Ep. 85 (Bonus): National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2026, ft. Meagan Ophus

A very wonderful person is sitting patiently in studio with me.

And I consider her to be not just someone I've had the privilege of interviewing before, but as a friend.

And her name is Megan Ofis.

It's good to have you here, Megan.

Yeah, thank you for having me, Josh.

Hi, hey.

Hi, hi.

Just to be clear, Megan is joining the show today as my guest, not as an official part of the program that I was just referring to, A Day to Listen, but I invited and asked her to be part of this today because it fits so well with what A Day to Listen is all about.

Megan, before we go any further, I want to first give you this offering of tobacco for you to do with what you feel is right.

And you know this because we've spoken about it before, but just so listeners know, I and some other journalists and media members in recent years have made this a practice as a show of thanks and gratitude when speaking with an elder, a knowledge keeper, or requesting someone of the Indigenous community to speak about experiences that are difficult, heavy, potentially re-traumatizing.

And I was hoping that maybe you could elaborate for folks on the significance of tobacco in the sense that we're discussing it now.

Mm-hmm.

So tobacco, as far as my teachings that have been shared with me go, tobacco is our offering, is a plant that we use as offerings.

So we grow it from when it was seed until it started sprouting, until it was a full plant, all the way up in time till harvest time.

We look at it as our relative and that it's a living thing and we have a relationship with it.

And so it grows in ceremony.

And when it is harvested, we don't look at it as it's the end of its life.

It's still going.

And yeah, we use it for offerings.

So sometimes, like what you did for me today, you put it in a tobacco tie.

And then you give it to an elder or a knowledge keeper or somebody who's indigenous and helping you out for the day or going to share some good knowledge with you.

And then you give it to them as an offering for the services that they're going to provide or for the knowledge that they're sharing with you.

And yeah, and then it's also used as a contract as well in some instances.

And yeah, that's what I have for it.

Yeah, thanks for sharing

A very wonderful person is sitting patiently in studio with me.

And I consider her to be not just someone I've had the privilege of interviewing before, but as a friend.

And her name is Megan Ofis.

It's good to have you here, Megan.

Yeah, thank you for having me, Josh.

Hi, hey.

Hi, hi.

Just to be clear, Megan is joining the show today as my guest, not as an official part of the program that I was just referring to, A Day to Listen, but I invited and asked her to be part of this today because it fits so well with what A Day to Listen is all about.

Megan, before we go any further, I want to first give you this offering of tobacco for you to do with what you feel is right.

And you know this because we've spoken about it before, but just so listeners know, I and some other journalists and media members in recent years have made this a practice as a show of thanks and gratitude when speaking with an elder, a knowledge keeper, or requesting someone of the Indigenous community to speak about experiences that are difficult, heavy, potentially re-traumatizing.

And I was hoping that maybe you could elaborate for folks on the significance of tobacco in the sense that we're discussing it now.

Mm-hmm.

So tobacco, as far as my teachings that have been shared with me go, tobacco is our offering, is a plant that we use as offerings.

So we grow it from when it was seed until it started sprouting, until it was a full plant, all the way up in time till harvest time.

We look at it as our relative and that it's a living thing and we have a relationship with it.

And so it grows in ceremony.

And when it is harvested, we don't look at it as it's the end of its life.

It's still going.

And yeah, we use it for offerings.

So sometimes, like what you did for me today, you put it in a tobacco tie.

And then you give it to an elder or a knowledge keeper or somebody who's indigenous and helping you out for the day or going to share some good knowledge with you.

And then you give it to them as an offering for the services that they're going to provide or for the knowledge that they're sharing with you.

And yeah, and then it's also used as a contract as well in some instances.

And yeah, that's what I have for it.

Yeah, thanks for sharing