Hyphen State
This episode originally aired on July 2, 2017
To mark Canada Day weekend, Piya speaks with people about the words that so often live on the left side of our national identities... and how they can affect our relationships with the identifier on the right: Canadian.
Here are the stories from this week's episode...
'To call myself Canadian would speak to the success of residential schools'
Three Indigenous people explain to Piya what fuels their individual choices to acknowledge — or reject — using the term 'Canadian' in how they identify themselves to other people in the world, both at home and away.
'Who am I?': A third culture kid finds himself in Canada
Alain Derbez was born in Mexico, grew up in France and came of age in Canada. That makes him a so-called 'third culture kid'. He tells Piya about his adult struggle to find his identity, and what he's learned about the strengths — and weaknesses — of being from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Tori Allen is a Canadian of Welsh and Filipino descent, living overseas in Asia. For her, what it means to be a 'hyphen' lies both within her home country and without. Tori reflects on national identity abroad in a personal essay for Out in the Open.
Inuk performance artist challenges 'Southern Canadians' on their perceptions of 'the North'
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory lives in Iqaluit. But don't call her Northern Canadian. The storyteller and performer speaks about the misconceptions of a romanticized region, how so much of Canadian identity is Inuit-inspired, and how she identifies with land and people over nation.
Why being asked 'What are you?' is a form of 'silent racism'
Sandra Creighton's heritage is Irish, African, American and Aboriginal. But when people ask about her background, they won't accept her answer: 'Canadian'. She talks to Piya about instead choosing to identify as African-Canadian, and struggling to fit in with both white and black people.
An American on what it takes to be a Canadian
American Nate Tabak's wife immigrated to Canada as a kid from the former Yugoslavia. His American mom recently discovered proof of her own Canadian citizenship, which she inherited from her dad. Nate shares his voyage to become one of us too, and the surprising conditions and contradictions of becoming Canadian that he's found along the way.