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.

Text begins to slowly fade line by line.

(DESCRIPTION)

Credits, Created by Build dot Films and Networked Health, with funding and support from Canadian Medical Association.

(SPEECH)

(eerie music) (woman vocalizing)

(DESCRIPTION)

Title, The Unforgotten

Spoken words appear in newspaper text.

(SPEECH)

- [Narrator] I wish to discuss with you the quality of the human stock, from the point of view of one who feels that there is no more urgent task that lies to hand.

(DESCRIPTION)

Men in medical masks

(SPEECH)

["Fire Songs" by

(DESCRIPTION)

Newspaper headline, Indian Sterilization Urged

(SPEECH)

Nigel Irwin/Bryden Swiss Kiwenzie]

[foreboding music]

- [Niki Ashton] Forced sterilization of Indigenous women constitutes torture.

- [Reporter] A class action lawsuit alleges it's happening right here in Canada.

(chanting)

(DESCRIPTION)

Words in a newspaper article highlighted, "sterilized after their 35th birthday". Nurses smile with swaddled babies.

(SPEECH)

- [Speaker 1] They were badgered into getting sterilized.

- [Speaker 2] This is absolutely unacceptable, and we will do all that we can to ensure that this no longer occurs.

(DESCRIPTION)

Cover of Emily Murphy biography "Crusader"

(SPEECH)

- [Speaker 3] Indigenous women in this country are still subjected to the harm of ongoing colonialism and systemic discrimination.

(DESCRIPTION)

The Problems of the Subnormal Family by Rev. T.C. Douglas, B.A.

(SPEECH)

["Rebuild" by Greyson Gritt/Silla]

(DESCRIPTION)

The outline of a large-trunked tree with several branches, Text appears over the tree, Eugenics.

(SPEECH)

(uneasy droning piano music)

(DESCRIPTION)

Shadow figure of a Dene woman.

(SPEECH)

(ominous piano music)

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Birth.

Newspaper headline, Sterilize the Unfit, By Clarence M. Hinks M.D. -- Group of people outside Eugenics Building, Numbers dial in on the year 1867, Text, Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada.

(SPEECH)

(film reel whirring) (counter ticking) - [Narrator as Sir John A. MacDonald]

The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with other inhabitants 
of the Dominion as speedily as they 
are fit to change.

(counter

(DESCRIPTION)

Counter ticks to year 1883. Edward Blake, Premier of Ontario.

(SPEECH)

ticking) - [Narrator as Edward Blake]

If we leave the young Indian girl who's to mature into a squaw, to have the uncivilized habits of the tribe, the Indian, when he 
marries such a squaw, will likely be pulled into Indian savagery by her.

I have known how difficult it is to eradicate that hereditary taint.

(counter

(DESCRIPTION)

Year 1941.

(SPEECH)

ticking)

(DESCRIPTION)

Dr. J.A. Bildfell, Medical Doctor

(SPEECH)

- [Narrator as Dr. J.A. Bildfell]

It has occurred to 
me during the year that it might be 
expedient to provide for compulsory sterilization.

I am of the opinion 
that sterilization in this case would be justified and beneficial to the Eskimos, generally.

(DESCRIPTION)

Year 1961, Supervisor of Social Services, Essondale Hospital, B.C.

(SPEECH)

(foreboding music) (counter ticking) - [Narrator as supervisor of social services]

The patient is a mentally defective Indian girl who has always been incorrigible, wild, undisciplined, 
and promiscuous.

Sterilization is therefore strongly recommended to prevent the patient from having illegitimate children.

(counter

(DESCRIPTION)

Counter dials to 1973, Jean Chretien.

(SPEECH)

ticking) - [Jean Chrétien] A guy like me is very caught in a difficult situation.

I like to be fair with everybody, and it's not an easy job.

- [Narrator as Jean Chrétien]

There is no policy on behalf of the government to sterilize Indian women.

(counter

(DESCRIPTION)

Among newspaper headlines, counter rolls through the 80's, 90's, Aughts, and finally lands on year 2015, which leads to text, Reports of ongoing forced coerced sterilization of Indigenous women resurface in Canada.

