Community radio has a special integrity that keeps people listening, keeps listeners tuned in because they don’t want to listen to the same mind wash every hour that commercial radio regurgitates. In a sense, the spirit of a community is defined by its media; its community paper or its community radio. Thus the people who operate the media have a great responsibility to uphold that social identity, that group strength, to keep the collective together.

In a North American Aboriginal community, tribal identity and pride is very important to the survival of the people, it’s no wonder that the people start their own radio stations to sustain their culture through the broadcast of their own tongue and traditional music. There are many community stations across the country on Native Reservations operating on economical equipment and a few volunteers who, with one idea, broadcast their culture.

Since the 1970’s, Aboriginal radio stations in the United States and Canada have been established at an exponential rate by those who can afford the equipment and have an ambitious audience. In every region of this vast country, there is an Aboriginal community radio broadcast to be heard.

One’s own language is strength, to transmit it is power.

Managing a community radio is not hard if your heart is in its right place. You are there to fulfill the people’s need for accurate community information, the promotion of the culture and maintaining the station as a fundamental entity in the community. I had the privilege of doing so for two years of my life, a duty of gratification and criticism.

I worked as station manager for Siksika Radio (Sik-sik-a), a community station that had been essential to the cultural fabric of the Siksika people for fifteen years. The Siksika people, also known as the Blackfoot Indians to our European settlers, live on a fairly large rural reservation in the southern prairie region of the Alberta province in Canada. With over five thousand Blackfoot living in various valleys and townships of the Siksika Nation, the community radio has a big role to play in the daily affairs of the people.

Siksika Radio had its humble beginnings in the mid 1980’s with a simple 5 watt transmitter, an antenna, a sound board, a tape deck and a CD player. It was set up in a room in the Old Sun Community College, which had been a residential school for Blackfoot children at the turn of the twentieth century. The antenna was attached to the tribal police communications tower that stood 100 feet above the roof of the college. It was ideal for long range transmission across the flat landscape of Siksika. For a number of years, Siksika Radio was a novelty for the community to listen to, and had only a few steady volunteers. It came on every other day with traditional powwow music and rock music of the time. DJs made colorful Native humor and relayed community news about upcoming events like powwows, public meetings, and hockey games.

In time, the public started to rely on the radio as a source of information and entertainment. So did the Siksika Chief & Council, the body that governs tribal affairs. With strong public support, Siksika Radio received funding from Chief & Council to establish itself with equipment upgrades. Today, Siksika Radio is a part of Siksika Media, providing radio and a local newspaper to the people.

Siksika Radio is one of the many community radios in Canada. In southern Alberta, also known as Blackfoot Country, there are a total of four Aboriginal community stations; Kainai (Blood) Radio, Peigan Radio, Stoney Radio and Siksika Radio. Each one of these stations had a different beginning, but all have the same mandate; entertain the people and boost cultural pride through radio programming. Most of these radios are low powered FM stations with a volunteer base and strong community support.

Aboriginal radio stations in many Canadian communities are pirate broadcasters with no government licensing. Usually a new radio station would apply for a government license to broadcast publicly through the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission. The majority of Aboriginal radio stations don’t follow this bureaucracy because the community doesn’t believe a license to broadcast their culture is necessary. They believe it is a part of their inherent right as Aboriginal peoples under a suppressive government. Licensing community radios would only mean Aboriginal peoples would have to follow more rules, more regulations, in order to share our culture with the world. Although many Aboriginal radio stations have successfully applied for a CRTC license and operate under their guidelines, many others don’t bother with the law and operate without any governmental concern.

Throughout the various provinces and territories of Canada, there are many Aboriginal communities that exist far away from any form of convenience or amenity, mostly in the northern regions. Communication systems in these communities become a focus for news, weather and other information. Delivering this service to numerous communities can become costly. For a long time, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was the only source of radio broadcast for northern residents; only one broadcaster to identify and satisfy the needs of a large diverse audience from different ethic backgrounds.

This cultural frequency consolidation didn’t last long with the Aboriginal peoples and a new movement to offer an alternative was the drive behind various regional Aboriginal radio networks that started operation in the 1980’s and 90’s. The idea was to establish a central broadcasting station that would feed numerous receivers through satellite and rebroadcast the signal to Aboriginal communities on low power FM. This method was a success in the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces, which have a high Aboriginal population living in rural areas.

With the radio networks in full force, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day, radio producers now had the power to shape their programming to their Aboriginal audience, broadcasting in their own languages and playing traditional music, as well as announcing birthdays, community news, and gossip (also know as the moccasin telegraph in Native circles). The radio networks closed the gap between the communities, bringing relatives and tribes closer together with one voice, one message of sovereignty.

As internet technology became easier to tame in the 1990’s, many well-to-do Aboriginal radio stations took their signal world wide on the web through audio streaming technology. Now Aboriginal language, music and pride are on the world stage for all to listen to. Here is a list of Aboriginal radio on the net:

The American Indian Radio on Satellite (AIROS.org)
Buffalotracks.com/avr/
Ammsa.com/cfwe/
Mbcradio.com

There has been a national movement in Canada to install a country wide Aboriginal radio network to deliver music and political thoughts from Canada’s biggest city, Toronto, to other urban centers. Aboriginal peoples in Canada have a huge and increasing population in urban centers. With this in mind, the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network (AVRN) collective has been able to secure licenses in Toronto and other cities that will enable their transmission to reach across Canada, from coast to coast. They project that over 26 urban centers in Canada will be able to hear their broadcast within the next few years.

The future of Aboriginal Radio is promising. More and more communities are demanding regional representation through communication media. With broadcasting technology becoming more economical, community radios are becoming a reality in Aboriginal communities. Aboriginal artist, musicians, politicians and leaders now have a platform for our people to hear their voice.