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© 2026 Relentless Indigenous Woman Podcast
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Welcome to the Relentless Indigenous Woman podcast—a space for uncensored and unapologetic conversations on the lived realities of Indigenous Peoples.
Hosted by Dr. Candace Manitopyes, a proud Moose Cree First Nation educator, advocate, and scholar, this podcast invites you to listen, grow, and take meaningful action.
With a community of over 750,000 followers across social media, Dr. Manitopyes has become a powerful voice in bold Indigenous education, truth-telling, and solidarity.
Here, education becomes rebellion. Resistance. Revolution.
Whether you are an Indigenous listener or an ally committed to learning, this podcast exists to challenge, inspire, and empower.
www.relentlessindigenouswoman.ca
50 Episodes
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In this vibrant episode, Dr. Candace Manitopyes speaks with acclaimed actress, musician, and director Crystle Lightning of Enoch Cree Nation, an artist whose three-decade career has broken barriers on screen, on stage, and behind the scenes. They get into the reality of working in film, television, and theatre—far beyond the glamor audiences see. Crystle opens up about the grit behind the craft, such as the long rehearsals, endless travel, last-minute script changes, and the discipline ...
In this gripping episode, Dr. Candace Manitopyes sits with award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker Tanya Talaga, whose work has become a lifeline for truth in a country still wrestling with denial. From the moment they begin, the conversation feels less like an interview and more like two Indigenous women pulling back the curtain on generations of silence, survival, and spiritual return. Tanya shares her path from being the lone Indigenous journalist in mainstream newsrooms of t...
Turtle Island (aka North America) meets Aotearoa (aka New Zealand), and the stories of Indigenous resistance mirror each other. Dr. Candace Manitopyes speaks with Māori artist Theia, whose music is less performance and more ceremony. Candace describes experiencing Theia’s live show as a moment of kinship across oceans, a palpable spiritual recognition that transcends borders and mirrors the shared wounds of colonization. Theia speaks about her journey from major-label constraints ...
This is the episode that will make listeners laugh, blush, heal, and rethink everything they were taught about love, shame, and who they’re allowed to become. In this electric and tender conversation, Dr. Candace Manitopyes connects with with Dr. Tenille K. Campbell, a Dene, Métis, poet, photographer, PhD holder, auntie, and unapologetic storyteller whose work has cracked open space for Indigenous women, femmes, and queer folks to reclaim desire without shame. Tenille shares the raw, of...
In this moving episode, Dr. Candace Manitopyes has a conversation with Minister Mandy Gull-Masty, the first Indigenous person to ever serve as Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Services, and a woman whose leadership was forged in lived experience, sharpened through education, and guided by a heart rooted in community. What unfolds is an intimate, honest, and generous exchange between two Cree women reflecting on responsibility, belonging, exhaustion, joy, and the heavy yoke carried by tho...
This episode opens like someone cracked a window in a crowded room. Fresh air, honesty, and two Indigenous minds settling into a conversation that feels intimate, necessary, and decades overdue. Dr. Candace Manitopyes connects with internationally acclaimed Cree artist Kent Monkman, whose work has reshaped how the world understands history, queerness, and Indigenous presence. Kent speaks about the power and pain behind paintings like The Scream, describing how art becomes both meditation and ...
In this episode, Candace sits with not one, but two Deadly Aunties—Stephanie Pangowish and Sherry McKay—two Indigenous comedians who have turned everyday Indigenous life, ceremony, mistakes, and cross-community confusion (“scone dog” vs. “bannock dog”) into a full career. They talk about the realities of comedy behind the scenes: how humour travels across nations, how it sometimes absolutely doesn’t, and what happens when you try to make zoom-comedy work while staring at 48 blank squares.&nbs...
In this episode, Melrene Saloy Eagle Speaker—Blackfoot designer, artist, and founder of Native Diva Creations and Authentically Indigenous—opens up about the heart, history, and hard lessons behind her work. From carrying her ancestors into global fashion stages to building one of Calgary’s most beloved Indigenous markets, Melrene shares how legacy, loss, and love continue to shape her artistry. She reflects on navigating backlash to her Medicine Collection, describing what it means to create...
Emerging from a place of prophecy, courage, and hard-earned wisdom, this episode traces the extraordinary life of Ma-Nee Chacaby—a Two-Spirit Ojibwe-Cree Elder, activist, storyteller, and acclaimed author whose teachings continue to shift the landscape of 2SLGBTQ+ visibility in Canada. Her story unfolds through memories of her Kookum’s early vision that she would one day become a healer and educator for her people, a path she ultimately walked through decades of community work, advocac...
