A new Indigenous-themed podcast has begun in Victoria.
And Tchadas Leo, the host and creator of the podcast titled Our Native Land, is hoping to include plenty of Nuu-chah-nulth content on his show, which is being recorded out of the CHEK TV studio in Victoria.
The podcast is being billed as one that will explore all things Indigenous and First Nations. It will include interviews and discussions about cuisine, culture, heritage as well as other topics focused on Vancouver Island but also including other parts of the world.
Leo, a member of Homalco First Nation, is commuting from his home in Ladysmith to Victoria, about a 75-minute drive, to tape his weekly podcast.
New podcasts will be available to be downloaded each Monday.
Leo had provincial politician Melanie Mark on his inaugural episode. Mark, who represents the riding of Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, is the first First Nations woman elected to B.C.’s legislative assembly.
She’s now the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sports and the first First Nations woman to serve in the B.C. cabinet.
Jared Williams, a chef who runs Elders Kitchen for Cowichan Tribes, was the guest on Leo’s second show.
Leo said the initial responses to his podcast have been rather positive.
“I’ve probably gotten 20-30 Facebook and email messages,” he said. “Considering we’ve just started it’s pretty overwhelming.”
Also, the podcast’s Facebook page has about 300 likes thus far.
And the podcast has averaged about 300 downloads per show.
“I had a goal of getting 1,000 (listeners),” Leo said. “But we’ve got to work our way up to it. I think within the next two months we should be able to be at 1,000.”
Leo anticipates the majority of his podcasts to be between 45-60 minutes in length.
Leo said he has contacted the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council to let them know about his new podcast and that he is looking for suggestions for Nuu-chah-nulth individuals to interview.
Future plans include contacting Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations individually to see if they can provide guest suggestions.
Leo said he’s keen to talk to various individuals.
“I’m looking forward to talking to people who are storytellers, who can talk about old traditions and upholding them,” he said. “I’m also looking to talk to musicians. And I’m looking forward to talking to people from various professions.”
Those with suggestions can contact Leo through the podcast’s email address at OurNativeLandPodcast@gmail.com
Our Native Land is CHEK TV’s first podcast show.
Leo said he contacted officials at the TV station about a year and a half ago.
“They enjoyed my resume,” he said. “For the past year and a half we’ve been talking back and forth deciding what I should do for them.”
It appears officials from the TV station are hoping Leo’s podcast will succeed. They’ve brought him into their studios and made a pair of promotional videos about the podcast.
“I’ve been in front of the camera and that’s good practice for me,” he said.
Though he has not been in the broadcast industry for about a decade, Leo is no stranger to the business.
Leo got his introduction to broadcasting at the young age of 12, when he started volunteering for the then-called CRTV (Campbell River Television) in his hometown.
He started off doing various jobs including assisting with video production. By the age of 16 he had a part-time job working as an assistant producer for the station, which was bought by Shaw Communications.
Afterwards, Leo was also in the digital media program at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo.
While continuing his studies Leo also spent the past decade working in various jobs in the car industry.
He’s left that behind now and is hoping to continue finding some other broadcasting work.
“Hopefully this is a good start to get into a broadcasting career,” he said of his podcast.
Our Native Land can be found at https://www.cheknews.ca/podcasts/.
