#kanehsatake

[fidelio316]

I was there!

1990 -  When developers and the town of Oka wanted to start building a golf course on stolen land that belonged to them and that contained a sacred grove and a burial ground, the Mohawk tribe around Kanehsatake, Quebec, rose up and occupied the area. The mayor of Oka sent in SWAT teams to make the construction possible. 

After chasing off the police and construction workers, members of the tribe use a front-end loader that was left behind to build barricades from the abandoned police vehicles, blockading a highway. Ultimately the stand-off with the police and the Canadian army lasted 78 days.

From this great documentary: [Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance]

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[walrusmagazine]

At Ninety-One, Alanis Obomsawin Is Not Ready to Put Down Her Camera

She revolutionized cinema and is inspiring the next generation of Indigenous filmmakers

Until a few years ago, the National Film Board was headquartered in a sprawling suburban complex off a Montreal highway. In 2019, it moved into its new downtown space, a slick thirteen-storey building designed with Obomsawin in mind. In a reception room on the main floor, a recording of an interview with her plays on loop. On the second floor is the 138-seat Alanis Obomsawin Theatre. A few floors above, a still from Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance covers the wall of a conference room. If her work and image are part of the building’s DNA, it’s because she has become, as Wente puts it, the raison d’être of Canada’s public film producer and distributor. “If you were to ask me why the NFB should exist,” Wente tells me, “she’s why. She’s who I would point to.”

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Stills and photography from When All the Leaves Are Gone (2010), Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), Christmas at Moose Factory (1971), and Incident at Restigouche (1984), courtesy of the National Film Board

[directedbywomen]

Celebrating Alanis Obomsawin!

"Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki) is a trailblazing artist, performer and activist celebrated internationally as one of Canada’s most distinguished documentary filmmakers.... Her films address the struggles of Indigenous peoples in Canada from their perspective, giving prominence to voices that have long been ignored or dismissed."

Streaming now through January 30, 2023 in Media City Film Festival's Thousand Suns Cinema:

Christmas at Moose Factory, 13 min, 1971

My Name Is Kahentiiosta, 29 min, 1995

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, 119 min, 1993

'After the government told the film crew that they couldn’t guarantee their safety should a fight occur, only Obomsawin stayed. “I saw so many people, like the warriors, having so much courage—feeling that they had a mission in going through with this. I felt like I had the courage enough to stay there and document it, and that’s how the film got made.”' Read more in Canada’s Documentary Essentials: ‘Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance’,

Find out more about Obomsawin's filmography on MUBI:

[wickedsrest-rp]

Name: Okwaho Samantha Walker Species: Human (Non-powered) Occupation: Owner of Escape Your Fate Comics Age: 28 Years Old Played By: Sunny Face Claim: Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs

"I think I need to step away from the comic books and horror movies for a while…"

TW: Hate crime

Okwaho Samantha Walker was born at a time of unrest. But her birth had been a miracle for her parents. Growing up in Kanehsatà:ke, merely years after the civil unrest between governing bodies and sovereign nations, had proved to be a challenge for Sam’s parents, but the little girl didn’t know any difference. To her, life was good. Surrounded by a loving family, including her grandma and grandpa and many aunties, uncles, and cousins.

It's where she had learned to respect her elders. And grew up with the traditions of the Mohawk people of Kanehsatake. It’s where she first discovered her love of comic books and superheroes. And watched her family cook fry bread and other filling meals during celebrations and loss. But the unrest that remained just in the background of their daily life had once again come to rear its ugly head when the young girl was just eight years old, and it left Samantha’s parents with the tough decision to move leaving behind everything the young girl had ever known about her life, including her family and friends.

Wicked’s Rest, Maine, at first, was boring and intimidating. Sam hadn’t known a single soul at her new school, and she had felt like the odd girl out. The people talked differently and most of the kids stared at her making her feel uncomfortable. For the now nine year old girl, she felt lost and alone. At least until she had met her best friend Zach. It was like an instant connection and as the years went on, the two grew closer and closer.

He introduced her to more than just X-Men comics and bands like Ice Nine Kills and A7X. She introduced him to shitty horror movies and taught him about her culture and introduced him to her family back home via Skype and Facetime calls. They were inseparable; two outcasts who took care of each other when times were tough. And when she got into UMWR for Business, he made sure to celebrate her achievements with the most ridiculous cake and a night out she knew she’d never forget.

