Youth4Youth Canada on CBC Ottawa Morning With Rebecca Zandbergen

This is a conversation between host Rebecca Zandbergen and guest host Taliah Lyons, who is interviewing her mentor, Auntie Alexia, as part of coverage for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Taliah Lyons, a founding member of the Indigenous-led grassroots organization Youth for Youth Canada, discusses her group's focus on offering free cultural workshops and land-based activities to Indigenous youth, emphasizing the importance of preserving and sharing culture. Auntie Alexia, who identifies as an "Auntie" and "elder in training," highlights her work in youth mental health and advocacy, stressing the necessity of meeting each individual where they are at on their journey of cultural reclamation, especially for urban Indigenous youth. Critically, Alexia argues that the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation remains performative due to the slow progress on the 94 calls to action and that true allyship requires Canadians to acknowledge ongoing systemic harms, which she says are reflected in the fact that there are more youth in care now than during the height of the Sixties Scoop.