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News by Tom Horvath Aboriginal radio station proposed for Calgary Gary Farmer was in Calgary this week, drumming up support for a new radio station. The Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (AVRN) will be going before the CRTC later this month to promote its application for a new Calgary station. If approved, the station would broadcast on FM as part of a larger national network, distributing music and spoken word programming from an Aboriginal perspective across the country. In June, AVRN was awarded its first broadcast license by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for an Aboriginal station in Toronto. If the Calgary application is approved, a repeat transmitter would re-broadcast the AVRN national service in Calgary, with local programming incorporated into the national format. Farmer, well known as an actor for films such as Smoke Signals, has been an outspoken critic of mainstream media and their portrayal of Aboriginal people. "As native people, the biggest thing we have to overcome is the bad public relations rap we’ve had for the last 100 years," says Farmer. "There is a large amount of intolerance associated with the image of the native American, and that image has been distorted by filmmakers and the press for so long that is has now become a learned behaviour pattern for most people in society." It sounds like quite a task ahead for the new station – reversing negative images, attempting to eliminate stereotypes, and dispelling widely held misconceptions that have been around for hundreds of years. Perhaps it is too big a job for one media source. But according to Farmer, the current institutions in Canada simply haven’t been doing their job. "It just hasn’t been in their best interest," he says – and now it’s up to the Aboriginal people of this country to step in. The Aboriginal Voices Radio Network has a full programming schedule planned for 2001, including Aboriginal news reports, national phone-in programs, round table discussions and specialty music programming. News content will focus on events which impact Canada’s Aboriginal communities, and that may have been overlooked or under-reported by other news sources. Music programming will feature a mix of primarily Canadian and world Aboriginal artists in a broad range of genres. AVRN will also promote new Aboriginal talent. The widespread national availability of the network would dramatically increase Calgary’s exposure to the work of Aboriginal artists. Farmer believes that as Aboriginal people, "it is time for us to rise up and begin to socialize ourselves to who we are as a people. Many of our people have been lost through adoption programs, residential schools and other situations that have gone on before us. We need to heal ourselves – we know how to do it – media is the tool to do it." For more information on the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network, e-mail radio@aboriginalvoices.com or visit the Web site at http://www.aboriginalvoices.com.

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