Fast forward several years and Sam had finally achieved her dreams of opening her own comic book store aptly deemed Escape Your Fate Comics. Zach was working as a mechanic at his dad’s business, and the two were sharing an apartment in downtown Wicked’s Rest off of Amity Road.

But once again, fate seemed to intervene in Sam’s life leaving her in a state of shock and Zach’s lifeless form laying in an alley just behind the body shop his family owned.

The night had been like any other. Sam had come by after closing up her shop to see how much longer her friend was working and figure out dinner plans, but the instant commotion out back had prompted her to move through the garage and towards the back door to find Zach defending a random stranger who had cowered near a fence. Sam, who had picked up a nearby crowbar, was just about to make her way to her friend, when she noticed a woman, much shorter and smaller than Zach, lift him up by his neck and within a matter of seconds, had squeezed the life out of him, before dropping him leaving her lackeys, including the man who had been cowering in the corner, to feed on him.

In fear and shock, Sam took off on foot, running as fast and as far as she could, before she realized what she had done. It had taken everything within her to go back and to call the police. Life after that had changed drastically and it was as if she were running on autopilot. So much so, that sleep started to become nearly impossible.

Days faded into nights which faded into days again, and while she had thought she had been coping for the most part, she had noticed something strange happening. The people around her seemed to morph and form into what looked like something out of one of the many comic books she had sold. And the longer it went on, the more she realized it was taking her mind off of the recurring thoughts of watching the closest person in her life die.

But now, Sam can’t help but wonder if she’s really losing herself and her grip on reality, or if something more has been going on around her than she previously thought. Whatever it is, she knows that Zach would have gotten a kick out of it, and in some strange way, it almost feels as if he’s still right there with her, but she’s gotta decide if this is really the life she wants to continue to lead and could it lead to answers of what killed her best friend that fateful night?

Character Facts:

Personality: Paranoid, cautious, tired, sarcastic, caring, adventurous, creative, curious, perceptive, imaginative

She was born in Kanehsatà:ke (Kanesatake), Quebec, Canada and lived on the reservation until her parents decided to move to Wicked's Rest, Maine when she was eight years old.

Sam’s first comic book was a random X-Men comic she found in a trash can at school, when she was just six years old. From then on she was hooked and wanted to read any and every comic book she could get her hands on.

Sam has a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Scout. He’s her best friend, and she doesn’t go anywhere without him.

Sam was finally able to make one of her dreams come true, when she opened Escape Your Fate Comics a year or so ago.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. 

She has an extensive collection of Converse shoes, which takes up a good majority of her closet.

Sam loves metal and rock music and horror movies. However, recently, she’s started to question her taste in movies after something horrific happened to her and her best friend.

[mywifeleftme]

17: Alanis Obomsawin // Bush Lady

Bush Lady Alanis Obomsawin 1985, Radio Canada (Bandcamp)

A review of the well-meaning things I meant to say about Alanis Obomsawin’s Bush Lady

“No matter how accomplished Obomsawin’s sole LP, 1988’s cult classic Bush Lady may be, it’s naturally overshadowed by her extensive work as a documentary filmmaker. Her searing Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (available to stream for free from the National Film Board), covering the 1990 Oka standoff between local Indigenous land defenders, Quebec police, and the Canadian military, is a landmark. Her films are celebrated, broadcast on public television, and taught in schools.”

1.5/5—Book report quality. This is a not-very-slick way of admitting the only one of her movies I’ve seen in her most famous one. Also saying a director’s films are “celebrated, broadcast on public television, and taught in schools” in Canada sounds a lot like saying not many people have actually seen them.

“Her roots as a singer-songwriter predate her filmmaking, however. By the late 1950s, when she was in her twenties, she was performing and writing original songs in the Waban-Aki/Abenaki language, English, and French, but her recordings are sporadic prior to cutting this set at the CBC in the mid-1980s. The material was scantly issued at the time, and it probably found its widest listenership after a 2018 reissue by Constellation Records.”

2/5—Solid enough exposition, though it does beg the question why I didn’t just paste in the press release from the label.

“Bush Lady finds her singing and playing a handheld frame drum alongside a Quebecois chamber quartet. I was drawn to the record by ‘Odana,’ a melancholy fable about resisting colonial land grabs written in Abenaki by a tribal elder in the 1800s, which Obomsawin has presumably set to music of her own devising. Arranger Jean Vanasse and the quartet, likely trying to equate the song to a mode they were more familiar with, approach it like Nelson Riddle on Sinatra’s Only the Lonely. Nocturnal strings and woodwinds ripple around Obomsawin’s satiny vocal, lending the tragic folk tale the style of a blue ballad in an urban theatre.”

