IPK 386, Indigenous Worldviews of North America

The Indigenous peoples of northern British Columbia still hunt and fish, using a combination of traditional ways and modern equipment and techniques where appropriate. Lumbering and trapping bring them money and goods. Their traditional arts and crafts, however, remain essentially unchanged. This archival film reflects the social and cultural values and beliefs prevalent at the time of production.

Director Mirjam Leuze’s The Whale and the Raven illuminates the many issues that have drawn whale researchers, the Gitga’at First Nation, and the Government of British Columbia into a complex conflict. As the people in the Great Bear Rainforest struggle to protect their territory against the pressure and promise of the gas industry, caught in between are the countless beings that call this place home.

In The Mountain of SGaana, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the spirit world, and the young woman who rescues him. The film brilliantly combines traditional animation with formal elements of Haida art, and is based on a story inspired by a old Haida fable.

This feature-length documentary chronicles the Sundance ceremony brought to Eastern Canada by William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation of the Mi'kmaq. Nevin learned from Elder Keith Chiefmoon of the Blackfoot Confederacy in Alberta. Under the July sky, participants in the Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. Then they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. This event marks a transmission of culture and a link to the warrior traditions of the past.

This film follows the story of Chloe Dragon Smith, a young Metis woman from the small northern city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is of Chipewyan and European heritage and she grew up close to her Indigenous cultural values and learned traditional skills for living on the land. This northern upbringing shaped her values today.

Helen Knott, a Dane-Zaa/Nehiyaw social worker, poet and activist, explores the connection between violence against Indigenous women and violence against the land. She takes us through the dramatic changes she’s witnessed in her home territory, as woodlands have disappeared to make way for pipelines. On the streets of Fort St. John, Helen and a fellow lifetime resident reflect on how a city of familiar faces is now overrun with strangers who have minimal personal attachment to the area. She leaves us with a deeper perspective into why she does the work she does — and her hopes for a new world.

How could this potentially deadly conflict be stopped before turning into another Oka or Waco? Here is the inside story, a behind the scenes chronicle exploring the issues as understood by the warriors, native chiefs, spiritual leaders, law enforcement officers and psychologists working to stem a bloodbath.

More than Words is a set of stories that looks at why Indigenous languages matter. These stories introduce people determined to reawaken the many languages across the country. Produced in partnership with the Reporting in Indigenous Communities course at UBC's Graduate School of Journalism.

In early 2020, Coastal GasLink started work on a 670-kilometre, multi-billion dollar pipeline project designed to move natural gas from the B.C Interior to the West Coast. That pipeline goes through the traditional territory of the Wet'suwet'en people. The company claimed it had authority from both the province and 20 First Nations band councils, including five Wet'suwet'en Nation band councils. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, however, say they are the decision makers on natural resources on their lands and were not consulted. Supporters of the hereditary chiefs shut down rail lines and staged large solidarity protests in numerous cities across Canada. This story looks at the unfolding of recent events, and it also looks back to the landmark Delgamuukw case in 1997 that a precedent for how treaty rights are understood in Canadian courts.

What is the Indian Act and why Canada still have it on the books? The Secret Life team looks at the roots of this complicated policy, which after 143 years is still embedded in Canadian identity, from the policy that led to the Act to how it still impacts Indigenous identities today.

Four Faces of the Moon follows the animated journey of an Indigenous photographer as she travels through time. She witnesses moments in her family's history and strengthens her connection to her Métis, Cree and Anishnaabe ancestors. This is a personal story, told in four chapters through the eyes of director and writer Amanda Strong. The oral and written history of her family reveals the story — we witness the impact and legacy of the railways, the slaughter of the buffalo and colonial land policies.

Anishinaabe reporter Lenard Monkman asked elder Wilfred Buck of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba to share the Cree story of the winter solstice.