Wai? Indigenous Words and Ideas

About Wai? Indigenous Words and Ideas

Hosted by an urban and mobile Wīnak (Mayan) with roots in Iximulew (Guatemala), an upbringing in Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley, Utah), and in relation with Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Te Moana Nui a Kiwa (The Great Pacific Ocean). Wai? [pronounced why] (W.A.I.: Words and Ideas) is a podcast based on various issues, topics, and perspectives including critical analysis, reflection, dialogue, and commentary on culture, society, education, history, Indigeneity, and more. The purpose of this project is to share words and ideas that are locally meaningful, globally relevant, and critically conscious.

Publisher

Arcia Tecun

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Dec 2019

Latest episode

22 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

61 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Aug 2026

   Ep. 61: Spatial and Community Planning with Joaquín Lopez-Huertas

   Am'aj Q'in, Dr. Joaquín Lopez-Huertas joins this episode to discuss Indigenous planning. He is a K’iche’ scholar from Xelajuj No’j, Iximulew who begins by sharing some of his background in architecture and urban planning. Lopez-Huertas adds insights on identity and global Indigeneity as it relates to spatial relationships with land, pushing beyond a technical field of planning with an Indigenous futurity lens. He challenges dominant frameworks of research and community engagement, amplifying how Indigenous communities already plan and design space for themselves based on values that prioritise well-being. He shares experience with Mayan communities including K’iche’-Maya in Xelajuj No’j, as well as Ixil-Maya in Chajul, in order to highlight alternative governance systems that advocate for land/nature and Indigenous rights. Additionally, this is put into conversation with contexts such as Diné Bikéyah or Navajo Nation and its constitution and land policies. We discuss different theories that appear simultaneously when working with a global Indigenous lens like settler-colonialism and coloniality. This provides an opportunity to expand how we think and govern by considering multiple complex settings, identities, and experiences. Lopez-Huertas offers a rich critical reflection on Indigenous ways of being and knowing in relation to place and community that thrive in the decolonial cracks of re-existence. Notes on Terms: K’iche’ means many trees when literally translated, and it is also an ethnolinguistic community, and a highland Maya group that is prominent in Iximulew; Xelajuj N’oj literally means ten wisdom and is derived from ‘xe’ meaning ‘under/beneath’ and the number ten (lajuj), and the nahual or calendrical totem ‘no’j,’ which refers to wisdom, ideas, thought, intelligence. Xelajuj N’oj can be interpreted symbolically as beneath ten wisdom/mountain because it is surrounded by mountainous and volcanic peaks and is temporally located to a sacred calendar date. Alternatively, there are also some other interpretations like the ten thoughts, ten mountains, ten wise-persons, ten domains, or ten guardians/deities. Xela (pronounced Shell-ah) is a common shorthand for the contemporary town that has the colonial name of Quetzaltenango that comes from Nahuatl speaking allies of the Spanish conquistadores. The Pop Wuj also records Xelajuj K’ej as the ancestral name of this place referring to the nahual or calendrical totem of ‘K’ej’ or deer, meaning Ten Deer or Under Ten Deer, perhaps in reference to a foundation date; ladino is a Guatemalan term for mestizo or mixed race person but often delineates a class-culture ontological identity rather than a strictly ancestral or racial one; Iximulew is a Maya term for Guatemala that literally translates to corn earth, but can symbolically refer to the land of corn or the world of the corn people; Diné Bikéyah refers to the homeland and territory of Diné or Navajo peoples; Tółikan refers to sweet or pleasant water, which is also a community near the four corners region on Navajo Nation; Alcaldías indigenas refers to the Indigenous mayoralities or mayor offices in Guatemala; Pop Wuj or Popol Vuh is a text that contains a K’iche’ version of Maya cosmogony recorded in Latin characters in the 16th century, which means the book/paper of the mat/woven mat/council in the K’iche’ language. References: Joaquín Lopez-Huertas – Beyond Refusal: Balancing Colonial Land Ownership in Planning; Planning in Re-existence: Decolonial Cracks and Indigenous Futurities; ‘We don’t believe they are dead, they are just resting’: Indigenous knowledges as epistemological reclamation in planning. Joaquín Lopez-Huertas, Maggie Low, James Miller, and Michelle Thompson-Fawcett – Indigenous Planning: Cracking Coloniality Through Everyday Practices Audra Simpson – Mohawk Interruptus: Political life across the borders of settler states Adolfo Albán Achinte – Prácticas creativas de re-existencia: más allá del arte…

2. 