2.5/5—It took a while, but finally something about the music, an opinion even!

“There may be a bit of a feint in opening an album called Bush Lady with such a high-thread-count piece. ‘Odana’ lulls the non-Abenaki-speaking listener in with its soothingly westernized take on ‘Indian music,’ the lyrics’ message about stolen land masked by the unfamiliar tongue.”

2/5—Translation: “I am sort of embarrassed that the song I like best on this protest album is the one that sounds kind of like Nat King Cole, so I’ll change the subject to rhetoric.”

“But as the music segues into the theatrical 13-minute title track, its politics become explicit even to an English speaker. Obomsawin chants ritualistically over the insistent thump of her frame drum, interspersed with semi-spoken dialogue. She acts out characters: leering white men who harass and prey upon young Native girls; scornful, gossiping housewives; and finally the ‘Bush Lady’ herself, asking a white woman to care for her blonde mixed race child for fear it will be rejected by her own people. The recurring chant serves as a Greek chorus, a mournful counterpoint to the acrid sarcasm of the dialogue. The song undergoes a dramatic shift at the end when the fallen woman is visited by the spirit by her kokum (grandmother), who ushers her into paradise, accompanied by fluttering strings.”

3/5—Decent exegesis. But, dammit man, do you enjoy it or don't you?

“The track is a surprisingly good fit with reissuing label Constellation’s own catalogue. Like their cohort of Godspeed You! Black Emperor-adjacent projects, ‘Bush Lady’ is expansive and confrontational, fusing funereal cello and violin with blunt agitprop. When it works, it has a palpable force. Like agitprop though, the song isn’t subtle fare, and I have to admit the melodramatic conclusion (which is a harp or two away from a caricature of Christian heaven) feels a bit Wizard of Oz to me. I also don’t have a lot to say about the nearly side-length ‘Théo,’ a second drum-driven story song, this one sung in French. It is even more in a spoken word style than ‘Bush Lady,’ and as an Anglophone I can’t glean much despite another magnetic Obomsawin vocal.”

2.5/5—Reader, that must be one comfortable fence.

“I’m glad to have this reissue of Bush Lady in my collection for its transfixing A-side, and its significant overall historical interest. It’s well worth a listen for the curious.”

Overall review rating: 2.2142857142857142857142857142857/5, or 5 CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH HER FILMS FOR FREEs out of 5.

[radical-pedagogy-reflection]

locating myself

I am a settler in Canada, and recognize how my understanding of Indigenous cultures, history, and resistance is consistently mediated through the government and its projects of settler colonialism and white supremacy. Maintaining a personal practice of introducing myself to Indigenous writers, thinkers, and artists, and consuming their work, has helped me realise how misconstrued my previous understandings were, or more often just how much I did not know. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) was the first film of Alanis’ that I watched, and I remember how captivated I was by her ability to balance historical context with her subject matter, and the enduring honesty of her work. Many of her films have been jumping off points for me and my reading/listening/watching endeavours.

[variousqueerthings]

favourite film-makers (so far) from the thousand suns media festival - I still have roughly seven creators to watch

shelley niro: hers were the first of the collection that spoke to me, not on a level of learning (although -- as with all of them -- there is that too), but hitting something close to me in one of the films centering a character who inhabits some space of crossdressing/queerness. that film was also one of the few in the whole festival that is fiction rather than documentary. In the last couple of years I’ve been trying (and succeeding) to watch stories told outside of the mainstream, while asking myself, what are the narrative structures created? whose story is at the center? what are the ideas of crime/punishment + social acceptability/unacceptability and how are they challenged? I watched one of her non-fiction pieces too, and I am in love with her images in both of them, the second creating some visual poetry that is so simple and so affecting. have saved the last of her movies uploaded there for last

svetlana romanova: the first of her movies had a whole bunch of punk music in it, and started with someone getting a mohawk shaved on the side of a road, of course I was going to love it. both of her films feel anarchic and adventurous, I want to give her a million dollars (ok, the going rate for “big” movies is very expensive these days, but I think film-makers like this probably thrive on challenge, but emotionally all the moneys). like many others her films were depicting where she lives, and so there was a lot to learn, but hers specifically gripped me on a bigger scale -- not just the punk music, but, I think, mainly the way they’re doing the telling with a lot of very direct showing that seemed both natural and curated. simply put, the cinematic language was beautiful (as were the landscapes and people that the visuals were being trained on). someone on letterboxd said she ought to be given money to do a siberian western

