First Voices Radio

Tiokasin talks with Fred Leonard. Fred is the author of Grandma's Spirit Calling Us Home to Tyendinaga, a book about his Tyendinaga Mohawk ancestors from the mid-1600s to the 1900s.

Fred was born in 1969 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada (next door to Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory). He has lived in this area most of his life.

Fred has helped with the marketing and promotion of two books: And Grandma Said by Mohawk elder Tom Porter and What I Need To Leave Behind by elder Betty Maracle.

Fred has traveled across North America to meet and learn traditional knowledge, spirituality and history from many elders. He has done public speaking and is a social activist.

Fred has worked on an environmental contaminants research project at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in association with Trent University, and he has worked for the environmental department for National Defense. For the past nine years, Fred has been running his own business.

Production Credits:
Tiokasin Ghosthorse (Lakota), Host and Executive Producer
Liz Hill (Red Lake Ojibwe), Producer
Malcolm Burn, Studio Engineer, Radio Kingston, WKNY 1490 AM and 107.9 FM, Kingston, NY
Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Audio Editor

Music Selections:
1. Song Title: Tahi Roots Mix (First Voices Radio Theme Song)
Artist: Moana and the Moa Hunters
Album: Tahi (1993)
Label: Southside Records (Australia and New Zealand)
(00:00:44)

2. Song Title: The Cleansing
Artist: John Trudell
Album: Tribal Voice (1983)
Label: Effective
(00:28:40)

3. Song Title: The City: Grass and Concrete, Taxi to Brooklyn
Artist: Mark-Almond
Album: Speak Easy, It's a Whiskey Scene (1971)
Label: UMG Recordings, Inc.
(00:35:05)

4. Song: ImagiNation (feat. David Strickland)
Artist: ImagiNation (Q052 is a Mi'gmaq rapper from Gesgapegiag, Quebec. His collaborators are: Stun, David Strickland, Hyper-T, Will E. Skandalz, Wendego, Simon Nevin and Sensei H. They claim justice for Indigenous people.)
Album: ImagiNation
Label: Musique Nomad
(00:45:25)

5. Song Title: Voice of Earth
Artist: NASA
Album: NASA Space Sounds (2015)
Label: NASA
(00:52:16)

6. Song Title: Change on the Rise
Artist: Avi Kaplan
EP: I'll Get By (2019)
Label: Fantasy Records
(00:54:40)

AKANTU INSTITUTE
Visit Akantu Institute, an institute that Tiokasin founded with a mission of contextualizing original wisdom for troubled times. Go to https://akantuinstitute.org/ to find out more and consider joining his Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/Ghosthorse.