Anishinaabe Radio News, a program co-produced by Northern Michigan University's Center for Native American Studies and Public Radio 90, will soon mark its 200th episode. Since the first broadcast in 2016, host April Lindala has explored Native American history and culture and shared updates on Indigenous events planned across the Great Lakes region.
“I hope it's viewed as something that enriches the station's offerings and underscores the relationship to Indian Country on a broader scale, but also something that the Center for Native American Studies can produce that's informative,” Lindala said. “I really try to switch up the topics so you never know what to expect. I might talk about hockey players in Canada one week and language revitalization in Choctaw territory the next. The conversation could range from entertainment and culture to sports and politics. I really try to keep it broad, in a sense, beyond the local communities and local news, to ensure the material wouldn't necessarily be heard on Public Radio 90 otherwise.”
Lindala collaborated with WNMU-FM News Director Nicole Walton to introduce the program as a broadcast companion to the former Anishinaabe News print publication when NMU became the first and only university in Michigan to offer a bachelor's degree in Native American studies.
“We were running out of steam and personnel trying to keep the print version going—that format was more labor-intensive and required people to go search for it or get on a mailing list—but we wanted to preserve the legacy of Anishinaabe News in some continuous form,” Lindala added. “Radio provided another avenue for getting the word out. It's exciting to reach the 200th milestone for the broadcasts. It's been a labor of love and patience because we took time off during the pandemic and we haven't been able to faithfully record new material every single week for other reasons.”
Walton assists Lindala in recording the vignettes in the WNMU-FM studio. They are typically three minutes in length and air on Fridays at 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
"Anishinaabe Radio News enhances Public Radio 90's format in more than one way,” Walton said. “First, it supports the station's mission to bring listeners local programming that expands their understanding of their part of the world, whether it be through art, music or any other medium. Second, it honors Indigenous peoples, their culture and the means by which Native Americans and First Nations populations express themselves and embrace their identities as vibrant communities in a shifting world view. Public Radio 90 is proud to collaborate with the Center for Native American Studies on Anishinaabe Radio News, especially as NMU is located on the ancestral homelands of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy."
With Walton's help, Lindala recorded three vignettes this week in advance of a planned vacation. They included a profile of Jonathan Thunder, an artist and visual storyteller from the Red Lake Nation; news of 120 Indigenous youth kayakers who made history as the first to descend more than 310 miles down the newly free-flowing Klamath River in southern Oregon; and the milestone 200th episode about the Native-led Studio of the Americas signing on to produce a film on the history of Native golf, which started with Shinnecock Oscar Smith Bunn's play in U.S. Open tournaments in the late 1800s.