#Connie Walker

[walrusmagazine]

Read the March/April 2024 issue of The Walrus now at thewalrus.ca!

Photography by Jordana Bermúdez (jordanabtp.com)

[cantquitu]

Podcast recommendation: I never do this, but I recommend listening to anything by Connie Walker. She's a journalist from the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, working originally with CBC and now Gimlet Media. Her podcasts focus on Indigenous stories.

I've listened to everything I can find of hers over the past few years. The stories she chooses to illuminate, and how she blends investigative reporting with a personal perspective, make for really gripping and moving podcasts. So when she won a Pulitzer and a Peabody last week, I felt personally invested and proud!

She won for Stolen: Surviving St Michael's, about the abuse suffered by her family and generations of Indigenous children in Canada's residential schools at the hands of the Catholic Church in collusion with the Canadian government.

As an Irish person, the horror of the residential schools is depressingly familiar, but coupled with the racism and cultural genocide suffered by Indigenous kids in Canada, it's almost too much to bear. That's what's so amazing about this podcast - despite the unbearable subject matter, you feel you have to listen, and there's hope there.

Anyway, this is a random post but I felt so glad to hear that Connie Walker's work and her family's story is being recognised!

[iamidentical]

Four out of five of the last Oblate principals from St Michael's are accused sexual abusers. They were at the school between 1939 and 1972 [...] take the year 1963 as an example. Anthony Duhaime was principal, and there were four other priests at the school who reported to him, and all of them were accused of sexual abuse. If these claims are true, every single priest at St Michael's was sexually abusing children—and every single priest was getting away with it.

[...]

We found 15 staff members, 13 nuns and 17 Oblate priests accused of sexual abuse at St Michael's. Against these 45 adults, we counted 219 allegations, which means the majority of these alleged abusers had more than one allegation against them. And in many cases, the allegations did not refer to a single incident, but abuse that continued over weeks, months or even years.

-Connie Walker, Surviving St Michael's, Episode 7

This podcast collated allegations of abuse that the reporters were able to pull out of court documents filed by survivors of one Canadian residential school. It can be easy for people unaffected by residential schools to underestimate the scale of abuse that happened at these institutions; even the numbers here are, as Walker later says, an undercount.

[panicinthestudio]

Chris Hayes Podcast with Connie Walker, Why Is This Happening?, June 22, 2022

Trigger warning: This episode contains mentions of sexual and physical abuse. For nearly the past year, Canadian journalist Connie Walker has been working on an investigation into her father's experience at St. Michael's Indian Residential School in Canada. The story is told as part of “Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s,” a series available exclusively on Spotify.

Her investigation began when she heard a story about her late father who was a police officer in the 70s. He pulled over a car that was swerving, and when he got to the window, he recognized the driver as a priest who he believed had abused him at residential school. He pulled the priest out of the car and beat him up on the side of the road.

Over the years, thousands of students have come forward about their experiences at residential schools. Walker joins WITHpod to discuss the process of telling this deeply personal story of intergenerational trauma, her motivation for bringing issues affecting Indigenous people to light and how this dark part of Canada’s past hasn’t been completely reconciled. The Canadian government has apologized and set aside millions in reparations, along with a new child education and welfare system in response to abuse.

MSNBC

It's important to note the Canadian residential school system was part of a larger network within colonialism, including the American Indian boarding schools, native schools in New Zealand, and the Australian Stolen Generations. The themes of enforced education and cultural erasure, and its relation to the assimilationist motives of religious and political bodies towards ethnocentric, exploitative, and ultimately genocidal ends.

This is not an isolated case of systemic, imperialistic abuse and intergenerational trauma on a national level, it is pervasive, international and present.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

rainbow magic books should never have a “grown-up” adaptation it would be too chaotic

[in-pleasant-company]

Connie Porter on Addy

[angelasscribbles]

The Crown and the Shield Chapter 7: All Fall Down

Series: The Crown and the Shield

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings: Constantine x Jackson

Word Count: 740

Rating: MA

Warnings for this chapter: Gun violence, blood, death

My other stuff: Master List.

The king of Cordonia approached the podium to thunderous applause. The negotiations had been successful. He was one press conference away from the end of this trip, and the beginning of a new life.

He was nervous, but excited, to confess his love for the head of his King’s Guard to his wife. Jack was right, Eleanor was nothing like Helena. She hadn’t married him for the crown but for their shared love of Leo. She was kind and loving and there was no way she would abandon her child the way his first wife had abandoned hers.

He would tell her about himself and Jackson and she would understand, like Bianca had. He could be more freely himself, Jack could be a bigger part of his life. Everything was going to work out. He just had to get through his part of the press conference.

The peace accords had gone far better than expected and he was confident about the future. He shot a discreet glance at Jackson as he took his place at the podium and cleared his throat.

