New program director for radio station

Tehonie’tathe Douglas Beaver joined Reviving Kanehsatà:ke Radio (RKR) 101.7 FM as the station’s all-new project coordinator earlier this month.

In his role, a position never-before held at the station, Beaver will help revise current programs and add new ones, increase fundraising efforts, and help to advance the revitalization of Kanien’kéha over the radio.

“I’m hoping to help revive the language in the community,” said Beaver.

Karahkóhare Syd Gaspé, president of Mohawk MultiMedia Inc., the organization which oversees RKR, said the new role is welcome help after many years of managing most of the station’s work alone.

“I’ve been overloaded with everything that is to do for running the operation,” said Gaspé.

“We need to expand because we have got a lot of things happening.”

One of the projects Beaver will manage is revising the station’s language programs. He will oversee organizing a steering committee with Kanehsata’kehró:non to figure out how the radio can best approach their language lessons, said Gaspé.

“How can radio fill in those gaps and make it easier to learn the language,” said Gaspé.

“It could be, you know, easy lessons or dialogues or little stories. It could be like beginner level things, because what we’re doing now might be too advanced.”

Beaver’s goal is to help make it easier for Kanehsata’kehró:non to include Kanien’kéha in their daily lives.

“We’re trying to bring it back into the home a little bit more, so that people are speaking it within the household, rather than just say, sometimes, maybe at work, they say a few words,” said Beaver.

He will also help launch advertising projects for the station, said Gaspé.

“The whole promotions and advertising side of a radio station hasn’t been developed yet, which we’re hoping to develop with Doug’s help,” said Gaspé.

Beaver plans to connect with corporate and philanthropic organizations for funding.

He will also work to increase the station’s number of listeners by better connecting with the community and their current listener base to know what they want to hear over the airwaves.

“There’ll be surveys going out, asking people when they listen, what they want to hear, and what they enjoy the most, and things like that,” said Beaver.

While the new role encompasses many different responsibilities, Beaver said it falls right within his wheelhouse.

“This role is pretty much my past rolled up into one big ball,” said Beaver.

For 26 years, Beaver has worked in Indigenous organizations and projects in Ottawa. Part of that time was work at Indigenous healing centres, which ran programs for residential school survivors, and where Beaver was a project manager.

He also worked for the Aboriginal Financial Officers Association, an organization which helps support Indigenous finance and governance, as the director of marketing and communications.

Additionally, Beaver has also worked in design and architecture, predominantly at the Douglas Cardinal Architect firm, where he designed a healing lodge in Ottawa called Iskotew.

But despite being far, Beaver has always been connected to the community.

In the early 2000s, he designed Rotiwennakéhte Elementary School, and was especially proud to include an acoustic, circular gathering room in the school.

Beaver has spent most of his summers in Kanesatake over the years. During the pandemic, he started working from his tiny home in the community and never left.

And there is another reason keeping him in the community.

“My daughter just had a grandbaby, so I’m a grandpa,” said Beaver. “I needed to be closer to be able to see the baby.”

Overall, Beaver is grateful to be contributing back to his home.

“I’m happy to be home and working with the community again,” said Beaver. “And happy to offer the skills and experience that I’ve learned working outside of the community.”

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Hadassah Alencar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter