September 21st, 2023 announcement about the preliminary findings at St Mary’s Residential School, Coqualeetza Residential School, All Hallows School, and Coqualeetza Indian Hospital.
After decades of waiting, Aboriginal Canadians received a formal apology from the federal government on June 11, 2008. This landmark event in Canadian history recognized the loss of culture caused by the church-run residential schools that thousands of Aboriginal children were forced to attend. It also acknowledged the physical and sexual abuse that many suffered in those institutions. Stolen Children explores the impact of residential schools on former students and their children and grandchildren. Survivors share their harrowing experiences and discuss the legacy of fear, abuse and suicide being passed down from generation to generation. The words of successive Canadian politicians and bureaucrats are revealed against a backdrop of archival footage, a chilling reminder of the policies and convictions that drove the government of the day to seek "a final solution to the Indian problem." The report also includes the original broadcast of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology, the apology of Stéphane Dion, Leader of the Official Opposition, and reaction from the Aboriginal community and Aboriginal leaders.
Focuses on the place of education in renewing Indigenous culture and tradition. The film is part of a larger Social Science and Humanities Council funded study and is based on interviews with the children and grandchildren of residential school survivors first interviewed for a 1986 study done by Celia Haig-Brown. The offspring are actively engaging in regenerative educational initiatives such as art, language immersion schools, traditional wilderness camps and filmmaking. Helen Haig-Brown, Celia's neice and the daughter of one of the initial residential school survivors interviewed, is not only a participant and co-investigator in the project but the film's director and co-writer. The research explores with selected children and grandchildren of the survivors of residential schools the place of education in renewing culture and language. In this case, education refers to both formal schooling and other less direct approaches to teaching and learning. Specifically, the guiding question is: What is the role of education in the regeneration of Aboriginal/First Nations cultures and languages? How does it serve the re-creation of indigenous knowledges in contemporary contexts?"
The rights of First Nations children take centre stage in this monumental documentary. Following a historic court case filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the Child and Family Caring Society of Canada against the federal government, Alanis Obomsawin exposes generations of injustices endured by First Nations children living on reserves and their families. Through passionate testimony and unwavering conviction, frontline childcare workers and experts including Cindy Blackstock take part in a decade-long court battle to ensure these children receive the same level of care as other Canadian children. Their case against Canada is a stark reminder of the disparities that persist in First Nations communities and the urgent need for justice to be served.