His parents and his wife were seated on the stage behind him, along with the heads of state of all the attendee nations. Rivala, Auvernall, Monterisso, and Vallenheim. All of them hereditary monarchies. All of them targets of the anti-monarchy terrorist group The Liberation Core.

“I’d like to start by thanking the Spanish government for hosting this summit,” Constantine turned his head to nod politely at the king of Spain. He smiled broadly as he opened his mouth to compliment the culture, the cuisine, and the hospitality they had been shown.

The words never made it to his lips.

Gunshots shattered the bright June morning. Screams erupted from the audience, from the stage, and from the security teams as people scattered and dove for cover.

The crowd that had gathered for the historic announcement descended into complete chaos as panicked people trampled each other in an effort to escape.

The government officials and their families that had been seated on the stage seconds before were being drug from the area by their security teams or already lying on the stage floor, bleeding.

Security team members stumbled and slid through the wetness that now covered the floor as multiple people lay dead or dying.

Seconds stretched out like an eternity as Constantine turned his head wildly trying to find the source of the gunfire. Before he could react, a body hit his full force, tackling him to the ground.

There was a loud ringing in his ears, the gunshots and the screaming sounded dim and far away as darkness clouded the edges of his vision. He blinked rapidly trying to clear his senses as every survival instinct he possessed screamed at him to stay conscious.

He turned his head to the left and felt bile rise in his throat. The king of Auvernall lay mere feet away from him, unseeing eyes fixed and empty, his queen next to him gasping for air as her lifeblood ran out of a gaping hole in her chest.

His eyes swept the stage in horror searching for his own parents. The ground was covered in blood. Bodies lay everywhere. He spotted Eleanor being pulled from the stage by the head of her security detail, hands clutching at her stomach as blood soaked the fabric of her dress.

“No!” The scream tore from his throat as he began to struggle to get free. He had to get to her, to all of them. Why couldn’t he move?

His attention shifted to the body that lay motionless on top of him. Time suddenly sped up again as he gazed up into the face of the man who had shoved him out of the line of fire. The man who wasn’t moving. The man who was bleeding out on top of him.

Hot, sticky blood covered them both, but Constantine wasn’t bleeding.  

“Jack! Jack!” Terror clawed at his insides, panic washing over him as tears and snot smeared his face, “Wake up! Wake up!”

Then he was being pulled off the stage by another member of the King’s Guard as he fought with every ounce of strength he possessed to get back to the man he loved.

Three more guards joined the first and he lost the battle. He was pulled away from the danger as his lover lay in a puddle of blood, limp and unmoving.

[mymanreedus]

[ahatintime-oc-competition]

Round Two

Ozzy Walker ( @meepdrawartgood ) VS Connie ( @sleepyumbra )

Read about Ozzy Walker here

Read about Connie here

[americangirlstar]

American Girl – Kingdom Hearts AU

1/?

Kaya’aton’my of Windsmoke Woods, a forest world of natural beauty where Kaya learns to lead

Felicity Merriman and Elizabeth Cole of Revolutionary Points, a world at war where these girls fight to be seen

Caroline Abbott of Abbott Shipyard, a wide ocean world of sailors, traders, and pirates

Josefina Montoya of Rancho de Montoya, a farm world where young Josefina was gifted with healing magic

Marie-Grace Gardner and Cécile Rey of New Orleans Melodies, a musical Louisiana world brought together by friendship

Kirsten Larson of the Sunlit Frontier, a wide-open world where she has the chance to make a difference

Aduke “Addy” Walker of Freedom’s Pass, a dangerous world where Addy strives to defend her family

[commonguttersnipe]

Monty Python members as Starkids

(Literally my two personality traits)

Connie Booth- Meredith Stepien

Graham Chapman- Joe Walker

John Cleese- Joey Richter

Carol Cleveland- Lauren Lopez

Terry Gilliam- Jeff Blim

Eric Idle- Darren Criss

Neil Innes- AJ Holmes

Terry Jones- Brian Rosenthal

Michael Palin- Jon Matteson

[walrusmagazine]

How Connie Walker Got Us Listening

The Pulitzer Prize–winning podcaster is changing journalism as we know it

True crime podcasts typically aim to solve a mystery by finding an ending, by uncovering new evidence or pointing a finger at the likely killer, like a campfire story meant to thrill and frighten. Indigenous stories, too, are often reduced to their tragic endings: a brutal death, a haunting absence. But Walker goes in the other direction, by showing who a person was before they became a statistic, emphasizing the complexity and humanity of her subjects while avoiding the genre’s tendency to sensationalize the most lurid details of their deaths. And she reaches back even farther, to show how their life and death were shaped by the complex legacy of colonialism that ripples across generations.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Photography by Jordana Bermúdez (jordanabtp.com)

[1introvertedsage]

Hence, no progress or growth is possible until the shadow is adequately confronted - and confronting means more than merely knowing about it. It is not until we have truly been shocked into seeing ourselves as we really are, instead of as we wish or hopefully assume we are, that we can take the first step toward individual reality.

