About the Podcast – Calling all Kin

Calling All Kin is a podcast about the changing landscape of Indigenous child welfare in British Columbia, and the people and approaches that help keep Indigenous families together in systems designed to pull them apart. This seven episode mini-series features Indigenous child welfare change-makers—advocates, activists, lawyers, service providers, leaders and Elders—who have ‘answered the call’ to protect children and uphold Indigenous determination. Interviews cover practices, policies, and perspectives that place kin and community at the centre of child welfare decision-making.

Our first episode comes Wednesday, September 30th, 2026, on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Then, we will release the remainder of the episodes weekly for the following six Wednesdays.

For more, check out other media have to see about Calling all Kin.

Meet the Hosts

Erika Finestone is an Ashkenazi settler scholar hailing from Treaty 13 Territory in the city of Toronto, now living as a grateful every-damn-day guest on unceded Lək̓ʷəŋən Territory in the city of Victoria, BC. She is the co-creator and co-host of the Calling All Kin Podcast and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria. As an anthropologist, Erika makes virtually everything about kinship – from dinner parties to dissertations. Her doctoral research examined Indigenous resistance to child removal on Vancouver Island.

Hiinahcit Petrina Dezall (Nuučaan̓uł and Norwegian) is a mom, auntie, advocate, artist, and collaborator. Hiinahcit’s work is on the land with traditional plant medicines in First Nation’s Food Sovereignty. Her work focus is Revillaging, creating a pathway home for First Nation’s and uphold sovereignty and access to traditional plants which have sustained Nuuchahnulth people for thousands of years. This comes with a fierce amount of gratitude that “we are the seeds” and we survived. That is felt in Hiinahcit’s work as Permaculture Educator, Ethnobotanist in Residence, and to the boards she advises.

After years of navigating her own family members back to family from the Foster Care System, Hiinahcit’s Elders asked her to share this knowledge she learned through their oral traditions. The Elders smiled and ended that sentence with, “We want this information to be widespread in a podcast so our people can learn from each other.” All Hiinahcit could say was, “Okay, I’ll figure it out.” With equal parts humility and curiosity, she is grateful for the challenge given to her and the many people that walked with her sharing knowledge, strategies, and contributing to Calling All Kin. Hiinahcit has two hopes for this podcast: one, that this helps First Nations community members and leadership adapt tools and actionable strategies to keep children safe with loving Kin and, secondly, that this inspires all humans to bridge ways to work together so no child is left behind. Learn more about Hiinahcit’s work at www.hiinahcit.com

You can learn more about how we first connected here.

Credits and Funding

We would like to thank our advisory board members for their thoughtful guidance: Dr. Jeff Corntassel, Ry Moran, Dr. Andrea Walsh. Special thanks to our Elder Advisor Dr. Jeannine Carriere for her sound wisdom and support throughout this project.

We would also like to thank our benefactors at the BC NEIHR for their generous support.

Cited Media produces Calling all Kin. Nadeen Shaker is the lead producer, and Gordon Katic provides additional support. We also received graphic design assistance from Dakota Koop of the design studio August is August.

Our theme song is “Copper and Gold,” by We Are Still Here. Thanks also to the ANSWER2 Drum Group for providing the heartbeat behind every episode.

Land Acknowledgement

Calling All Kin was created and hosted on the traditional lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Peoples (the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations) in the city of Victoria, BC and produced on Treaty 13 territory (the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples) in the city of Toronto, ON. We have been privileged to receive and amplify stories from guests whose nations, families, clans, communities, and feast groups span across–and long preexisted–what is commonly known as “Canada”.