Savage Society launches new podcast series featuring Indigenous stories and experiences
Aiysiniiksin: Keeping the Tradition Alive is hosted by Darylina Powderface
Darylina Powderface.
DARYLINA POWDERFACE IS the host of Aiysiniiksin: Keeping the Tradition Alive, a new podcast launched by Savage Society. The series focuses on Indigenous stories, experiences, and ways of being, doing, knowing, and creating through the embodiment of oral storytelling.
Powderface is a locally based artistic creator, writer, actor, and storyteller who is a member of mînî thnî, Stoney Nakoda Nation, and Blackfoot from Siksika Nation, both on Treaty 7 territory.
Aiysiniiksin is a Blackfoot word that translates to “storytelling” in English.
“Why I chose Aiysiniiksin, storytelling, is because I grew up around stories told by my grandparents, but I didn’t listen as much as I should have,” Powderface says. “I think a lot of that has to do with the effects of colonialism, which I speak a lot about in the first episode.
“I think stories are very important to tell, especially Indigenous stories, because there are teachings within these stories, and they carry value,” she adds. “They’re important. And I think a lot of our stories haven’t been told in a good way, and this podcast series is a journey of my own learning and undoing and reclaiming—returning back to myself, returning back to my identity.”
Her late grandfather, Gerald Powderface, gifted her with her traditional name, tûmnârha tâgan wîya, a Stoney Nakoda phrase that translates as “Hummingbird Woman”.
An alumna of Vancouver institute of Media Arts, where she earned a diploma with honours in the acting for film and television program, Powderface is a recent graduate of the BFA theatre performance program at Simon Fraser University.
Episode 1 of Aiysiniiksin: Keeping the Tradition Alive, which is now available on Spotify, iTunes and Player FM, is called Introduction: Îethka Ways with Mîtûwîn. “Living the îethka way, an oral remembrance, shared in the îethka language by Stoney Nakoda Community member Wyo Powderface, and Auntie to host, Darylina Powderface. This episode explores the reconstruction of listening through an Indigenous ontological worldview of language, song, and storytelling - while simultaneously undoing a western, colonial perception of knowledge. Additional sources include Dylan Robinson, Leanne Simpson and Gerald Vizenor.”
Blackfoot digital artist + photographer @kallicreatives designed the podcast’s logo.
Founded in 2004, Savage Society creates works and stories by practising Indigenous theatre and film artists.
For more information, see Savage Society.
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