The Kim Wheeler Effect on Indigenous Storytelling

Sarah Burke (00:02.304)
Okay, just gonna read my little intro here. I'm Sarah Burke and I am excited to welcome back award-winning Anishinaabe Mohawk storyteller to the Women in Media podcast. Her voice has helped shape the sound of Indigenous media in Canada. She's a journalist, she's a producer, she is a writer. Her work can be heard in so many shows I've almost lost count, but the one thing that is sort of consistent between all these shows is she's amplifying Indigenous voices and perspectives. You can hear her on SiriusXM.

radio stations across Turtle Island on your favorite podcast app. And the shows are Turtle Island Talks, Words and Culture, Auntie Up, and A Day to Listen. And let's not forget about the Kim Wheeler Show on SiriusXM. Welcome back, Kim Wheeler. How are you?

Kim Wheeler (00:46.454)
Hello, Sarah. I'm good. I'm good. You know, just as kind of running around like crazy before we got on this call and my daughter works in film and she's on the other side of the city and doesn't have a car. So I went and I picked her up and then she said, can we stop at the bookstore?

Sarah Burke (01:03.518)
And the name drop this daughter and the work that she's been doing, I feel like that's worthy of a little update.

Kim Wheeler (01:08.938)
yeah, well okay, so it's not Katarina Zervogel who is the actor who was in the Marvel TV series Echo, which I love saying, but it's the other daughter, Maggie Zervogel, is actually her latest work can be seen in the movie The Long Walk with Cooper Hoffman and I think his name is David Johnson and of course Mark Hamill and if you look behind me here

Sarah Burke (01:18.936)
So good.

Sarah Burke (01:28.6)
Very cool.

Kim Wheeler (01:38.648)
right here. This is my Star Wars album that I've had since I was eight years old. And last year when they were making the movie, Mark Hamill actually signed my album. So there was a few name drops there.

Sarah Burke (01:38.85)
Woo hoo hoo!

Sarah Burke (01:51.138)
No big deal. The office is actually, no, you're allowed, but I was gonna say the office has had a glow up since I've last seen you in this environment. We were laughing. Kim came on this podcast in, we just looked it up, July, 2022. It feels like it's been ages since we last connected and we try to stay in touch. We voice note here and there. We send our little messages. Maybe it's me voice noting and you being like, God, another Sarah Burke voice note. I don't know.

We try to stay in touch and you're working on so many cool things and I wanted to have you back on the podcast because for next week, you know, I was like, I just want to drop an episode of someone else's podcast in this feed that I think everyone should know about. And because you have so many to choose from, you're a good candidate here. And we will get into a special episode that we're going to just drop in the feed. to introduce you, give people a little context of who you are if they didn't hear the previous interview.

Kim Wheeler (02:20.931)
No, no, no, I love it.

Sarah Burke (02:50.254)
You and I cross paths at SiriusXM. And I feel like when I watch through the social lens, I'm like watching part of my past life because of like the work you now do and where sort of things left off. So tell us what you've been up to since 2022. You still are leading things at the Indigiverse at SiriusXM.

Kim Wheeler (03:09.134)
Yeah, I'm still doing the Kim Wheeler show. of course, Sarah, I have to give you such a huge shout out because you and Siobhan Woodrow really pushed me to do that show. I'm usually not on this side of the microphone, although since then I've been on this side of the mic a lot. yeah, and I really appreciate that because it was something that I wasn't really comfortable doing. And I even loath to think back.

Sarah Burke (03:28.372)
Yeah, yes she has.

Kim Wheeler (03:37.69)
about what that first show sounded like. I've never listened to it. I've never gone back to it. I'm just like, my God, it must've been so horrible. But yeah, well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, so.

Sarah Burke (03:40.494)
Ha

Sarah Burke (03:44.334)
That's okay. It wasn't.

Sarah Burke (03:50.442)
I will never forget that. I'm sorry. have to quick interject. I just remember Siobhan and I being like, let's fucking name it the Kim Wheeler show. And you were like, you almost ran out of your house. You were like, I can't do this. She was like not in the mood to be like front and center like that. And I just laugh now and say, look at you now. So amazing.

Kim Wheeler (03:53.689)
Yeah, yeah.

Kim Wheeler (04:10.51)
Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I still feel weird saying, yeah, my show on SiriusXM, and people are like, what's it called? I'm like, the Kim Whaler show. My voice gets kind of high.

