Radio station gains new afternoon host

Reviving Kanehsatà:ke Radio (RKR) 101.7 FM has added another member to its ranks with a new afternoon host, Karyn Wahsontiiostha Murray, who joined the team in early December.

“I want people to feel like they’re tuning in to a burst of sunshine in their day,” said Murray, about her show. “A place where they feel connected.”

In an episode set to air next week, community member Murray interviewed Oka’s newly elected mayor, Patrick Hardy. He wants to build trust with Kanesatake community members and ease tensions between the two communities - a goal Murray would like to help come to fruition.

“I told Hardy I’m called to be a peacemaker,” she said. An interview together “would be good to be able to bridge your newfound position in your community with our community,” she recalled telling Hardy.

Murray wants her show to be relevant to the community’s everyday lives, and to inspire, to be helpful and fun. She wants to dig deep to find the interesting in interesting people’s lives.

“I’ll be asking questions like, ‘What is your biggest regret of your life?’” said Murray. “That’s going to be the first question I’m going to ask you so I can open a conversation with it.”

Murray is the second host to join the team after Sterling Mallette, the morning host, who also grew up in Kanesatake.

“I’m really happy that we’re starting to fill up even the most important times in radio, like in the morning with Sterling and now in the afternoon with Karyn,” said Karahkóhare Syd Gaspé, president of Mohawk MultiMedia Inc., the organization which oversees the radio station. It represents a step forward for the station, he said.

“She’s really passionate about what she’s doing and that passion comes across over the air, and that’s a really good thing, and it allows for good connection with listeners. And this is what we need, right? This is what radio is about.”

For Murray, her radio show is also about healing.

Murray shares how faith and gardening helped her overcome drug addiction and become a leader in the community’s agricultural sustainability efforts. She hopes sharing her life story will inspire other community members to overcome their own challenges.

After losing her boyfriend to a car crash, Murray, mother of eight kids, fell into a deep depression.

“I descended into drugs and hell, and I didn’t care about nothing. I didn’t want to love, and I didn’t want to be loved,” said Murray. “I just spiraled down for a long time.”

Murray said, “And then one day, I was driving on my lawn mower in the morning, and I’m like, ‘Okay, what if I just found one thing I like about today?’…  And then I thought, ‘I like the smell of cut grass mixed with gas.’”

This small spark of joy motivated Murray to build a small garden with two pallet boards for her family.

“Then I grew my first cucumber,” said Murray, “and I fell in love.”

That is the moment when Murray said the land took on a different meaning for her. Her forefathers were farmers in Kanesatake and had sustained their family by farming. Feeling empowered, Murray’s two-pallet garden grew to a 40-by-40-foot garden bed.

After many successful crops, Murray decided to head to school to study horticulture. It was in the pursuit of her degree where she gave up drugs.

At the start of the program, an ex-cop came into the classroom and explained the ingredients of the drug speed - Murray’s drug of choice at the time. The newfound knowledge of the drug’s ingredients disgusted her, and she decided right then to stop using.

Every time she gardened and every project in school from then on motivated her to stop using.

“By the grace of God,” said Murray, who is Christian, “he reached down to me and he helped clean my life up through gardening.”

In June 2019, she finished her degree and was hired by Kanesatake Economic and Business Development (KEBD) as eco agriculture officer. There she began the market garden, a project meant to grow and sell niche produce, but after COVID-19 shutdowns she had the thought of giving the produce away.

That idea began Skàtne Rohatehiarontie, a community garden which gave free produce to community members. In 2023, Murray began her own community garden, Gardens of Hope Kanehsatake. At peak harvest season, 110 households received free produce.

Murray has expanded the project with new gardens at Ratihén:te High School and Rotiwennakéhte Elementary School.

Her aim in life, said Murray, is to teach others to grow their own food and be a light to the community. Last year, she graduated from the Kiuna College media training program to reach more people with inspiration – and spark a gardening journey with Kanehsata’kehró:non.

“I am passing on the message of hope, that there is hope out there and we just need to hang on and look for it sometimes,” she said.

Murray’s show runs Monday to Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

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