Dr. Candace Manitopyes sits down with Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Natasha Fisher, a rising independent artist known for her moody, edgy fusion of pop, alt-rock, and unapologetic storytelling. Their conversation gets deep into the heart of Natasha’s creative process, her path to sobriety, and the personal history behind her newest album, Temporary Feelings. Natasha shares how songwriting has always been the place where she can say the things she can’t always speak out loud. Her music, often ...
In this profound conversation, Dr. Candace Manitopyes sits down with Vina Brown, also known by her ancestral name ƛ̓áqvas gḷ́w̓aqs, which translates to Copper Canoe Woman. Vina is Haíłzaqv and Nuučaan̓uł, a mother, artist, weaver, scholar, and the powerhouse behind Copper Canoe Woman Creations. Her jewelry and artistry blend ancestral strength with modern design, carrying forward teachings from generations of matriarchs before her. Vina shares how she integrates her academic and artistic worl...
Our guest this week is Chyana Marie Sage, a Cree-Métis and Salish memoirist, journalist, poet, model, and author of the national bestselling memoir Soft as Bones. Dr. Candace and Chyana unpack truth-telling, survival, and the power of naming your own story. Chyana speaks vulnerably about her journey from silence to self-expression, describing how writing her memoir became an act of reclamation, giving voice to her younger self who had once been silenced by trauma and shame. She shares how tra...
Dr. Candace Manitopyes sits down with the beloved scientist, writer, and matriarch Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss. They weave a dialogue on remembrance, resistance, and relationality, where Indigenous knowledge and scientific thought meet in the shared soil of hope. Dr. Kimmerer reflects on her newest movement, Plant Baby Plant, which calls people to resist extraction by restoring reciprocity through regeneration. She and Candace speak candidly about...
In this deeply personal episode, Dr. Candace Manitopyes returns to the Relentless Indigenous Woman Podcast with honesty, gratitude, and renewal. She shares the story of her wedding to her sweetheart, Alex Manitopyes, a ceremony rooted in intimacy, cedar medicine, and Cree traditions. She reflects on how love, rest, and joy have reshaped her relationship with activism, creativity, and resistance. After stepping away from social media during their honeymoon, Candace speaks candidly about ...
Dr. Candace Linklater welcomes Dr. Zoey Roy, a celebrated spoken word poet, creative producer, and arts-based educator from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and a proud member of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. With a career spanning international stages—including performances with the National Youth Orchestra of Dr. Canada and at the World Expo in Dubai—Dr. Zoey has trailblazed the blending of hip-hop and orchestral music, creating globally touring shows like "Enough" and "Ever Beautiful." Holding a P...
Siibii —a queer, trans, non-binary Cree artist–joins Dr. Candace Linklater in this episode where shit gets real. Known for their breakout single YOY, which has surpassed three million streams and earned a SOCAN Young Canadian Songwriter Award, Siibii blends atmospheric pop with lyrical honesty rooted in family, land, and spirit. Signed to Ishkode Records, their music—including their latest single User—confronts contradictions, self-doubt, and longing, while simultaneously creating space for I...
In this episode of the RIW Podcast, Dr. Candace Linklater welcomes Asha Frost, bestselling author of You Are the Medicine, healer, oracle deck creator, mentor, and mother. Asha shares her deep roots as an Anishinaabe woman from Cape Croker First Nation, belonging to the Crane Clan, and describes how her life’s work is devoted to guiding people back to the medicine that has always lived within them. The conversation explores how her oracle deck, teachings, and mentorship open pathways for peop...
Dr. Candace Linklater sits down with renowned Métis artist Christi Belcourt, whose work bridges ancestral knowledge, land-based resistance, and decolonial imagination. Candace introduces Christi as one of the most iconic Indigenous artists of our time, celebrated worldwide for paintings that echo traditional beadwork and speak to Indigenous sovereignty, environmental justice, and cultural survival. They discuss how Christi’s art serves as both a love letter to Indigenous futurity and a bold c...
Dr. Candace Linklater speaks with Vanessa Brousseau, also known as Resilient Inuk, an Inuk multidisciplinary artist and advocate whose art and activism are deeply rooted in personal and intergenerational loss. Vanessa shares the painful yet powerful story of her grandfather’s forced displacement and medical experimentation by the Canadian government, her sister’s disappearance in 2003, and her mother’s death due to medical racism. These experiences fuel her advocacy for MMIWG2S+ and her passi...
This conversation with Drezus (Jeremiah Manitopyes) gets real. He takes us through his journey—from rising in the Indigenous hip hop scene to reclaiming his power through sobriety, fatherhood, and ceremony. Raised in the city but spiritually rooted in his culture, Drezus shares how reconnecting with the Land and working with youth has become his deepest source of inspiration. Whether he’s jumping into rivers with his kids or sitting by the fire in remote Cree communities, he paints a picture ...
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