mosha michael: according to the site, often referred to as the first inuk film-maker, starting in 1975. also according to the site, he died while unhoused as an alcoholic in 2009. I think I do a lot of projection onto his life between this, but I cannot help but see through researching him a lot of intensity for the work he was doing and a world in which earnestly wanting to share brand new artistic languages doesn’t get met with a lot of support (not necessarily financially, although there is that too -- more like there’s no way of bridging the gap between who you are and what you are seen as). there were several movies that centered on a day-to-day life in the festival collection, but his two that were presented just felt like I was watching them at the exact right time. they’re from the 70s, and filmed with Super 8, and they feel (to me) like I can reach in and touch them. I felt that way before I read up on him, simply like the viewer was involved in what was being shown

hon. mention to alanis obomsawin for putting images of protest out there that would never have been given longevity otherwise, and placing them within a wider historical political context with Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

[thegreathomestuckreread]

for more information the documentary Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is available for free viewing on the national film board of canada's website

Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) protestors face off with the Canadian military during the Oka Crisis, which began over expansion of a golf course into Mohawk territory.

Kahnawake Reserve, Quebec, 1990

[gazelleculturelle]

La première québécoise de ᑕᐅᑐᒃᑕᕗᒃ Tautuktavuk (Sous nos yeux) un film primé de Lucy Tulugarjuk et Carol Kunnuk – le lundi 11 décembre 2023 à 19h

Isuma Productions, Isuma Distribution International et Kingulliit Productions,en collaboration avec Cinema Politica, ont le plaisir d’annoncer que le long métrage dramatique primé TAUTUKTAVUK (SOUS NOS YEUX), coréalisé par Lucy Tulugarjuk (Tia and Piujuq, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, Atanarjuat : The Fast Runner) et Carol Kunnuk (Welcome to my Qammaq, Being Prepared, Attagatuluk), sera présenté en première québécoise comme film de clôture de la saison d’automne de Cinema Politica Concordia le lundi 11 décembre 2023 à 19h à l’Université Concordia (salle H-110).

La première québécoise sera suivie d’une séance de questions et réponses et d’une conversation avec Lucy Tulugarjuk et la documentariste Alanis Obomsawin (Incident at Restigouche, Kanehsatake : 270 Years of Resistance, Our People Will Be Healed). La table ronde sera animée par l’artiste multidisciplinaire, cinéaste et conservateur d’art Asinnajaq (Upinnaqusittik, Three Thousand). Tous les détails sont disponibles ici.

TAUTUKTAVUK (SOUS NOS YEUX) a été présenté en première mondiale au Festival international du film de Toronto (TIFF) en septembre 2023, où il a remporté le prix Amplify Voices BIPOC & Canadian First Feature Award, ainsi que le Sun Jury Award au 2023 ImagineNATIVE Film Festival.

Après sa première québécoise au Cinema Politica, TAUTUKTAVUK (SOUS NOS YEUX) sortira en salle à Montréal le 12 janvier 2024, avec des projections du film sous-titré en français et en anglais au Cinéma Moderne.Ce film inuit contemplatif, à la fois provocateur et subtilement intersectionnel, explore les points de convergence entre les mesures pandémiques, la violence domestique, la famille et les traumatismes intergénérationnels. Brouillant la frontière entre fiction et non-fiction, après un événement traumatisant, Uyarak et sa sœur aînée Saqpinak entreprennent un difficile voyage de guérison qui leur rappelle l’importance de la communauté, de la culture et de la famille. TAUTUKTAVUK (SOUS NOS YEUX) explore les questions de violence domestique et de toxicomanie du point de vue de deux femmes inuites.

