Podcast: Why N.B. Business Leaders Are Learning About Racism Faced By Indigenous People
Keith McIntosh is the founder and CEO of PLATO Testing, an Indigenous-led and staffed software testing firm based in Fredericton. Imelda Perley is a Wolastoqey elder from Tobique First Nation and Elder-In-Residence at UNB. Together they lead a Gathering Circle of Indigenous leaders and business people like Marcel LeBrun, David Alston and Andrea Feunekes.
They have specific goals, like advocating for an inquiry into system racism in the province. But they tell host Mark Leger that they are mainly interested in bringing people together to talk, foster understanding and trust, and amplify the voices of the Indigenous people.
“What causes hate, what causes racism is lack of knowledge,” says Keith. “It’s a lack of understanding. It’s easy to hate or disrespect people that you don’t know. So why don’t we just get people talking and see what happens? There was no agenda…but it was to bring people together.”
Listen to Mark’s conversation with Keith and Imelda in the player above, or on your preferred podcast platform.
The Huddle “Home Office” podcast – available on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Apple Podcast platforms – features conversations with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia community leaders, entrepreneurs, analysts and Huddle reporters about the issues and events that accelerate and enrich the growth of the region’s economy and culture.
Check out the Huddle podcast archive for more conversations about the Atlantic Canadian economy, which include feature interviews with regional leaders like Frank McKenna, Blaine Higgs, and tech entrepreneurs Marcel LeBrun and David Alston, our very first podcast guests. And please go to your favourite podcast platform, search for “Huddle Home Office” and subscribe.
This podcast interview was inspired by Huddle reporter Inda Intiar’s two-part series on this issue, so read these stories too if you haven’t seen them already:
- Why These N.B. Business Leaders Support Indigenous Communities’ Call For Inquiry Into Systemic Racism
- Why These N.B. Business Leaders Are Learning About The Racism Faced By Indigenous People