Interview with Cleo Reese

Alas more time has passed, and here we are with another chapter of our story!

Exactly six years ago from the time of this writing, on the morning after the Healing Gathering had concluded, we were interviewing Cleo Reese of the Fort McMurray First Nation in the dining room of Jim and Florence Woodward, our hosts.

This interview was difficult to edit partly because it was so vast, but also because much of it felt too important to cut. Therefore, I chose to leave most of it intact, splitting the interview into two parts.

“Part 1: Being on the Land” starts with an introduction and description of the Keepers of the Athabasca, the Healing Gathering’s origins, and topics such as local sustainability.

“Part 2: Who We Are” delves into a particularly vulnerable personal account of surviving the residential schools and stories of resisting colonization.

These videos are fascinating to watch, but are also simply excellent to listen to in the manner of a podcast. They are long, but well worth absorbing from start to finish!

Our next episode will be finally getting into the city of Fort McMurray itself. In it, we will explore the question, “Who is the enemy?”