The GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – Goes Beyond Borders

The Great Lakes Odyssey Radio Hour is broadcast on National Public Radio (WCMU-NPR)

s1.e1 GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – We set out on the GLO Odyssey – a path through the arts and sciences, gathering knowledge from the land and waters, on a course that goes beyond borders both real and imagined.

Ship to shore at Akwesasne where we are greeted by Mr. Henry Lickers of the International Joint Commission, the organization’s first Indigenous representative since the commission was established in 1909. Theresa Bear Fox of the Akwesasne Women Singers. Co-executive directors, Fidel Verdin and Shalina S. Ali, speak about their program on the western coast of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, True Skool, where creative youth are making a difference. A history lesson from author/explorer/paddler Joanie McGuffin. Former long-time Chief Dean Sayers of Batchewana First Nation.

s1.e1 GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour Music Credits

Title – Big Five Water
Artist/Composer – Ray Bonneville

Title – St. Mary’s River Fantasy
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Ononkwasona
Album – Carriers Of The Word
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers
Composer – Traditional

Title – The Sun Is Number One
Album – Zero To Sixty
Artist/Composer – Dale Scott

Title – Save Our Waters
Album – And Far Away
Artist/Composer – Alida Kinnie Starr

Title – Miss Bogart On Sunshine Beach
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Wolfhead
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Ska’nikonra The Sky World Song
Album – Carriers Of The Word
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Watatsheroton Standing Quiver
Album – Tsionathonwisen
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Six Nations Standing Proud
Album – Tsionathonwisen
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Aterosera Friendship Dance
Album – Tsionathonwisen
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Ionkwanonronhkwa Ohneka
Album – Tsionathonwisen
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers
Composer – Bear Fox

Title – Ka’satstenhserowanen Women’s Power Song
Album – Carriers Of The Word
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Kanohronkwatsherowanen Strong Love
Album – Carriers Of The Word
Artist – Akwesasne Women Singers

Title – Still Water
Album – Acadie
Artist/Composer – Daniel Lanois

Title – Gitchi Gami
Album – Nocturnes
Artist – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Liquid Gold
Artist/Composer – Tyrone King ft. Alicia Nicole
Label – True Skool

Title – Michigan Twilight
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Fresh Water
Album – Zero To Sixty
Artist/Composer – Dale Scott

Title – The Great Manitou
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Too Many Roosters
Album – Song Like A Seed
Artist/Composer – Sara Thomsen

Title – The Great Manitou
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

Title – Ancestor’s Song
Artist – Nish Corner Band

Title – North Channel
Album – Watershed
Artist/Composer – Grey Earth

Title – Where The Sweet Waters Flow
Album – Gulliver’s Taxi
Artist – Murray McLauchlan
Composer – Murray McLauchlan & Billy Cowsill

Title – St. Mary’s River Fantasy
Album – Nocturnes
Artist/Composer – Rusty McCarthy

This program produced by GLOW Radio Partners in venture with The Borderline Events Co.

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: bearfoxsongs.com

Visit: daniellanois.com

Visit: trueskool.org

Visit: sarathomsen.com

Visit: greyearth.bandcamp.com

Visit: .murraymclauchlan.com

Great Lakes Odyssey World

Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Great Lakes Odyssey World is a multi-national effort to strengthen and explore our relationship with the natural wonders known as the Great Lakes.

In this part of the project, we have created a multi-part audio series looking at the way the Great Lakes shape our lives, our livelihoods, our health and our culture.

50 years ago, folks in the media and elsewhere were ready to declare the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie “dead.”

The thought so appalled citizens in Canada and the United States, they forced their national governments to act.

Because, of course, the Great Lakes shape the life of both Canada and the United States. And, of course, the Great Lakes are a single system stretching from Duluth to Ottawa and down the St. Lawrence seaway. What happens to any of the Lakes will soon happen to the others.

So, the politicians of 50 years ago negotiated the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, “for the purpose of restoring, protecting and enhancing the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes basin.”

50 years later, we can see the agreement worked. We see more fish, cleaner water, and less pollution. Unlike the early settlers and colonials, who mostly saw the Lakes as a resource to tap, we now recognize, like the First Nations, the Lakes are part of our identity. They shape our relationships, our songs and celebrations of place, the way we eat, how we play, and what we make, or sell, or harvest.

50 years since the wake-up call of a burning river, Great Lakes Odyssey wants to learn how we live and love, hurt and restore the incredible gift which is the Great Lakes.

We will explore Great Lakes art and artistic expression, and meet the artists, writers, musicians who make it. We will also dip into Great Lakes history and lore – and learn from the people who have been here the longest and know it the best: The People of the Three Fires, the Anishinabek.

On our Odyssey around the Great Lakes, we will also hear from people working to prevent poisonous algal blooms or stop the spread of invasive species. We will meet visionaries undoing decades of development that hardened shorelines, emptied marshes and wetlands, and destroyed critical spawning grounds. We will talk to people working to ensure all beings have access to pure drinking water.

Because none of us can live without pure drinking water.

In this wondrous place we call the Great Lakes, we know we are blessed by these Sweet Water Seas. We claim them as our H.O.M.E.S. as the emotionally accurate mnemonic says. They are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, and they are our HOMES.

As long as humans have lived in, and of and through the Lakes, people have told stories about them, sung about them, and gloried in this great gift of the long departed Ice Age. Left by glaciers thousands of years ago, they are the World’s storehouse of fresh water. If they are drained… or ruined… or damaged, they can never be replaced.

So, as we travel around the Great Lakes Basin, we want to see how we are doing – what we are doing – how we’re feeling and what we’re learning as we try to live as lovers and restorers – and children and family – of the being whom the Anishinabek call Nayaano-nibiimaang Gichigamiin, the five freshwater seas.

We hope to galvanize, inspire, and motivate you to strengthen, support and steward the Great Lakes to a beautiful and healthy future.

So please join us on this magical, dare we say “magical mystery tour” of the Great Lakes Basin and Great Lakes culture.