(SPEECH)

ticking) - [Rachel Blaney] Today, the UN Committee Against Torture released a report confirming what we've known all along: Indigenous women continue to be coerced into sterilization in Canada.

["Ice (Dan Kanghur)" by Diyet & The Love Soldiers]

(DESCRIPTION)

The back of an Indigenous woman's white jacket with one vine of flowers that stretches between her shoulders, brown leather fringe hangs beneath the vine, She turns before a projected image of a line of young girls who stand in a queue.

Text, Morningstar Mercredi, Survived Forced Coerced Sterilization

Mercredi walks away, the image casting shadows across her face.

(SPEECH)

(singing in Southern Tutchone)

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Morningstar Mercredi is a dub poet, storyteller, author, actor, and social activist. Mercredi stands in white jacket with a red scarf, a neutral expression across her face.

Screen remains black as indistinctive chatter begins.

(SPEECH)

(people talking in the distance)

(DESCRIPTION)

Slow to appear, a glistening lake with homes along the shoreline.

(SPEECH)

Song" ["Magdalene" by George Leach]

(DESCRIPTION)

Black birds fly over simple residential structures, Text, Childhood.

A young Indigenous boy carries two large logs.

(SPEECH)

- [Narrator] I was born and raised in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

I am of the Chipewyan tribe.

And, at a very young age, of seven and a half years old, I caught tuberculosis.

(child coughs) And in the classroom, I was coughing up blood on my desk.

The nuns decided to 
send me to Edmonton.

We caught a little aircraft, a small bush plane.

And, the morning after, I was accompanied 
to the railroad station.

And they used to call the train the Muskeg Express because a lot of that track was built on muskeg.

I arrived in Edmonton 
and a grey nun, I'm assuming she was from the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital, she met me there and took me to the hospital.

(DESCRIPTION)

Animation, A nun near train track and a boy with a bag.

(SPEECH)

(male vocals) And about two days later, 
I got surgery and they removed the upper lobe of my right lung.

And after this surgery, I was walking around visiting, like the young lad that I was, curious about life and everything else.

They took it upon 
themselves, the staff, I don't know who or what, that they should take my pajama bottoms off.

To prevent me from walking around and going to visiting 
and everything else.

I still used to go run around bare butt and visiting.

And one day they came and they said, “We're gonna put some casts on you.” They didn't tell me 
why or what for, they put a cast just 
below my knee to just above my ankle, 
on both legs.

And they put a bar across about six inches apart that prevented me from walking.

And that's when I was put in this little room, approximately 10 by 10.

There was no window, it was the end of the hallway.

I was just like a prisoner, no word of a lie.

Just the way I was treated.

And in order for me to go to the toilet, I had to go hop in such a manner, like a penguin, to go to the bathroom.

And on a few occasions, there was an orderly, and he'd get me into the bathroom, and he sodomized me.

(male vocals)

(DESCRIPTION)

In total darkness, illustration of a shirtless young boy looks upward.

(SPEECH)

I didn't have any schooling there at all.

I had no visitors whatsoever the two and a half years I was there.

Loneliness come upon me many, many different times.

And one day out of the blue, they said, "We're sending you home." One of the biggest joys in my life is leaving that hospital and going home.

[Michael Grandgambe's “Love Song (For Rosie)" by Stephen Kakfwi]

In this whole life that I experienced, you will not see any tears in my eyes, for I quit crying a long, long time ago.

(DESCRIPTION)

Small carved bird head hangs on necklace.

(SPEECH)

It comes a point, where now, in my lifetime I'm compelled to tell my story.

(DESCRIPTION)

Tattoo on his hand.

(SPEECH)

My name is Sonny James MacDonald and I want the world out there to know exactly what happened.

(guitar

(DESCRIPTION)

Sepia-toned photo of a three-level building. Text, Sonny Macdonald spent two and a half years at the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital.

(SPEECH)

music)

(DESCRIPTION)

Medical staff in masks with young Indigenous boys.

