Film

(DESCRIPTION)
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.

Screen fades to black.

Created by Build, Films, and Networked Health, with funding and support from Canadian Medical Association
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(SPEECH)
(birds chirping)

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Black screen

A large canopy of dark green trees.

(SPEECH)
["Look How the Stars Shine For You" by Randy Wood]

(rhythmic drumming and singing)

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Trees with slim white trunks stretch across the forest floor, blue sky peeks from between their canopies.

Woman with a pair of pink garden gloves and a small trowel crouches on the forest floor.

(SPEECH)
- [Speaker #1] 
So I'm gonna just pull and take that.

Yeah, I'm diabetic, so this is gonna be good for my circulation and energy.

There's some strawberry there too, eh.

Did you see that?

Strawberry plant.

- [Speaker #2] Here and there's strawberry.

It's a heart medicine, and it has vines.

And that's how our veins are, in our heart, in the body.

- [Speaker #3] 'Cause we used to see them all the way down this road.

There's rabbit poop here.

- [Speaker #4] Yeah, there's tons.

(DESCRIPTION)
Woman with long hair picks purple flowers.

Mist hovers above a river flanked by tall grass. Text, Elderhood.

Folks in a field on a sunny day, Text, Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, Manitoba.

(SPEECH)
- [Speaker #5] Look, oh my gosh!

That's like gold!

Look at this!

There's like, a ton of it!

You could just smell it, once you get into the earth.

Eureka!

(laughing) I've been looking for a few years.

This is the wekay medicine.

One of the unique properties of it is pain relief.

(DESCRIPTION)
Stella Blackbird, Medicine Woman

(SPEECH)
- [Speaker #2] They have a purpose, these plants.

They are our brothers and sisters, and they have a purpose, like we have a purpose to survive, to heal one another.

That's their gift to us, and for us to honour that.

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Text, In 1936, the Keeseekoowenin Ojibway band was evicted from the land to create Riding Mountain National Park.

(SPEECH)
["Dec 31st" by Matthew Cardinal]

(reflective music)

(DESCRIPTION)
Government officials burned down homes, forcing relocation.

(SPEECH)
Sweetgrass represents the hair of Mother Earth, so when you see a braid of sweetgrass, there's many teachings about it.

And when you look at the sweetgrass after it's braided, it only has two.

You never see the third one.

It's the man and woman and the child to come.

Man, woman, child.

Man, woman, child.

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For decades medicine people secretly snuck back onto the land to harvest plants.

(SPEECH)
We harvest lots, lots of these plants.

And it's hard work, but when I dedicated my life to help people, this is part of it.

People come to us, and every person with an illness, there's a plant to heal them.

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Labeled jars of plant material, yellow and purple flowers.

(SPEECH)
(birds chirping)

(DESCRIPTION)
Rainbow Chartrand, Fourth Year Student.

(SPEECH)
- I remember following Stella from place to place and she was flying and I was trying to keep up with her.

'Cause she took us to so many places, and I came back to camp, and I was just like overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge, and the teachings that they gave us.

(reflective music)

(DESCRIPTION)
A bundle of stems with leaves tied with yarn, Purple flowers hang upside down. Audrey Bone, Medicine Woman.

(SPEECH)
- [Speaker #3] Being stripped of the use of our land, I couldn't believe that people could be that cruel.

I felt like I wasn't whole, because I couldn't make that connection to the plants, the trees.

That disconnection, that was not my fault.

That disconnection came from the government taking our land away and doing it in a very mean and cruel way.

(DESCRIPTION)
Audrey digs her hand into the muddy forest floor.

(SPEECH)
So I had to heal.

I had to heal my inner self.

I had to get rid of all that bullshit that people put in my head and my mind, that I'm not worth anything.

(piano music)

(DESCRIPTION)
Several lush green trees, Stella Blackbird speaks near a teepee.

(SPEECH)
- [Stella Blackbird] I grew up in a residential school, and on a daily basis there was abuse.

That was when they cut our hair.

I used to have long hair, braids my mother made.

They're the antennas to the spirit world, to the creator, and they shaved us way under.

And then next was, they poured that kerosine on our heads to kill our bugs, they said.

(sobbing)

(DESCRIPTION)
Buries her face in her hands.

(SPEECH)
I stopped being a child then.

I never was a teenager like you.

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Stella sits among stalks of tall grass along the river's shoreline.