   14 Jul 2026

   Ep.60: MMIR Utah with Tammy Dee Platero

   Tammy Dee Platero joins this episode to share her background in computer science and her current work as the executive director of MMIR Utah (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Utah, non-profit organisation). Platero introduces some of her tech interest, explains terms, shares stories growing up in Utah, and the call to do Indigenous community work full-time. MMIR Utah is working on a community database that responds to gaps from under-reporting based in a lack of trust, which stems out of a history of colonial violence that extends into the present. We discuss several topics including Indigenous data sovereignty, historical contexts, the founding of the MMIR Utah non-profit org, and the complexity of intersecting social and ecological issues. Platero demonstrates an interconnected consciousness along with a message of rematriation that is embedded in campaigns to repair relationships, reclaim narratives, assert sovereignty, and proactively create. References: MMIR Utah The First Nations Principles of OCAP Animikii U.S. Indigenous Data Sovereignty Network Lamanite Program Utah legislative MMIR task force report Colorado Office of the Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Playing Indian by Philip J. Deloria The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism by Gerald Horne Urban Indian Health Institute Report Mychaela Parrish Medicine Forward Project UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples

3. 

   30 May 2026

   Ep. 59: Indigenous Time and Space Part 2 – Neo/Niu/Knew Tā-Vā

   This episode engages with both the thought and practice of interconnectivity and collective consciousness in Indigenous theory. Niu/Knew/Neo Tā-Vā is framed as a talanoa/tzijonïk/storying conversation between Tāvāism, critical and global Indigenous theory. Mayan philosophy of time space is introduced and demonstrated to have overlaps with ideas of reality and life in Tā-Vā, which is explored along with critical thought. Some themes include: apocalyptic thought and response to change; cross cultural connections of shared social values; temporality beyond linearity; and calibrating actions. The role of sacrifice in sharing time-space is also considered in this emerging project, which is one of shifting the hoa (pairing) of Tā-Vā from dominant to global Indigenous philosophical traditions. References: Giovanni Batz. The Fourth Invasion. University of California Press, 2024. Floridalma Boj Lopez. Indigenous Archives. Duke University Press, 2026. Octavia E. Butler. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993. Octavia E. Butler. Parable of the Talents. New York: Warner Books, 1998. Lewis Gordon. A philosophical look at Black music. Quinnipiac University (26 Sep 2019). Epeli Hau‘ofa. We are the ocean: Selected works. University of Hawaii Press, 2008. Tēvita Kaʻili. “Ancestral Voices of the Sea: Hearing the Past to Lead the Future.” In Anne Perez Hattori and  Jane Samson (Eds.), The Cambridge History of The Pacific Ocean Volume II: The Pacific Ocean Since 1800. Cambridge University Press, 2023. Miguel León-Portilla. Time and Reality in the Thought of the Maya. University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. Alexus McLeod. Philosophy of the ancient Maya: Lords of time. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017. Manulani Aluli Meyer. “Holographic epistemology: Native common sense.” China Media Research, 9(2), 2013. Victor Montejo. Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures. State University of New York Press, 2021. Arcia Tecun, ‘Inoke Hafoka, Lavinia ‘Ulu ‘ave, and Moana ‘Ulu ‘ave-Hafoka. "Talanoa: Tongan epistemology and Indigenous research method." AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 14, no. 2 (2018): 156-163. Teresia Teaiwa. “On analogies: Rethinking the Pacific in a global context.” The Contemporary Pacific 18 (1), 2006: 71-87. Victor Turner. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Aldine Publishing, 1969. Sione Vaka. A Tongan approach of integrating mental health care. TedxNuku’alofa (2 Dec 2021).

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 39 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

45

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.