Mohawk Radio builds cultural links
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KWE Radio 105.9 has been operation for four years now and is part of a growing presence of Aboriginal community stations across Canada. As its mission statement says, the station has been promoting language, culture and traditions. KWE has also been providing musical entertainment by Native and non-Native artists in various musical styles. The station’s name comes from Kwe, Kwe, an informal Mohawk greeting akin to Hi. KWE Radio reflects who members of the community are as Kanyen’kehaka people. Mike Hill, Jr. acts as the station manager. He maintains the day-to-day operations and has been on air since September 1994. He is a 1998 graduate of the radio broadcasting program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont. Hill says the support from the community has been tremendous. He says KWE has about 30 volunteers, 20 dedicated ones and 10 who volunteer periodically. The station has progressed nicely and listenership is still building. “There in not one person in the territory who can say they haven’t listened to us. We have listeners in Picton, Belleville, Napanee and Deseronto,” says Hill. “We have a few volunteers who are very dedicated such as Brad (The Crusher) Boomhour.” Boomhour, who moved back home to Tyendinaga in 1990, has been interested in the station since it started. “It’s a lot of fun and we all make mistakes,” he says. “People laugh at you but you can’t hear them. “Sixty percent of the requests I get on my 7 to 10 p.m. show are country and sometimes it is all rock, which indicates we are getting a younger listening crowd. I first started when Alan Brant (another KWE founder) had me sitting in with him. He had to step out for an errand and that was it. The only way you can learn is by doing,” he says. “It’s a lot easier than most radio stations because it’s all computerized.” Boomhour says he can’t go to the mall without buying a CD for the radio station and that can get costly. But “it’s great when you get feedback from people. People I talk to say the show is great.” The community radio station depends on volunteers and would like to see more. “The biggest struggle we have is having people come out,” Hill says. Some are intimidated by the technology but Hill stresses KWE is user friendly with a variety of educational levels in its volunteer group. At KWE’s weekly Monday night meeting everyone shares ideas or records. “You got to have a sense of humor to be here. You got to be able to take it as well as dish it out,” Hill says. KWE now broadcasts from a small house at the center of Tyendinaga. Everyone involved at KWE sees the need for a new building. Hill would like to see more cultural programming in conjunction with the school and library. “Some day I hope that we can eventually donate financially back to the community,” added Hill. Some people in the community think that the station is owned by the band office and it’s not. “ We pay our own bills and no one is getting rich off this. All of our major bills such as heat, hydro, music, stationary and computer equipment are paid by our advertising sales.” “I think we’ve made our mark in introducing radio to the community, says Brant Bardy, KWE’s chair. “We’ve established ourselves and we have recognition and acceptance. “It’s been tough,” Bardy says. “We have a lot of room for expansion and I don’t mean wattage but in accordance to our mission statement. ...Those basic principles are the underlying reason to not only provide entertainment but to address the issues of culture, language and identity.” Those issues are the driving force behind KWE, Bardy says. “I have no problem with the volunteers playing what they want, but in the cultural component we need to make a conscious effort.” “In the beginning KWE couldn’t just play cultural stuff because people in the community went into culture shock and it was a new concept to them. When KWE first started cultural programming people were a bit standoffish about the drum music the station played. “We are water drum society and not (used to) pow-wow drum music. Bardy hopes that KWE will help reach a point where people of the community take pride in their culture. He says the cultural content of the station infiltrates the community through repetition and stimulates them to learn more and to contribute as resource people. “ We share what we learn because we are on a learning path as well,” says Bardy. Current cultural programming includes Micmac Steve Piero who does the pow-wow hour. On Steve’s show he explains the grass dance, for example, and its significance. “I thought that was great,” Bardy says. “It’s an educational experience. This was why we started the station and why we have to be constant in that area.” He says the Aboriginal music market isn’t fully developed yet, which is why the same Native artists are played over and over. Volunteers educate each other. For example, Bardy says Tim Cole, a non-Native volunteer, used to “Canadianize” his show and at first was not aware of the Kanyen’kehaka (Mohawk) way of doing things. Tim used to avoid pronouncing Mohawk words, but now he has a vocabulary of about six words, Bardy jokes. “We need more elders and youth involvement at the station to bridge the gap that exists. The youth haven’t decided what they want and we need to stimulate the resurgence of culture and language in them,” says Bardy. Aboriginal Media Program students at First Nations Technical Institute also train at KWE radio station where they get hands-on experience right from the start. They love their KWE placements and have some hilarious stories (and incriminating out-takes) about learning by doing, says Michael Asselstine, a KWE volunteer and technician who works with the media students at KWE.
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