Sunrise Ceremony June 21 @ 7am Join Us For Food Fire Speakers Drumming Opening at Willow River Centre Sacred Fire 7am-10am Multicultural Festival 12pm (a sun on an orange sky, with logos+wordmarks of the Willow River Centre and the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre
     

Podcast

Download: ckms-community-connections-2025-05-23-episode198-amy-smoke-and-bangishimo-of-ose-kenhionhatatie.mp3 (46MB, 50m10s, episode 198)

Index

Time Title Album Artist
0m00s Theme for CKMS Community Connections ccc CKMS Sunflower logo (yellow petals surrounding a black centre with white wavies all on a teal background)
CKMS Community Connections 		Steve Todd
0m51s Comfort Man SEX FACES Bad Vibes OST Ultraviolence Anti-Satanic Drugs Just Like Johnny + Morrissey Can't Do That! Feed Machine "Babies" Special/Lame (Pic As You See Fit) S.CU.M O My Dima Comfort Man James Osterberg (illustration of an red elephant holding a severed phallus, an XXX flag, and a music note)
Bad Vibes OST 		SEXFACES
3m12s Bob gets a language lesson in Mohawk from Amy. Amy tells us about losing and learning their language from Conversational Mohawk courses at the University of Waterloo. They tell us about Ohèn:ton Karihwatéhkwen, the Mohawk thanksgiving address. Bob tells Amy about the need for a Mohawk language radio show on Radio Waterloo.
9m02s What is “Land Back”? Bangishimo explains: It is literally giving land back to Indigenous people, to reclaim, empower themselves, decolonize, whatever that may look like, in their spaces, on their territories. Amy gives several examples. It’s the five-year anniversary of Land Back in Willow River Park. Bangishimo tells us of the many ways that show the need for land back. Amy tells us of solidarity with other allies: the Black community, the Muslim community. After the Black Lives Matter march in June of 2020 Amy and Bangishimo set up a teepee in Willow River Park. When all the Indigiqueer, Trans, Non-binary, and Gender-nonconforming youth showed up it morphed into what it is today. Amy and Bangishimo knew enough about treaties that they knew they couldn’t be forcibly removed from their lands, and they could erect any kind of structure like teepees. They were exercising their treaty rights to occupy their own lands. They pushed the Cities of Kitchener and Waterloo to recognize their rights to the land. There have been little tiny steps of progress towards reconciliation, such as free access to City facilities. They sat with City of Waterloo staff to create jobs like the Senior Indigenous Initiatives role.
21m00s Breaking News: The City of Kitchener will be building a permanent gathering space in Willow River Park! A nice change from the pushback that they’ve received for land back of the transit centre, for example.
21m35s The Willow River Centre is looking for tenants! There are three floors, a gorgeous space with track lighting on the walls. There are offices upstairs, a courtyard, a shared kitchen… They’re looking for grass-roots groups that share their values.
23m43s The Willow River Centre does bi-monthly arts markets for the racialized and queer communities, getting traffic from the Kitchener market across the street. Also bi-monthly talent nights, with ticket sales going back to the artists. There’s an art gallery with rotating exhibits. Right now they’re showing art by Lolo whose work has been up for the last three months. Bangishimo knows what it’s like not to have access to space, so they make the Willow River Centre accessible to groups that have no gathering space. Check out the layout of the space, and e-mail O:se Kenhionhata:tie if you want to rent!
27m04s Shadow Inside ee:man & retrograth digital dialogue (light blue icons depicting people, wind, snow, and a test tube)
Digital Dialogue 		Retrograþ and ee:man
31m45s Talking about Bangishimo’s photography. Their work has been displayed in public areas, where it’s been vandalized. Bangishimo says: “When you use your work to amplify the voices of racialized people, queer people, a lot of people don’t like that.” It got to the point that Waterloo mayor Dave Jaworsky went on TV to condemn the violence. In one case, at an outdoor exhibition, the only picture that wasn’t vandalized was a picture of a white family. And there was vandalism to the Willow River Centre, spray-painted grafitti targeting Bangishimo and Amy personally.
36m27s Events planning! June is their busiest month, since it’s both Indigenous Peoples Month and Pride Month. They’re kicking off the month with a celebration at the Kitchener Market at 10:00am on Sunday 1 June 2025. They have a partnership with the Kitchener Market, so much of the logisitics have been taken care of. And they’re partnering with CAFKA, hosting an outdoor exhibit on the side of the Willow River Centre by Brandon Hoax a Queer, Oneida artist living on the East coast. And for the first time, the Willow River Centre is partnering with Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Festival, opening up the event with a Sunrise Ceremony at 7:00am on 21 June 2025, followed by a fire on the island in Willow River Park starting at Noon and going the rest of the day. And they’ll be at other events: On 4 June 2025 they’ll help open the Waterloo Celebrates Pride event on Willis Way; they’ll be at Spectrum’s Gala in mid-June. They’re trying to be everywhere!
41m30s Amy talks about the intersection of Indigeneity and Gender. Gender is a social construct, and Indigeneity is a core aspect of being, like eye colour or shoe size.
43m47s Long term plans for Willow River Centre: Continuing work on projects, demanding seats at many tables. Keeping pressure on Waterloo Region for land back, especially at the Kitchener downtown transit terminal; making changes at Willow River Park, both the name and the statue. The name has become more visible on the radio, in magazines, in stores, but it needs still more advocacy.
47m02s Amy gives the contact info for Willow River Centre: Social media, e-mail, donation sites. Bangishimo tells us we need to do more, more than just a land acknowledgement.
49m02s Bob thanks Amy Smoke and Bangishimo, and gives the end credits.

CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.

Got music, spoken word, or other interesting stuff? Let us know at ccc@radiowaterloo.ca or leave a comment on our “About” page.

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Bonus Video

Video: CKMS Community Connections for Friday 23 May 2025

Show notes and podcast interview content is Copyright © 2025 by the participants, and released under a CC BYCreative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders. The theme music is written and performed by Steven Todd.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News -2025-01-15- Exploring Indigenous futurisms at WPL’s Indigenous reading circle

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CKMS News -2025-01-15- Exploring Indigenous futurisms at WPL’s first Indigenous reading circle.

dan kellar
Waterloo – A new Indigenous reading circle at the Waterloo public library will explore a variety of short stories, essays, and poetry by Indigenous writers.  Amy Smoke, a co-facilitator of the reading circle, told CKMS News “people think we are stuck in the past and only write about ceremony or history”, however, she noted “we write sci-fi, we write all kinds of things”.  Smoke added “we are so much more than our trauma”.

The first book to be discussed is Love After the End, an  anthology of queer Indigenous speculative fiction edited by Joshua Whitehead.

The casual reading circle at the WPL’s main branch is a collaboration with the Willow River Centre.

This show features an interview with self-described “book fanatic” Amy Smoke, an IndigiQueer, two-spirit parent, teacher, and community organizer, and a co-director of the Willow River centre. 

Two dates are booked, January 16th and February 13th from 7-8pm, register at wpl.ca.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

Kitchener’s Willow River Centre celebrates National Indigenous Month and calls for more substantial action

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The Willow River Centre in Kitchener is advocating for more meaningful support for Indigenous people and culture instead of what they characterize as routine performative gestures from municipalities and organizations.

The Center, which serves Indigenous, racialized, Two Spirit, and LGBTQ youth, is hosting Summer Solstice Saturday on June 22nd to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Month. The Willow River Centre co-directors Amy Smoke and Bangishimo said that their past efforts on the day have often resulted in overwork and stress.

“It’s been so many years now since the TRC calls to actions came out and still to this day for a lot of organizations and spaces, we’re still considering an afterthought where, where we get emails like the week of before June and these organizations and corporations are looking for somebody to sing and dance for them,” Bangishimo told CKMS News.

The Summer Solstice Saturday will be held on Saturday, June 22nd at the Kitchener Farmer’s Market from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

Pro-Palestinian rally in Waterloo Region responds to events in Israel and Gaza

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By MP Holmes

Pro-Palestinian supporters gathered in the Waterloo Public Square on Tuesday, October 10 to express support for Palestine after Hamas’ surprise deadly assault in Israel last weekend. About 250 people turned up to the rally, which was hosted by the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Although Hamas has been in government in the Gaza Strip since 2006, they have been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union because of its armed resistance against Israel. Now, Israel has declared war on Hamas following last weekend’s planned attack which was the deadliest on the country in decades killing over 1000 and injuring close to 3000 across four locations. The Israeli response has been swift and hard. As of press time, it has been reported that the Israeli military has so far struck more than a thousand targets in Gaza, which is 365 km² in area. These retaliatory strikes have left 1100 people dead and over 5000 injured. Almost a quarter of a million people in Gaza have been displaced and the scale the humanitarian disaster is expected to get worse as Israel has cut off the flow of electricity, food, water, and fuel into Gaza.

