The GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – A Theory Of Water

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

s5.e9. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour – A Theory Of Water

What might it mean to truly listen to the water that surrounds and inhabits us so as to coexist with and alongside it and to discover, understand, and foster relationships among all beings and life forces?

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, acclaimed Nishnaabeg writer, academic, musician and poet, takes a revolutionary look at that most elemental force, water, and suggests a powerful path for the future.

Dave Bidini, leader of The Rheostatics on The Great Lakes Suite album, featuring impressive collaborators that harnessed their artistic talents to sonically mirror the power, history, and mystery of the five greats.

Joanie McGuffin, explorer, author, and a voice for the landscapes that we know and love, particularly the Lake Superior watershed, is on a mission to “inspire people to re-connect with the natural world”.

Featured Music: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Rheostatics.
Music beds: John Hewitt & The New Americans. Rusty McCarthy. Rheostatics. lowfrequencyOSCILLATOR.
Theme music: Ray Bonneville. Rusty McCarthy.

Photo by Adriano – Biinaagami World View

s5.e9. GREAT LAKES ODYSSEY Radio Hour Music Credits

Title – Big Five Water
Artist / Composer – Ray Bonneville

Title – Madness At The Heart Of It All
Artist – John Hewitt & The New Americans
Composer – John Hewitt

Title – Black Water
Album – Wildfire
Artist / Composer – My Father’s Son

Title – Surface Tension
Album – Theory Of Ice
Artist / Composer – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Title – Geology
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Uncle Neil O’Donnell)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Thunder Bay
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Water Wisdom
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Chief Stacy Laforme)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Huron
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Ode To The Great Lakes
Artist – Rheostatics
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Homes
Artist – Rheostatics (feat. Laurie Anderson & Kendel Carson)
Composer – Dave Bidini & Kevin Hearn
Album – Great Lakes Suite

Title – Head Of The Lake
Artist / Composer – Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Album – Theory Of Ice

Visit: raybonneville.com

Visit: rustyandmaja.com

Visit: johnhewittmusic.com

Visit: myfatherssonlive.bandcamp.com/wildfire

Visit: leannesimpson.ca

Visit: cordovabaystore.bigcartel.com/rheostatics-the-great-lakes-suite

Visit: themcguffins.ca

Visit: superiorconservancy.org

Visit: biinaagami.org

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

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 Anishinaabek.

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 Anishinaabek 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.