Healing the Earth

On ecological identity and terrapsychology: An excerpt from Tangled Roots

Matt Soltys — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:37:38 +0000

Tangled Roots: Dialogues exploring ecological justice, healing, and decolonization is out this summer, published by Healing the Earth Press. Chosen from more than 100 interviews and hundreds of on-air hours with Healing the Earth Radio, Tangled Roots explores critical yet marginalized intersections of social and ecological issues, and offers solutions that speak to the depth, complexity, and urgency of the challenges facing us today.

Craig for rabble.mp3

Gender, refugees and the militarization of climate change: An excerpt from Tangled Roots

Matt Soltys — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:37:19 +0000

Tangled Roots: Dialogues exploring ecological justice, healing, and decolonization is due out this summer, published by Healing the Earth Press. Chosen from more than 100 interviews and hundreds of on-air hours with Healing the Earth Radio, Tangled Roots explores critical yet marginalized intersections of social and ecological issues, and offers solutions that speak to the depth, complexity, and urgency of the challenges facing us today.

Betsy for Rabble.mp3

Tangled Roots: Dialogues exploring ecological justice, healing and decolonization

Matt Soltys — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:48:29 +0000

Healing the Earth Radio was produced in Guelph, Ontario, on CFRU 93.3 fm, from 2005 to 2010. Healing the Earth also had a popular podcast on the Rabble Podcast Network. Since the end of the show, producer Matt Soltys has been working on a book that is a collection of Healing the Earth Radio's most powerful interviews.

Waziyatawin for rabble.mp3

The Hanlon Creek 5: Land defence and SLAPP Suits in Guelph, Ontario

Matt Soltys — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:13:06 +0000

After a community-led occupation shut down a contentious industrial park in Guelph, five people were named in a $5 million lawsuit by the City of Guelph and a private developer. This is the audio from their press conference from April 23, where they outline their reasons for their actions, how this lawsuit is affecting their lives, and why it should be dropped. The press conference was in front of city hall and attended by upwards of 40 people.

hea-2010-04-30.mp3

Defenders of the land: Indigenous survival and liberation in times of collapse

Matt Soltys — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 21:25:02 +0000

Waziytawin is a Dakota writer, scholar, and activist, who urges Indigenous people as well as non-Indigenous people to think seriously about the threats of collapse and the need for land defence.

She is from The Place Where They Dig for Yellow Medicine, also known as the Upper Sioux Reservation in southwestern Minnesota. She also holds the Indigenous Peoples' Research Chair in the Indigenous Governance program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. She is the author of numerous books on the Dakota nation and decolonization, and has been a strong community activist working on truth-telling initiatives in the Minnesota/St. Paul area. You can learn more about her at www.waziyatawin.net.

hea-2010-03-27.mp3

Interview with Dave Schultz, Manager of Communications with the Grand River Conservation Authority

Matt Soltys — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:54:01 +0000

Dave Schultz is the Manager of Communications for the GRCA, and this interview is about the culvert construction for the HCBP infrastructure, and the City of Guelph's bid to extend the deadline.

Since one of the goals of the July 27 occupation has succeeded - to make it impossible for the City of Guelph to do this infrastructure work by their deadline - the City now wants to have the rules changed. There has been confusion abound about when the actual deadline is, some sources have said September 15, others September 30. This interview clears up some of this, and addresses what is currently happening with regards to a possible extension.

dave schultz.mp3

The struggle to protect Guelph's Old Growth Forest and thwart Guelph's newest and largest industrial development

Matt Soltys — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:35:51 +0000

In the heart of Southwestern Ontario, Guelph's Old Growth forest is under threat of being surrounded by a 675-acre corporate industrial development. Community efforts to protect this land continue, and time is running out.

