Every pop culture reference to Sasquatch or Bigfoot can be traced to one Macleans Magazine article from 1929, written by Indian Agent J.W. Burns, who stole the story of Sas’qets, a core part of Sto:lo cultural identity for thousands of years. Robert Jago is a Sto:lo writer and Sasquatch enthusiast who set out to take Sasquatch back. But the process of cultural appropriation turns out to be more complicated than passing a physical object back and forth, and Jago tells a unique story of how the Sts’ailes people kept their culture alive in the face of genocide, by appropriating appropriation.

Links:

Macleans, 1929: Introducing B. C.’s Hairy Giants 

https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1929/4/1/introducing-b-cs-hairy-giants

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre, by Max Brooks

https://www.amazon.ca/Devolution-Firsthand-Account-Sasquatch-Massacre/dp/1984826786

The Sasquatch, the Fire and the Cedar Baskets by Joseph (Tony) Dandurand

https://www.amazon.ca/Sasquatch-Fire-Cedar-Baskets/dp/0889713766

Additional music by Audio Network

Sponsors: St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, BC General Employees Union, Oxio, Article

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Broadcast on:

19 Sep 2022