[native-blog-deutsch]

Retrospektive des Künstlers Robert Houle im National Museum of the American Indian

Die erste große Retrospektive des Künstlers Robert Houle wird im National Museum of the American Indian zu sehen sein

Ausstellung feiert mehr als 50 Jahre Werk des Künstlers   Das Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., eröffnet am 25. Mai die Ausstellung "Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful". Es ist die erste große Retrospektive des Werks von Robert Houle (Saulteaux Anishinaabe, Sandy Bay First Nation, geb. 1947) und deckt mehr als 50 Jahre seiner Karriere ab. Die Ausstellung, die von der Art Gallery of Ontario organisiert und von Wanda Nanibush (Anishinaabe-kwe, Beausoleil First Nation) kuratiert wird, ist bis zum 2. Juni 2024 zu sehen. Der Kolorist, der hauptsächlich in Öl arbeitet, hat in seinen Werken sein indigenes kulturelles Erbe mit der euro-amerikanischen Art und Weise, Kunst zu machen und darüber nachzudenken, zusammengebracht, was er "transkulturell" nennt. Die Ausstellung umfasst große Installationen, Gemälde, Videos, Mixed-Media-Skulpturen und Zeichnungen, die zwischen 1970 und 2021 entstanden sind.   Die Ausstellung ist in Themen unterteilt, die Hulles Arbeit zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten seiner Karriere näher beleuchten. Dazu gehören "Beyond History Painting", in dem Houle eine indigene Perspektive in historische Ereignisse einbringt, und "Sacred Geometry", in dem der Künstler modernistische Malerei und das Design seiner Vorfahren zu einem kraftvollen Ausdruck von Emotionen verschmilzt. In "Residential School Years" erforscht Houle seine Kindheitserinnerungen an das Trauma, das er in der Sandy Bay Residential School erlebte. Andere Themen befassen sich mit der Stammessouveränität und ihrer Verteidigung sowie mit dem spirituellen Erbe des Anishinaabe-Volkes. Einige der in der Ausstellung gezeigten Werke sind "Red is Beautiful" (1970), das Werk, nach dem die Ausstellung benannt ist; "Kanata" (1992), eine Neuinterpretation von Benjamin Wests berühmtem Gemälde "Der Tod von General Wolfe"; "Parfleches for the Last Supper" (1983), eine Gruppe von 13 Acrylbildern, die Jesus und seine Apostel darstellen; und "The Pines" (2002 bis 2004), das zur Unterstützung der Kanien'kehá: ka (Mohawk) zur Verteidigung von Kanehsatake, ihrem Stammesgebiet in der Nähe von Montreal. Katalog Zur Ausstellung erscheint der vollständig illustrierte Hardcover-Katalog "Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful". Er enthält Essays von Hules Nichte Ala Goodwill, Gerald Vizenor, Mark Cheetham, Michael Bell, Jessica Horton und Nanibush sowie intime Erinnerungen und Würdigungen von Künstlerkollegen wie WalkingStick, Duke Redbird, Jamelie Hassan, Ron Benner und Faye HeavyShield und den Kuratoren Penney und Stephen Borys. Der Katalog wird gemeinsam von der Art Gallery of Ontario und DelMonico Books/D.A.P. herausgegeben. Über das National Museum of the American Indian In Zusammenarbeit mit den indigenen Völkern und ihren Verbündeten fördert das National Museum of the American Indian eine reichere gemeinsame menschliche Erfahrung durch ein besseres Verständnis der indigenen Völker. Das Museum setzt sich für Gleichberechtigung und soziale Gerechtigkeit für die indigenen Völker der westlichen Hemisphäre ein, indem es Bildung, Inspiration und Empowerment vermittelt. An zwei Standorten bietet es Ausstellungen und Programme in New York City und an der National Mall in Washington, D.C. Weitere Informationen, einschließlich Öffnungszeiten und Wegbeschreibung, findest du unter AmericanIndian.si.edu. Folge dem Museum in den sozialen Medien auf Facebook, Twitter und Instagram. Über die Art Gallery of Ontario Die Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto ist eines der größten Kunstmuseen Nordamerikas und zieht jährlich etwa 1 Million Besucher an. Die mehr als 120.000 Kunstwerke umfassende Sammlung der AGO reicht von hochmoderner zeitgenössischer Kunst über bedeutende Werke indigener und kanadischer Künstler bis hin zu europäischen Meisterwerken. Die AGO präsentiert ein breit gefächertes Ausstellungs- und Programmangebot, darunter Einzelausstellungen und Ankäufe von verschiedenen und unterrepräsentierten Künstlern aus aller Welt. Die AGO hat sich verpflichtet, einladend und zugänglich zu sein: Der Eintritt ist für alle unter 25 Jahren kostenlos, und jeder kann eine Jahreskarte für 35 $ erwerben. Im Jahr 2022 begann die AGO mit der Planungsphase für ein Erweiterungsprojekt, das mehr Ausstellungsfläche für die wachsende moderne und zeitgenössische Sammlung des Museums bieten soll. Wenn die Bauarbeiten im Jahr 2024 beginnen, wird dies die siebte Erweiterung sein, die das AGO seit seiner Gründung im Jahr 1900 durchgeführt hat. Besuche AGO.ca, um mehr zu erfahren. Die AGO wird zum Teil vom Ministerium für Tourismus, Kultur und Sport der Provinz Ontario finanziert. Zusätzliche Unterstützung erhält die AGO von der Stadt Toronto, dem Canada Council for the Arts und großzügigen Beiträgen von AGO-Mitgliedern, Spendern und Partnern aus der Privatwirtschaft. Quelle: Smithsonian  Read the full article

