Film

(DESCRIPTION)
[00:00:04.34] Text, This film depicts disturbing events and trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada that may trigger strong negative thoughts or feelings. A listing of support services can be found at the end of the film and on the Unforgotten website.

[00:00:25.19] Created by Build, Films, and Networked Health, with funding and support from Canadian Medical Association

(SPEECH)
["Soft "Aqittuq"" by Silla & Rise]

(DESCRIPTION)
Cracks in an ice bed. A large expanse of icy and snowy land with black rocks scattered about, dog prints in the snow, pack of huskies drag a sled, a young Indigenous woman with nose piercings treks with a backpack, she comes across a town of a handful of buildings which sit beside a body of water. Text, Adolescence.

(DESCRIPTION)
A red Stop sign in Inuktitut.

(SPEECH)
- [Grandchild] How is it that a belly full of black smoke is so empty yet so heavy?

(DESCRIPTION)
She crosses beside a wall with a colorful mural.

(SPEECH)
I am alone.

(DESCRIPTION)
Subtitles, I need my grandmother.

(SPEECH)
["Uqausissaka Ft. Elisapie" by Riit]

(DESCRIPTION)
She continues across ice bed, animation shows huskies.

(melancholy music) My anaanatsiaq [grandmother] was born into independence, seal blood coursing as milk from her mother's breasts.

A set of paw prints and sled tracks heading to horizons, filled with ancestors and kin holding each other.

(grandchild)

(DESCRIPTION)
Huskies fade into sky.

(SPEECH)
(speaking in Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
Subtitles, Grandmother, do you think about your mom often?

(SPEECH)
(grandmother speaking in Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
Every time I pick up my ulu.

(SPEECH)
- [Grandchild] Colonization was my anaanatsiaq's puberty.

When she turned 13, wave after wave of white men, coins clinking.

Catechism, catechism, cataclysm, cataclysm, cough, cough, cough.

(DESCRIPTION)
White specks float in blackness.

(SPEECH)
(wind blowing) - [Grandchild] You didn't know it would be the last day you had with your mom?

(grandmother speaking in Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
I didn't know the ship would take her away forever.

(SPEECH)
- [Grandchild] I don't remember my mom.

My anaanatsiaq's father had qimmit [dogs], helping him travel over the land and ice.

(dogs whining) I imagine the stillness when his dogs were killed by the police.

(gun firing)

(DESCRIPTION)
A drop of red against a white background.

(SPEECH)
(wind howling) No howls, no jostling.

(DESCRIPTION)
Red liquid pools.

(SPEECH)
The opposite of a riot, is stillness.

And for Inuit, silence is not acquiescence.

Silence is often protest.

(DESCRIPTION)
Liquid forms into silhouette.

(SPEECH)
No dogs, no wife, no mother for his children, no burial for his love, his still silence must have been deafening.

(DESCRIPTION)
Animation appears before green polar lights.

(SPEECH)
(melancholy music) (grandmother speaking in Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
Subtitles, It was a hard time. We were forced out of our camps, we were hungry.

We were sent away to schools, we were orphaned.

One day we were free children, and next we were poor adults dependent on someone else's government.

Tell me what it's like to be young now.

(SPEECH)
- [Grandchild] It's still hard, anaanatsiaq.

Last night, my friend wanted to die.

She's okay now, but we're all scared.

(DESCRIPTION)
Young Indigenous woman with backpack journeys across swath of ice

Text, Before 1960, suicide was virtually unknown to Inuit living in Canada.

By 2011, the suicide rate among Inuit grew to almost 10 times the Canadian average, most involving youth under the age of 25.

(SPEECH)
(grandmother speaking in Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
Subtitles, We have the tools to create our own strengths.

Keep doing what you do to be strong my love.

Woman holds knife with a rounded blade and wooden grip handle.

(SPEECH)
- [Grandchild] 
My ulu has the patina of family, of my great-grandmother, and my grandmother, and my mother.

The every everyday actions of my ulu glow with continuity.

They never took this away from me.

(DESCRIPTION)
She continues across the icy landscape.

(SPEECH)
Anaanatsiaq, it's three years since you died.

I want to share a cup of tea and palaugaq [bannock] with you.

(DESCRIPTION)
Sits on an ice shelf and pours liquid from a thermos into its lid.

(SPEECH)
(grandchild speaking Inuktitut)

(DESCRIPTION)
Subtitles, We are still whole. We are whole. We are whole.

Pours liquid from lid onto ice.

(SPEECH)
(dramatic music swells) (dogs barking)

(DESCRIPTION)
Huskies equipped with harnesses race across snow and ice.

(SPEECH)
Fawn

(DESCRIPTION)
Eight dogs together pull two people on a sled across ice on a sunny day.

The young woman with nose piercings sits on the sled and smiles with another young woman, both their cheeks and nose rosy.

[00:06:34.37] The woman with glasses stands and holds the frame of the sled.

[00:06:40.41] The screen goes black.

[00:06:46.87] Overlapping images of the dogs legs as they run. Text, Executive Producer, Ewan Affleck, Director, Christopher Paetkau,

[00:06:57.17] Co-Directors, Ewan Affleck, Adam Gualtieri, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Written by Ewan Affleck

[00:07:04.20] From above, the dogs pull the sled.

[00:07:07.13] Text, Created by Ewan Affleck, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Adam Gualtieri, Producers, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Poetry and Dialogue, Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory, Creative Directors, Stephen Gladue, Jennifer Podemski, Music Director, Leela Gilday, Animator, Catherine Vu, Editor, Adam Gualtieri

[00:07:29.82] Production Manager, Chloe Ross- Rogerson, Senior Project Advisor, Alika Lafontaine, Featuring, Makpa Otak, Akutaq Williamson-Bathory, Leetia Eegeesiuk, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Knowledge Holders and Subject Matter Experts, Alika Lafontaine, Aluki Kotierk, Marie Wilson, Film Title, The Unforgotten, Courtesy of: Iskwe,

[00:07:51.45] Special thanks, Canadian Medical Association Team, Karen Blondin Hall, Janelle Bruneau, Dana Francey, Transcripts, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Rev dot com, Translations, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Edgar dot c a., Elizabeth Biscaye

[00:08:07.65] The film was produced on the traditional territories of the first nations, Inuit and Metis, all of whom adhere to treaties by which they agreed to share their lands with newcomers in what would become Canada. Iqaluit, Nunavut

[00:08:20.19] If this film has triggered strong negative thoughts or feelings, you can find support at: The Hope for Wellness Line (1-855-242-3310), The Residential School Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419), The Crisis Services of Canada (1-833-456-4566). A BUILD, FILMS, and NETWORKED HEALTH Production. Copyright 2021 Canadian Medical Association. Logo, Build.

Content Advisory

The film on this website depicts racism experienced by Indigenous peoples and may trigger strong negative thoughts or feelings.