Sarah Burke (04:20.28)
Fuck yeah. Fuck yeah. Okay, what else you've been working on? like when I left, I know we had just kind of started with the Turtle Island talks, which was like a quarterly show at the time. What's happening there?

Kim Wheeler (04:30.318)
Yeah, yeah, it's still quarterly because there's only two people who work on the Indigenous. It's me and the other producer, Kailin Belair. So M-Pam Palmeater is still our host. And our next episode is going to air near the end of October. Usually we do it on the solstice and the equinox, but September is so busy with all the other Indigenous content that's happening.

Sarah Burke (04:36.365)
Kaelin.

Yeah. Amazing.

Sarah Burke (04:53.101)
Yeah.

Kim Wheeler (04:57.944)
We decided to push it to October because we're going to focus on ghost stories. Yeah.

Sarah Burke (05:02.828)
my God, fun. I love that. Do you find like you've had the freedom to, you know, go beyond these like dates in the calendar and like plan really cool stuff all year round?

Kim Wheeler (05:13.848)
Yeah, like I think we can do, you know, we can really do whatever we want. Sirius doesn't put like a little leash on us and say, you have to do this, you have to do that. yeah, we just decided, let's just push it to October and do this instead, because it's fun and we have some really crazy ghost stories that I'm currently collecting.

Sarah Burke (05:22.187)
Yeah, good.

Sarah Burke (05:26.508)
Yeah

Sarah Burke (05:35.404)
Ooh, okay. And you'll send a link when that's ready so that we can tell people to listen.

Kim Wheeler (05:39.032)
Yeah, yeah, I have the best ghost story, but I'm going to save it and you guys have to just tune into Turtle Island Talks.

Sarah Burke (05:42.902)
Damn it. That is a radio tease right there.

Kim Wheeler (05:47.096)
Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, so then the other stuff from Doom Link, you mentioned the podcasts and the shows, but I've also made a leap into rating live event television. yeah, the Junos and I won a Canadian Screen Award in May for my rating or not my rating on that, producing. So it won like, like best live entertainment special. So I get a producer credit. So

Sarah Burke (05:57.359)
I did notice that, like Junos and...

Kim Wheeler (06:15.79)
That means my name goes on the nomination and I get to ride the coattails of the amazing producers who work on that show like Lindsay Cox and Jennifer. my goodness, I forget her last name. sorry, Jen.

Sarah Burke (06:30.562)
We'll put it in the show notes, okay? We'll correct that. I love that you've been trying new things because you still always had a lot of work from a variety of different outlets, right, when we first connected. But it feels like you're doing a lot more. That just brings you joy, like new chapter.

Kim Wheeler (06:32.856)
Okay, awesome.

Kim Wheeler (06:53.188)
Yeah, yeah. Well, you you mentioned that I do a day to listen. I produce that show, I'm going to call it, but it airs on over, you know, airs on hundreds of private radio stations on September 30th. And this year it's hosted by William Prince. He throws to excerpts from longer interviews that are being released as podcasts that were hosted.

Sarah Burke (06:58.659)
Yes.

Yeah.

Kim Wheeler (07:20.804)
by January Rogers and Kiefer Collison. The other thing that I'm doing on September 30th is I was invited back to write Remembering Our Children, Honoring the Survivors, which broadcasts on television on all the major broadcasters across the country. So APTN, CBC, CTV, Global, and the others. Sorry if I missed any.

Sarah Burke (07:24.802)
Cool.

Sarah Burke (07:47.564)
Hmm. So this is no, no, you're okay. And this is for this upcoming Tuesday. Okay.

Kim Wheeler (07:53.528)
Yeah, yeah, and it's broadcast live from Parliament Hill. So survivors come out and speak, and then there's also artists. This year off the top of my head is Burnstick, Julian Taylor, and a few others. if you look up a day to listen, or no, sorry, not a day to listen. Maybe if you go to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, their website, you'll be able to find everything.

Sarah Burke (08:12.046)
Amazing.

Kim Wheeler (08:23.316)
airs at 3 p.m. Eastern. I think it's 3 p.m. Eastern.

Sarah Burke (08:26.75)
What are some of those gatherings in Winnipeg? You're based in Winnipeg, I'm curious.

Kim Wheeler (08:49.646)
I am based in Winnipeg, I'm usually not in the city for, yeah, for this, I'm gonna be in Ottawa for this event. And then, you know, as an indigenous person, right, I feel like...

