Indigenous

A new generation of Inuit are stepping into the world of activism, taking on animal rights protesters to defend their traditional hunting practices. Battling misinformation and uniformed, unqualified voices, Arnaquq-Baril shows what sealing means to her community and culture.

• Inuit Defend Canada’s Seal Hunt
• Seals & Sealing Network - Sealing Culture: The North
• Inuvialuit exempted from European Union seal product import ban - CBC North
• Failure of EU exemption of Inuit seal products - Nunatsiaq News

In this animated short, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the explorer plants another, and another, and another, while the hunter, clearly not impressed that his land has been “discovered,” quietly goes about his business. In this charming and humorous re-imagining of first contact between Inuit and European, Jonathan Wright brings us the story of a savvy hunter and the ill-equipped explorer he outwits.

Ryan McMahon travels across Ontario speaking to Indigenous and settler lawyers, historians, researchers and policy makers who provide history, context and solutions surrounding the interconnected roadways built by the colonial government to bring settlers across the country, connect them with resources to create industry and create a nation.

• List of Colonization Roads in Ontario - Wikipedia
• What to do with Canada’s colonial statues, street names? - APTN News Video
• Public monuments should represent history and reconciliation, not celebrate Canada’s colonization - CBC

During World War II, Charles "Checker" Tomkins fought the enemy with a different kind of weapon. As a code talker in the Canadian military, he used his knowledge of the native Cree language to help develop a top-secret communication system to defeat the Germans.

Determined to rise to the top of her sport, this short profiles Indigenous MMA fighter Ashley Nichols. Nichols turned to MMA as a means of escape and self-protection, but came away with much more, discovering her own inner strength and way to balance her physical and spiritual health.

• Ottawa MMA fighter aiming high, hoping to inspire Indigenous youth - CBC
• Ashley Nichols's athlete profile
• History of MMA - Britannica

his collection of personal stories profiles lawyer and advocate Dr. Pamela Palmater, pro-lacrosse player Lyle Thompson, and entrepreneur Jenn Harper, focusing on their individual successes and challenges they have overcome. In telling their stories, the subjects discuss the power of resilience and share their dreams for future generations.

• Dr. Pamela Palmater’s official website
• Lyle Thompson's Wikipedia page
• How Cheekbone Beauty Founder Jenn Harper is Empowering Indigenous Youth - Fashion Magazine

Welcome to a world of horse racing few will know. The film follows the return of the Blackfoot bareback horse racing tradition in a new form: the Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison Red Crow struggles to build a team with second-hand horses and a new jockey, Cody Big Tobacco. We see Cody take on the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy at the Calgary Stampede.

• Aboriginal Sports Circle website
• World Indigenous Games Wikipedia page
• "The most exciting sport you’ll ever see:" Indian relay takes off in northern Alberta - CBC
• Siksika Nation

With no high school in her Northern community, Miranda must move 500 km away for grade nine. Back home, her parents worry that she’ll lose her connection to language and traditional teachings. (CBC)

• Education of Indigenous Peoples in Canada - The Canadian Encyclopedia
• How far would you go for education? (Meet young Indigenous people who have to leave home in the name of education - and who are finding ways to stay connected to where they're from) - CBC Podcast
• Grading the Gap

Profiling decorated WWII hero Thomas George Prince, this video covers his upbringing just north of Winnipeg, in the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, his career and accomplishments in the Canadian Armed Forces, and his activism for Indigenous peoples.

• Tommy Prince - The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Tommy Prince Heritage Minute
• Call grows to put Indigenous war hero Tommy Prince on $5 bill - CBC
• Indigenous Soldiers, Foreign Battlefields - Veterans Affairs Canada

Urgent and timely, Invasion documents the Unist’ot’en camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint and larger Wet’suwet’en First Nation as they stand up to the Canadian government and corporations behind the Coastal GasLink pipeline, opposing colonial violence in an era of supposed reconciliation. (Mariam Zaidi, Hot Docs)

• Unist’ot’en website
• Wet’suwet’en Conflict archive - APTN News
• Wet’suwet’en sign historic deal to negotiate land rights - The Guardian
• Living Treaties - 20 years ago the Supreme Court ruled on Mi’kmaq fishing rights, so what has changed?

Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland practice the Inuk art of throat singing in their small village of Kangirsuk. Their mesmerizing voices carry through the four seasons of their Arctic land.

When the Nova Scotia government mandates Northern Pulp to clean up their site in Pictou County, it is a victory for many members of the community. The Pictou Mill is the most polluted site in Nova Scotia, contaminating the water of the largely Indigenous land it is located on. The good news of the cleanup, however, comes with financial and environmental consequences that spark tensions in the region.

• Timeline: A post-colonial history of Boat Harbour - The Chronicle Herald
• For 50+ years, pulp mill waste has contaminated Pictou Landing First Nation’s land in Nova Scotia
• Northern Pulp is no longer in production. So what’s ahead for Pictou County? - CBC
• Environmental Racism Wikipedia page

Featuring Kanehsatake residents and Indigenous community activists, the film retraces the events that took place in filmmaker Sonia Bonspille-Boileu’s hometown of Kanehsatake in 1990 and how the 78-day Okay Crisis transformed Indigenous identity in Canada.

• Oka Crisis - The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Kanesatake land claims remain unresolved 30 years after Oka Crisis - Global News
• Major Indigenous protests in recent Canadian history - CTV

12 year-old identical twins Tapwewin (Truth) and Pawaken (Totem) have never cut their hair. In Cree culture, and in many Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, hair represents our sacred connection to AsKi, the Earth. Growing the hair is a manifestation of the growth of spirit. (CBC)

• Why ceremony and culture are so important to Cree documentary filmmaker Jules Koostachin
• Beyond braids: the true story of Indigenous hair - i-D Magazine
• Boys With Braids Facebook page

The history of residential schools in Canada can be traced to the 17^th century. This short video notes significant dates—from the landing of Jesuits in what is now known as Quebec to the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in 2015.

This Ink Runs Deep features Indigenous tattoo artists across Canada who are reviving ancestral traditions that disappeared during colonization. Through the film, we learn about the practices that were thought to be lost forever, and how their revival reflects a reawakening of Indigenous identity. (CBC)

• Why getting her first tattoo is so meaningful for this 74-year-old Inuit elder - CBC
• Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project Facebook page
• Indigenous Tattooing - database for images and information regarding international Indigenous tattooing practices
• Sacred Rites: Preserving Indigenous Tattoos

When Texas-based SWN Resources arrives in New Brunswick to explore for natural gas, a multicultural group of warriors, including members of the Mi’kmaq Elsipogtog First Nation, French-speaking Acadians, and English-speaking families, set up a series of road blockages to prevent exploration and protect their water and way of life.

• Council of Canada’s Fracker Tracker
• New Brunswick Indigenous chiefs left ‘blindsided’ by decision to lift fracking moratorium - Global News
• How does fracking work? - TED-Ed video