[pnwpol]

@EllenGabriel1 #Oka Golf Club has been sold by the Municipalité d’Oka when the Land shld have been reverted back to Kanehsatake- Now the original plan from 1990 to build Condominiums is scheduled to take place soon - Where is the respect for Indigenous Rights Now @JustinTrudeau @MarcMillerVM?!

Dec 8, 2020

[drapeau-rouge]

30 years since the Kahnawà:ke Uprising (Oka Crisis in bougie press) Watch Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

[radical-pedagogy-reflection]

Indigenous Resistance Through Film

Obomsawin reimages Indigeneity through the medium of filmmaking. Following the lives of Indigenous people across “Canada,” and taking a particular interest in their struggle for sovereignty and state recognition, Obomsawin renegotiates the objective, omnipotent presence of the documentary filmmaker and rather positions herself within the struggle, centering Indigenous culture, history, and experiences as the argument, evidence, and conclusion of her films. Therefore, her work contests twofold; firstly the ways in which documentary filmmaking as a medium has been used in the colonial sense to control public perception/understanding of a certain event, people, or history, and secondly, the subject matter of her films — seminal Indigenous issues and events in Canada — expose the continuous colonial violence that is enacted upon by all levels of government towards Indigenous people, whilst challenging official histories and narratives about Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people. Her films continue to see what the rest of the county cannot see, or chooses to ignore.

Obomsawin’s filmmaking practice begins with listening. Often, before any second that is caught on camera, she will go into the community that she is working with alone, without a crew or a camera, and engage in conversation and daily life. She insists on building relationships and connections first, attentive to witnessing before any act of producing. Her participatory style of filmmaking adapts the didactic documentary tradition. Obomsawin appears in all of her films, seated in homes interviewing subjects, engaging with children in schools, or barricaded behind the lines during a resistance. You will often hear her voice encouraging subjects during interviews, or laughing with a group. Her presence throughout the films reminds viewers of her intimate, intrinsic connection to the subject matter — as an Indigenous woman she is just as much shaped and informed by the events, communities, and histories that she documents. 

The subject matter of Obomsawin’s films speak to the ongoing effects of settler colonialism, genocide, persecution, and state surveillance of Indigenous people. Incident at Restigouche (1984) follows the raids on the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation by the Quebec provincial police, as an effort of imposing restrictions on their fishing rights, Richard Cardinal: Cry from a Diary of a Métis Child (1986) is a devastating examination of Canada's child welfare system in regards to the (mis)treatment of Indigenous children and youth, and the harm that the system causes. Christmas at Moose Factory (1971), her first feature-length film, is filmed at a residential school in northern Ontario around Christmas time, Hi-Ho Mistahey! (2013) follows the campaign Shannen’s Dream, which lobbies for improved educational opportunities for Indigenous youth, and examines the on-going impacts of the lack of proper education for Indigenous youth, and Our People Will Be Healed (2017) profiles the Helen Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre in Norway House Cree Nation, the structure of the school, offering a vision for what Indigenous based education could look like in the future, whilst recognizing the challenges the school is facing today.

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) documents the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance/Oka Crisis and is the most well known of Obomsawin’s films. Had it not been for Obomsawin and her crew documenting 250 hours worth of footage behind the barricade, in standoff with the military, and at the end of resistance, the public memory of this event would have been shaped solely by one-sided government press releases, limited CBC reporting, and Prime Minister Mulroney asserting that the Mohawk warriors were dangerous criminals with illegal weapons. Emotive, intense moments behind the barricade, articulated through interviews with individual Mohawk warriors, offer a closer account of the events instead. Obomsawin’s uncompromising and partisan view of what occurred at the Oka golf course gave way for Mohawk historical narratives to be re-articulated and Indigenous efforts for self-determination to be legitimised.