Sarah Burke (08:55.502)
Yeah, you're going to be in Ottawa.

Kim Wheeler (09:10.19)
Like we live in that, we live within that truth, right? We live it every single day. So we don't need like personally, my family, like, of course we observe the day and we wear orange shirts, but if I wasn't working on a show, I would probably be on the golf course. Yeah.

Sarah Burke (09:14.05)
Yeah.

Sarah Burke (09:19.843)
Yeah.

Sarah Burke (09:28.928)
Yeah. And that's to, in my view, even September 30th is more for me. You know what I mean? And I love the idea though of being guided on what those things to pay attention to on those days are, especially from the arts community, right? There's a lot of really great storytelling and you might discover, you're always learning, right? So you might discover something new. You might stumble upon your, what I loved about a day to listen. You might stumble upon your new favorite podcast or your new favorite musician, right? Like there's

There's so much there to celebrate.

Kim Wheeler (10:01.112)
Yeah, that's right. And all my work is leading up to it. So I feel like maybe I can rest a little bit on my laurels on September 30th, although I will be in Ottawa helping with the live show. So October 1st is when I plan on resting.

Sarah Burke (10:05.345)
Yeah.

Sarah Burke (10:10.318)
You can golf.

Sarah Burke (10:17.386)
Yeah, it's going to be a big October for us. No, you deserve it so much. know how hard you're working right now and like the fact that you're fitting me and I appreciate. So my last question before we get into this episode that I want you to set up is what is the most rewarding story that you have had the privilege to help tell over the last three years, maybe since you've been on the podcast?

Kim Wheeler (10:23.982)
Uh-huh.

Kim Wheeler (10:41.301)
wow, the last three years.

Sarah Burke (10:45.154)
You've done some cool stuff.

Kim Wheeler (10:46.468)
Yeah, you know, like for me, it always comes back to my children. It really does. So like where I'm like, I'd love to say this and this and this. It's, you know, it's like asking a musician, you know, what's your favorite song that you've ever written? Right. So. OK, OK, OK. So I already mentioned I already mentioned Katarina being in the Marvel TV series Echo.

Sarah Burke (11:03.798)
Let's go one personal and one professional. How's that?

Kim Wheeler (11:13.978)
Echo is about a Native American anti-hero. It stars Alako Cox, who is also deaf and Indigenous. And so my daughter, Katerina, plays her mother in flashback scenes. So I'm like, like super proud of that. I mean, it was, it was amazing to watch her go through the audition process and then get the role. And then we flew out to Atlanta over the summer, like,

years ago and we couldn't tell anybody like it had to be a secret so you know people are like well where are you and I'm like hmm I'm at an undisclosed location

Sarah Burke (11:45.851)
my gosh.

Kim Wheeler (11:59.258)
So I spent like a few months going back and forth between Winnipeg and Atlanta and not being able to tell anybody and anybody who knows me, they know my life is an open book on social media, right? So for me to say, I can't tell you is like, right? Going, yeah. I think she's had work done.

Sarah Burke (12:12.428)
Yeah. It's like, did you get your boobs done? What's happening?

Sarah Burke (12:22.126)
that's amazing. like, I remember, I think it was at the Junos that I saw you and I met your daughter at the Junos, didn't I? Yes. Yes. And I only met one of them. we were at... I'm trying to remember if I spoke to her, she could hear me and I wasn't signing. So definitely.

Kim Wheeler (12:33.838)
Yeah, yeah, that was in Edmonton. And they were both there.

Kim Wheeler (12:42.19)
The hearing one or the deaf one?

Kim Wheeler (12:50.618)
Okay, would have been Maggie then.

Sarah Burke (12:52.118)
Yeah. Yeah. And you had like tears in your eyes. I mean, you also had a couple of drinks in you, but you had tears in your eyes as you were telling me about how like all the exciting stuff that was happening. So I can only imagine three years later it's out in the world and you're just like, this is insane. It's amazing.

Kim Wheeler (13:06.896)
my God, still like, her episode, her big episode is episode five. I've probably watched it like, I'm not gonna lie, at least 10 times. And if I'm on the road and I'm missing her, yeah, if I'm on the road and I'm missing her, I'll watch that episode.

Sarah Burke (13:17.733)
my God, I'm gonna be proud.

