We interrupt our regular programming to bring you another episode of Changing On The Fly, Aaron’s other podcast, that we think you’re gonna love. Check it!
How did Gritty, the new mascot for the Philadelphia Flyers, become the new mascot for the American anti-fascist movement? Gritty is a huge, ugly, scary orange monster, who comes to us at a time when there is an equally huge, ugly, scary orange monster in the White House.
We’re joined on this episode by Mark Bray, history professor & the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” to talk about Gritty, hockey, and what the antifa movement actually is. Since we’re talking about Pennsylvania and fascism, we also reflect on the recent tragic synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, and pay our respects to the victims. May their memories be for a blessing.
Hey Rebel Beat listeners! We interrupt our regular programming to bring you something special – the very first episode of Changing On The Fly, Aaron’s new podcast on hockey and radical politics!
If you want to follow along with all future episodes, subscribe to Changing On The Fly now wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.)
On this episode, we lace up the skates and hit the ice to talk about colonialism in hockey, and the Indigenous hockey experience. What does it mean to call hockey “Canada’s game” while Canada is a country built on stolen Native land? We’re gonna take a deep dive into hockey’s role in Canada’s residential schools, the presence of Native mascots in sports, and the changing role of Indigenous hockey players in the NHL today.
To help us pick apart these huge questions, we hear from:
-Braden Te Hiwi. Te Hiwi is an Indigenous Maori academic, originally from New Zealand, who now teaches as an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON. He co-authored an incredible paper on the history of hockey at the Pelican Lake Residential School in northern Ontario: www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.313…jh.ach.52.1.04
-Justin Louis is from the Samson Cree Nation of Mascwacis, Alberta, and the co-founder of Section 35, an Indigenous clothing company. Louis and Section 35 have put out a line of clothing called “Kill Mascots”, which takes aim at racist Native mascotry in sports (particularly the Chicago Blackhawks): www.sectionthirtyfive.com/
-Jason Brennan is the producer and director of Hit the Ice, a show on the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Nework (APTN) that follows the lives of young Indigenous hockey players. The show is now in its 6th season! www.hittheice.tv/
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