Today on a special Idle No More edition of The Current hosted by The National's Duncan McCue in Vancouver, a sit-down with Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, racial tensions in the Idle No more era and the music behind the movement.

Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation ended her 44-day hunger strike yesterday with a plea for indigenous people to unite and keep pressing the Crown to honour Aboriginal and treaty rights. At about the same time, Shawn Atleo was making the same point about unity to chiefs in British Columbia. We haven't heard from the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations since his big meeting with the Prime Minister on January 11... after which Atleo took sick and took a leave of absence. Questions have swirled ever since and today Atleo is sitting down to answer some of them.

---

First Nations Divided: Idle No More and AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo

The norovirus laid National Chief Shawn Atleo pretty low, though he'd already been worn down by weeks of stressful negotiations with Ottawa and by fending off challenges to his leadership.
   
His doctor recommended rest, but the break came at a tense moment for the Assembly of First Nations. Some Regional Chiefs were in revolt, refusing to meet with the Prime Minister and speculating about National Chief Atleo's future.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence caught national attention with her liquids-only hunger strike. And the growing movement known as Idle No More demanded immense social and political change, now.

National Chief Shawn Atleo is back at work. We caught up with him yesterday at the Musqueam Community Recreation Centre in Vancouver.



First Nations Divided: Idle No More and AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo

Our next guest believes that in some ways, the conflict of the last few weeks is just a symptom of a much larger problem with Aboriginal governance. Taiaiake Alfred is the Director of the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria and a member of the Kahnawake First Nation. He joined us from Victoria.

This segment was produced by The Current's Gord Westmacott.

Other segment's from today's show:

• Idle No More and tensions in Thunder Bay
• Idle No More: Does every revolution have a soundtrack?