Sarah Burke (13:24.558)
That's so cute. I wonder if my mom listens to women in media episodes if she misses me. Probably not. So for, yeah, the episode that we're going to throw to, let's set this up. This is part of, this is part of Words and Culture.

Kim Wheeler (13:30.458)
Well, here's hoping.

Kim Wheeler (13:55.684)
Professional, I can't just pick like one story. And I think I'm gonna have to pick Words and Culture, which is a radio series that also airs as a podcast. And it's about Indigenous languages across the board. So I've had the opportunity to work with six, 10.

maybe 16 different hosts, all indigenous, and they tell the stories from their own nation, which I think is really amazing because they have the insight into their community. So they can go off and they can find the elders and they can find the language speakers and the language learners and really bring us into their first nation and get us

and insider's view of something that, you know, outside journalists would never be able to get. They'd never have access to that. So in our second season, Christy Lynn Sinclair, who's Haida, she and lives in Haida Gwaii. She took us to Haida Gwaii. She took us to a totem pole carving and a raising.

And people just don't get that kind of access. So was really incredible that she did that. Yeah.

Sarah Burke (15:26.062)
And she's also, she's a musician if you're not familiar. So it's also blending like two of your different worlds, right? Like the journalist side and then your music lover side, which I think is cool. That's awesome. Yeah. And what an experience. God. That's some cool work. So all of Kim's different shows will be in the show notes. Click away. But the one that you're about to hear now, a specific episode is part of Words and Culture.

Kim Wheeler (15:36.686)
Yes. Yeah.

Sarah Burke (15:56.206)
So we're going back to an episode featuring Amanda Reum, who's also been on this show before, and set it up for us and why people should hear it, especially ahead of National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and being in the mindset of discovery and yeah, especially discovering new podcasts.

Kim Wheeler (16:18.02)
Yeah. So like I said, we have hosts who tell the stories from their different nations. And while I said, like, some of them can take us really into the community, this host has been doing work quietly behind the scenes on connecting to her community. She is an incredibly well-known broadcaster. She was with the CBC for...

and I'm gonna age her probably like 40 plus years. It is none other than Sheila Rogers, who one day we were talking and she said, you know, she was Métis and she didn't tell anybody this because she was not Métis for so long. And there's always that fear that if you're newly connecting, you're taking opportunities away from people who have been in the community, et cetera, et cetera.

Sarah Burke (17:16.046)
Yeah.

Kim Wheeler (17:16.084)
And while I appreciate that, I also know that Sheila Rogers is an incredible storyteller. She's an amazing interviewer. She is doing the work to connect to her community. She is doing the work to learn her language. And I just took a chance and asked if she would do it, if she would host the Michif episodes of Words and Culture.

She said yes, even though she's like an incredibly busy woman. She's the chancellor for Queen's University. So, you know, we worked around her schedule. She brought us some really great interviews. She even threw in a seventh bonus episode for free. She didn't charge us for that because she just felt so passionate about having this last speaker on, this elder.

Sarah Burke (17:45.858)
Yep.

Kim Wheeler (18:13.07)
that she was like, I just, really need to do this. And, you know, those are the kinds of people that I love working with who, who love what they do, who are passionate about what they're, you know, what they're doing and bringing you stories that nobody else can bring. So yeah, so she interviewed Amanda Rayum and she interviewed Amanda right here in Winnipeg where they both have ties to the Red River.

Sarah Burke (18:25.282)
Mm-hmm.

Kim Wheeler (18:41.146)
Métis community. And Amanda was here to perform her new album, The Truth We Hold, which is about a bunch of Métis stories that she has, you know, she did the research on, she met with people, and then she turned it into song. So she walks Sheila through her album. And there are some, yeah, and there's some really incredible stories in there. And

Sarah Burke (19:05.262)
That's all.

Kim Wheeler (19:10.914)
One of the ones that she told is about this Métis woman named Annie Bannentine. So if you listen to that episode, you'll find out why Annie was such a badass 

Yeah, if you check out that episode, it's pretty incredible.

Sarah Burke (19:45.154)
And then there's a whole catalog that you can go back in. If you get hooked on this one, check out some of the other episodes. Kim, thank you for the time. I know you had a busy day and I appreciate it. And all the best for a day to listen 2025. I know how much work goes into that program. So I'm proud of you always watching from afar and cheering you on.

Kim Wheeler (20:07.076)
Well, thank you, Sarah, so much. I try to make you proud of me.

Sarah Burke (20:11.242)
Every day. Okay, amazing.