One Feather Two Pens: Episode 16 - Bridging the Indigenous Divide

About this episode

Darian Ducharme discusses digital literacy and cyber safety in Indigenous communities, highlighting the challenges and opportunities presented by technology.

In this episode, we sit down with Darian Ducharme from Teqare, a digital literacy and cyber safety educator from Lac Seul First Nation who has worked with more than 70 Indigenous communities and over 100 schools across Turtle Island. Darian shares how his work brings him into First Nations communities to teach youth, Elders, and adults about cyber safety, financial literacy, digital privacy, and the rapidly changing risks associated with social media, AI, and online scams. Our conversation explores the realities of digital life in remote and northern communities, where many people are only now gaining reliable internet access through technologies such as Starlink. Darian reflects on how some communities are navigating digital risks that urban Canadians encountered more than a decade ago, while simultaneously confronting entirely new challenges tied to AI-generated content, deepfakes, misinformation, and online surveillance. Together, we discuss everything from scam culture and phishing attacks to AI-generated videos, data harvesting, and the hidden economies behind social media platforms and smartphone apps. We also explore the tension between digital opportunity and digital…

People in this episode

Hosts: Tommy Cooke, Allan Coombs

Guest: Darian Ducharme

Topics covered

• digital literacy
• cyber safety
• Indigenous communities
• social media risks
• AI challenges
• language preservation

Keywords

• digital literacy
• cyber safety
• Indigenous youth
• social media
• AI
• online scams
• financial literacy
• digital privacy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Teqare

Places: Lac Seul First Nation, Turtle Island

More episodes of What’s That Noise?!

• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 15 – Digital Innovation in Indigenous Housing · April 1, 2026 · 43 min
• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 14 - Building Indigenous Digital Identity · January 27, 2026 · 40 min
• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 13 - Carving Digital Pathways · September 16, 2025 · 38 min
• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 12 - Rebuilding Nations & Healing Economics · July 21, 2025 · 36 min
• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 11 - Coastal Sovereignty and the Canadian Royal Navy · January 10, 2025 · 46 min
• One Feather Two Pens: Episode 10 - Listen and Learn with Indigenous Data · October 25, 2024 · 42 min