In Waterloo Region, flags in the region are at half mast. For several nights this week, Zehr Square at Kitchener City Hall was lit blue and white in memory of the victims. The mayors and regional chair have all expressed shock at the attack, solidarity with Israel, and sympathy for all involved. The Beth Jacob Synagogue in Kitchener held a solidarity gathering on Tuesday evening, which was attended by Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

The synagogues weren’t available to talk to CKMS news before press time but Temple Shalom in Waterloo did issue a statement that expressed concern for those trapped in the conflict and that Israel has a right to defend itself.

Back at the rally in Uptown, protestors flew Palestinian flags, while others carried signs that read “End the Nakba” and “free Palestine” For a brief time, there were hecklers yelling over the speakers but with a strong police presence of at least 24 Waterloo Region police officers, the heckling did not last long.  Shatha Mahmoud with the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the organizers of the rally, talked to CKMS about what is happening in Gaza, the decolonial nature of these attacks, and their reaction to Justin Trudeau’s condemnation of these pro-Palestinian rallies.

 

The Land Back Camp/Willow River Centre provided a strong show of support and allyship, providing volunteers for the rally and march. Amy Smoke of the Willow River Centre provided comment on the rally and their support.

Listen here:

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

Amy Smoke of O:se Kenhionhata:tie introduces the new Willow River Centre

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CKMS News – 2023-10-02 – Amy Smoke of O:se Kenhionhata:tie introduces the new Willow River Centre

On June 20th, 2020, O:se Kenhionhata:tie, also known as Land Back Camp, was originally launched by Amy Smoke, Bangishimo, and Terre Chartrand in what was known as Victoria Park in Kitchener. The camp quickly became a hub of activity and it was quickly observed that “most of the young people at the camp were also Two Spirit, queer, trans, and/or non-binary. Land Back Camp had become an Indigenous queer and trans space for young people to reconnect and learn about their Indigeneity”.

Fast forward through an intentionally short-lived land reclamation in Waterloo Park in the fall of 2020, a collaboration with the Grand River Conservation authority in 2021 to have the camp set up in the Laurel Creek Conservation area, the work with the tent encampments through 2022 and 2023, ongoing work with the local governments around supporting Indigenous spaces, and now with the opening of a new centre for “Indigenous, Black, and other racialised two-spirit and Indigiqueer youth”, Land Back Camp organisers have been busy. 

This show features an interview with Amy Smoke, who along with her friend Bangishimo, is set to coordinate the activities at the new Willow River Centre in downtown Kitchener once it opens on October 7th.

Amy spoke of the goals and of the importance of the centre, the youth she hopes the centre will serve, and a bit of the process in getting to this point. 

Smoke also discusses recent targeting of the centre, by an individual who used to participate in Land Back Camp, and the impact the action has had on Indigenous, Black, and other racialised communities, and two-spirited and queer communities.  The police became involved in the situation after the vandalism was reported, and after arranging to turn himself in, the perpetrator of the chalking was charged with:

  • Mischief to Religious Property under $5,000
  • Criminal Harassment
  • Possession of Property Obtained by Crime under $5,000.

The man was released on his own recognizance and will be in court October 26th at 9am

CKMS News has been in contact with the man, a self described “former ally” who had a falling out with others at Land Back Camp, including Amy Smoke and Bangishimo. The man defended his actions as acts to bring accountability to what he says were misappropriated funds stemming from several fundraising campaigns that Land Back Camp has received. One message he chalked read “Ose:Kenhionhata:tie didn’t take Land Back! They took money from white guilt”. In his communications on social media, and with CKMS News the man also described interpersonal conflicts and behaviors he did not condone or felt were inconsistent as additional motivations for his acts. However, with many of the details being unclear or speculative in nature and with the personal attacks on Land Back Camp participants, CKMS News did not find it appropriate or in the public interest to publish the full communication.

Smoke, clearly frustrated and angry about the situation, said of the man “They need an intervention, they need some help. They’re no okay”

The interview moves back to positive things around the centre with Smoke inviting folks to the opening ceremonies at the Willow River Centre on October 7th from 9am-2pm “but probably later”. The address is 243 King St E, near the Kitchener Farmers Market.

Smoke concludes by encouraging folks to check out the many events happening around the National for Truth and Reconciliation.