(SPEECH)
And then I developed this shame, shame of my skin.

I was ashamed to be an Indian.

(chanting)

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Text, Stella Blackbird and Audrey Bone started Medicine Eagle Camp in 2009.

(SPEECH)
- [Audrey Bone] The plants have a purpose, healing powers that we have to respect.

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Paint chips off the exterior of a small home, Inside, Stella unscrews a jar of leaves.

(SPEECH)
- [Stella Blackbird] Now this is wekay, uh, rat root.

Could be boiled in up to six quarts of water, if you only wanna use this once.

But you can boil it in three quarts of water...

(DESCRIPTION)
Demarai, Student

(SPEECH)
- It's very important to be connected to the medicines and to understand what you're picking, and who you're picking it for.

'Cause it's always been a part of who we are.

When you have that relationship, the medicine works much better because you're believing in it.

- [Rainbow Chartrand] I have the opportunity here that they did not have.

And I'm very honoured to work with Stella, all these years, to hear her journey and hear her speak about her life, has given me strength to face what I have to face in my life.

(DESCRIPTION)
Audrey Stella and others in a field of various grasses and flowers near a line of trees.

(SPEECH)
(chanting)

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Stella bunches stems together in her fist. Audrey and students sit in a circle. A handful of folks with shovels head toward the forest.

(SPEECH)
(people talking) - [Audrey Bone] I have this land that I can come to, I belong here.

It's part of me.

Now I feel whole.

(chanting)

(DESCRIPTION)
Underneath a tent, a woman hangs a harvest of flowers upside down on a line. Three women trudge in pond water, one digs deep below the water's surface.

An area among the trees with recreational vehicles and tents.

(SPEECH)
- [Stella Blackbird] Today I know I'm not a savage.

Today I know our people were very spiritual.

It was hidden.

Today what brings me at peace is picking medicines.

For the last 30 years, I've been doing that, traveling here and there to find me, where I belong.

(people chanting) Today I belong here.

I'm one of those trees.

The grass, and you.

I'm part of everything.

I do belong.

(rhythmic drumming and

(DESCRIPTION)
Text, In 2013, Stella was awarded the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers by the Governor General of Canada.

(SPEECH)
singing)

(DESCRIPTION)
Stella Blackbird passed away on June 27, 2020.

(SPEECH)
♪ Look how the stars shine for you ♪ ♪ My

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She was 82 years old.

(SPEECH)
one and only you ♪ ♪ They're telling you ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ (rhythmic drumming and singing) (gentle music) ["Great Wide Open" by William Prince

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The screen goes black.

(SPEECH)
♪

(DESCRIPTION)
Sticks stick out of the top of a teepee. Text, Executive Producer, Ewan Affleck, Director, Christopher Paetkau,

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Created and written by Ewan Affleck, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Adam Gualtieri. Clouds move through the sky.

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Text, Producers, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson. Creative Directors, Stephen Gladue, Jennifer Podemski. From above, a woman walks in a field.

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Text, Music Director, Leela Gilday

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Dream catchers hang from a maroon teepee frame in the woods.

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Text, Director of Photography, Christopher Paetkau. Over the tops of the trees toward a lake.

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Text, Editor, Adam Gualtieri

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Production Manager, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Senior Project Advisor, Alika Lafontaine, Featuring, Stella Blackbird, Audrey Bone, Rainbow Chartrand, Candace Demarai. Knowledge Holders and Subject Matter Experts, Alika Lafontaine, Aluki Kotierk, Marie Wilson, Film Title, The Unforgotten, Courtesy of: Iskwe,
Additional Camera, Adam Gualtieri, Special thanks, Canadian Medical Association Team, Karen Blondin Hall, Janelle Bruneau, Dana Francey. Transcripts, Rev.com, Translations edgar.ca, Elizabeth Biscaye. Music, “Look how the stars shine on you” composed and performed by Randy Wood, Courtesy Canyon Records. “Dec 31st” Written and performed by Matthew Cardinal. Courtesy of Arts & Crafts Productions Inc. “Grandmother’s song” Composed and performed by Fawn Wood, Courtesy Canyon Records. “Great Wide Open” Composed and performed by William Prince, All rights reserved used by permission.

(DESCRIPTION)
Shot on location. 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. Keeseekoowenin First Nation, Manitoba -- Treaty 2

(DESCRIPTION)
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.