Recent efforts have been spearheaded by several groups, including LIMITS (Land Is More Important Than Sprawl), which began organizing in the community and raising awareness in late 2008. This interview with a member of LIMITS gives an overview of the issues at stake, including recent updates on impending construction, the status of Federally and Provincially-protected species on the site, and the connections between colonialism, public health, sustainable growth, biotechnology, and other related issues.

hea-2009-07-19.mp3

Root Force: Examining the Costs of Infrastructure and Industrial Culture

Matt Soltys — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:16:46 +0000

Ben and Toby from Root Force explore many different angles on industrial infrastructure - from major highways, shipping networks, mines, oil and gas industries, etc - and its connections with colonialism in the western hemisphere, labour issues and the state of the economy, its cumulative costs to the earth, and the need to strategically resist industrial projects.

The analysis of Root Force differ greatly from mainstream environmentalism, in that it offers a systemic look at the foundations the system, and sees the need for a complete overhaul, rather than various reforms.

hea-2009-05-21.mp3

Ramona Africa on the 24th Anniversary of the Police Bombing of MOVE Headquarters

Matt Soltys — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:58:26 +0000

On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia police bombed the home of MOVE members and murdered 11 people. Ramona Africa is the sole adult survivor, and has been organizing on behalf of the dead and imprisoned ever since.

In this interview with Ramona Africa, conducted on the 24th anniversary
of the May 13, 1985 police bombing of MOVE headquarters, Ramona shares life lessons about freedom, standing up for oneself and one's family, being true and honest with ourselves and our principles, and her concept of 'total revolution' - all learned through enduring violent repression, maximum prison terms, and decades of community
organizing.

hea-2009-05-17.mp3

Swimming With Dolphins: Freedom, Captivity, and Our Many Interconnections

Matt Soltys — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:40:06 +0000

Leah Lemieux is the author of the book Rekindling the Waters: The Truth About Swimming wtih Dolphins. Leah has lectured, written about and worked on dolphin protection, education and conservation issues for twenty years, collaborating with individuals and NGOs from a number of countries, including the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots Environmental and Humanitarian program. Most recently she has contributed an essay on Cetaceans and Eco-tourism for The Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships.

hea-2009-03-16.mp3

Air quality and pollution in Southwestern Ontario

Matt Soltys — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:20:38 +0000

Quentin Chiotti works with the environmental organization Pollution Probe, as both the Director and Climate Change Program & Senior Scientist. Pollution Probe, now in it's 40th year, focuses on researching and advocating for changes to do with climate change, energy, air, water, environmental health effects, and policy.

hea-2009-03-02.mp3

Developing Community Responses to Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence, part 2

Matt Soltys — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:06:37 +0000

Erin Crickett is the campaign coordinator with the Guelph-Wellington County Neighbours, Friends and Families campaign, which is organized through the Guelph-Wellington Action Committee on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. This is a 24-member agency that includes Women in Crisis, the Humane Society, school boards, mental health workers and more, working together to develop a protocol to respond to sexual assault and domestic violence. As the campaign coordinator, Erin leads workshops with all kinds of groups about warning signs of abuse and effective res

hea-2009-02-23.mp3

Developing Community Responses to Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence, part 1

Matt Soltys — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:27:04 +0000

hea-2009-02-17.mp3

Since the Last Ice Age: Original People In and Around Guelph, and the Proposed Hanlon Creek Business Park

Matt Soltys — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:11:12 +0000

Dana Poulton is an archaeologist based in London, Ontario. He was commissioned to do an archaeological assessment of the proposed Hanlon Creek Business Park, based on the south end of Guelph. It turns out that humans have been using this particular land for as long as 11,000 years ago, since the land shifted from a colder tundra to a fertile garden of eden, that lasted up until European immigrants clearcut the land to create an agricultural colony, now called Guelph.

Dana and his crew found things like spear tips, arrowheads, and other stone tools for preparing animal hides and cutting animal bones. Other things that would have been there, things made out of wood, sinew, and hide, have long since decayed.

hea-2009-02-02.mp3

Tyendinaga: The Struggle for Drinking Water and the Health of the Land Continues

Matt Soltys — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 21:57:53 +0000

I spoke with Dan Doreen, a Mohawk from the community of Tyendinaga, which is located in Southeastern Ontario near Belleville. Dan has been on Healing the Earth several times before; he is one of many people from Tyendinaga who are fighting a new police station that the band council and the provincial and federal governments are trying to bring in to their community.

hea-2008-12-27.mp3