Mixed/adopted Mi’kmaq Newfoundland poet Douglas Walbourne-Gough’s debut collection, Crow Gulch (Goose Lane 2019) unearths an almost forgotten history of a community known as Crow Gulch, a mostly shaded and stigmatized area around Corner Brook built when the newsprint mill was constructed in 1920s. While...
Engraving of Columbus arriving at Hispaniola. Courtesy of the US Library of Congress Columbus is my least favorite word. Columbus Day, Columbus statues, towns named after Columbus, streets and circles and squares named Columbus, Columbus parks—I have a problem with all of them, and likely always will. A...
From residential schools to missing and murdered women to environmental destruction to white fragility to lateral violence to colonialism in academia to truth and (re)conciliation there is no issue impacting Indigenous peoples that is not touched upon in Encounters. The opening scene depicts a competiti...
Scene from The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open | Image source: TIFF.net The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open is a deep contemplative film that reflects on the many layers of privilege that exist within Indigenous communities. The film debuted at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival...
Film still from Kuessipan | Image source: TIFF Myriam Verreault directs newcomers Sharon Fontaine-Ishpatao and Yamie Gregoire in a poetically written coming of age story that follows the friendship of two Innu girls from childhood into adolescence. Kuessipan means “to you” or “your turn” in Innu, projec...
Jordan River Anderson with his mother, Virginia Anderson | Image source: NFB Alanis Obomsawin’s 53rd documentary Jordan River Anderson – The Messenger will make its debut at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) on Sept 10, 2019. The film tells the decade long journey that took place in order...
Image: Carl Beam (Canadian, 1943 – 2005). Sitting Bull and Whale [from the Columbus Suite] (detail), 1990. Etching on Arches paper. Gift of Douglas A. Hendler. Whenever I move or visit a new city, the first place I go to is the art gallery. It’s how I orient, and in a way, how I make ...
Metis poet Michelle Porter believes all poetry is inquiry. A journalist by trade, and an academic by training (she holds a PhD in Geography from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador), Porter’s debut poetry collection, Inquiries (Breakwater 2019), beautifully illustrates how she questions her...
Still from Wawatay | Image source: Montreal First Peoples Festival Into its 29th year, the Montreal First Peoples Festival runs for a week in August and is established as one of the first and largest festivals in North America celebrating Indigenous cinema, arts, and culture. The festival was originall...
Still from Even in the Silence | Image source: Montreal First Peoples Festival “Indigenous people are used as pawns in a way to tell stories that are exploitative. Regarding culture, and our identity; It’s important to have as many Indigenous filmmakers telling our own stories.” says Jonathan Elliott,...