~Connie Zweig~

[scrollsofhumanlife]

Zenobia Connie Walker nee Richards (right) with a loved one

B. September 12th 1948 in Dallas, Texas

Athens, Texas

[angelasscribbles]

The Crown and the Shield Chapter 8: Healing

Series: The Crown and the Shield

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings: Constantine x Jackson

Word Count: 922

Rating: PG

Warnings for this chapter: none

Special thanks to @aussiegurl1234 for her input.

A/N: So, we finally come to the final chapter of this “one-shot” lol. I hope it meets expectations.

My other stuff: Master List.

“Today is the one-year anniversary of the Madrid Peace Summit Massacre,” the news anchor addressed the camera.

“It was a dark day for all our countries,” His co-host replied nodding her head sympathetically, “Isabella Hasapis was forced to take the Auverness throne when both her parents were killed, making her the youngest monarch in their history, ascending the throne at only sixteen. In Monterisso, the late queen’s sister was appointed as regent until crown princess Amalas is old enough to rule.”

Constantine turned the volume of the TV up as his mind ran back in time to the worst day of his life.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” the white-coated doctor stood with his hands in his pockets as he delivered the news, “We did everything we could. Heroic measures were employed but the injuries from the gunshot wounds were too grievous, and we were unable to save him.”

Constantine’s body shook with sobs. He let himself be led to a chair. He sank into it and dropped his head into his hands. He gathered his emotions as best he could and lifted his head, “And her?”

“I’m sorry, sir, again, the extent of the injuries-“

“So I’ve lost them both?”

“I’m very sorry for your loss. Would you like to see your wife now?”

“Connie, why are you watching this?” Eleanor took the remote from his hand and clicked the TV off just as the footage of his remarks from the south lawn of the palace earlier in the day began to play.

He turned to her with tears in his eyes, “It was the day I lost both my parents. The day I almost lost you. I don’t know how Leo and Liam would have-“

“Hey, we don’t have to worry about that. I’m here. I made it and so did you.”

“Thanks to Jack.”

“Yes,” she agreed, “Thanks to Jack. Speaking of him…don’t you have somewhere to be?”

He glanced at the clock on the wall and jumped to his feet, “Shit! Yes! I have to go!”

“It’s fine, go!” She shooed him out of their private living room, one hand at the small of her back and the other resting on her burgeoning stomach as she felt the baby kick. “Settle down, Lena. You have a month left in there.”

She missed her in-laws, but she was grateful that both she and her husband had been spared. The bullet had hit her in the side. There had been a lot of blood, but no major organs had been damaged.

She would have joined the king, but she was on partial bedrest for the duration of the pregnancy. She had told Constantine to give her love to the Walker family. She would be forever grateful for the sacrifices made that day.

Constantine stepped out of the limo and approached the group gathered around the gravesite. He made his way to Bianca and swept her into a hug before doing the same with Drake and Savannah in turn.

He stepped forward and touched the cold marble of the marker, his fingers tracing the etching. His throat constricted as he croaked out, “He died a hero.”

“That he did. He stepped right in front of that bullet.”

Constantine turned toward the voice with a solemn expression, “So did you.”

“Damned straight I did! And I’d do it again!”

The king pulled the other man into a tight embrace as he fought back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him, “Don’t joke about that, Jack, I almost lost you that day!”

It had been touch and go for two weeks. Constantine had never left his side.

“I’m not joking,” Jackson hugged him back.

Constantine had tried to get him to transfer to a less dangerous position, but Jackson had refused. There was no one else he trusted to safeguard the man he loved.

“Eleanor sends her love to all of you,” Constantine pushed out of Jackson’s arms and turned back to the monument, “We know how much Bastien meant to you.”

“He was like family,” Bianca agreed.

“He didn’t hesitate to take that bullet for her,” Jackson removed a flask of whiskey from his jacket pocket and held it up to the monument in salute, “Here’s to the best junior officer I ever had the privilege of training.”

“To Bastien!” the little group chorused.

When the gathering was over, Constantine and Jackson walked back to the limo together, hand in hand.

The perpetrators of the attack had all been brought to justice and The Liberation Core dismantled. There was some amount of closure in that.

Eleanor had taken the news of his relationship with Jackson in stride.

“I suspected, Connie. But it doesn’t change anything for me. I love you, and I love our boys.”

The only thing she had asked him for was another child. A chance for a girl and he’d given it to her.

In return, she’d given him complete acceptance of his relationship with Jackson.

He was as happy as he could be while still grieving his parents. He would always miss them, but he had a baby on the way, a queen who understood him, and the love of his life by his side.

Next year for his birthday, Jackson was getting that white water rafting trip. Constantine had already booked it. Just the two of them…give or take a few dozen guardsmen.

He glanced at the man next to him with happiness in his heart. He was healing, Cordonia was healing, and the future looked bright.  

~fin

[mymanreedus]