(SPEECH)

["Magdalene"

(DESCRIPTION)

The Charles Camsell Indian Hospital was one of 29 racially segregated Indian hospitals in Canada. It closed in 1996.

(SPEECH)

by George Leach]

(DESCRIPTION)

Canadian law made it a crime for Indigenous People to refuse admission to hospital.

On April 20, 2021, Sonny Macdonald passed away at home with his family by his side.

A shiny white wood-carved crane with its bill in the air.

Text, Sonny Macdonald was a renowned carver who enjoyed spending time with his three children, seven grandchildren, great grandson and Helen, his wife of 55 years.

Pitch black.

(SPEECH)

["Soft "Aqittuq"" by Silla & Rise]

(atmospheric

(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.

(SPEECH)

hip-hop music) by

(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

(DESCRIPTION)

She continues across ice bed, animation shows huskies.

(SPEECH)

Ft. Elisapie" by Riit]

(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 harnasses 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.

Blackness envelops the screen.

(SPEECH)

["The Unforgotten" by Iskwe ft.

(DESCRIPTION)

Back of a man's head as he stares at a square of white paint against an exterior red brick wall.

(SPEECH)

Tanya Tagaq]

(upbeat, Indigenous music)

(DESCRIPTION)

The young man in a red hoodie and white sneakers trudges across city pavement.

Text, Adulthood.

(SPEECH)

♪ We are the war that's forgotten ♪

(DESCRIPTION)

Winnipeg Canada

(SPEECH)

♪ We stand up tall against the other side ♪ 
I guess it would just be a little outside of this one.

- Like here is fine. - Yeah?

- But it would be like this or like that.

- Okay, so follow that natural line?

- Yeah.

♪ Singing

(DESCRIPTION)

As he stands on electric scaffolding, the young man takes a paintbrush to the brick wall.

(SPEECH)

oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ (upbeat,

(DESCRIPTION)

Sprays black paint against the white brick, the outline of a man's face.

(SPEECH)

Indigenous music)

(DESCRIPTION)

Young man leaves the site with a harness that hangs from his waist.

Later, more of the man's face fills out with a dark mustache, Text, Stephen Gladue, Muralist.

(SPEECH)

- [Speaker #1] His death shouldn't be in vain.

It's part of history.

And I think by having his face out there, it brings attention to like Aboriginal health and wellness and you know, lives, then it's important.

Very important piece.

(DESCRIPTION)

Dark clouds pass over the mural.

(SPEECH)

(intensifying

(DESCRIPTION)

Stephen ascends the electric scaffold near the brick wall, Paint sprays from a can to form more of the man's face, Stephen speaks from a sidewalk across from the red brick wall with his mural, a harness strapped to his body.

(SPEECH)

Indigenous music) Having a face out there, people are gonna know about him.

It's gonna educate them.

It's the only way change is gonna happen, Is if everybody starts recognizing him.

(DESCRIPTION)

Young man takes photo of mural with phone,

(SPEECH)

(sirens)

(DESCRIPTION)

Stephen continues to apply paint to wall, his medium-length dark hair hangs in his eyes.

(SPEECH)

Being in his neighborhood is pretty powerful.

A lot of people come through here, and I'd say 60% of the people that come through here know exactly who this is.

(DESCRIPTION)

Applies white color to the man's scarf.

(SPEECH)

I went searching.

There's not a ton of photographs.

There's this one.

And it's a black and white one, and it's a good one.

Like he's off looking, you know, into who knows?

(DESCRIPTION)

Stephen exits scaffolding.

Black paint pours into tray with grey paint.

(SPEECH)

So I thought, I'll make it look like he's downtown somewhere.

Ambulance colours, colours from police cars.

It's like there's an urgency there.

With those kind of lights.

(sirens)

(DESCRIPTION)

Yellow and red paint colors reflect from man's face.

(SPEECH)

Yeah, so I'm trying to figure out where to place the numbers, where to place hours.

(DESCRIPTION)

Number 34 to the left of the face.

(SPEECH)

People, when they're walking by, they see this number and then it gets them asking what it means.

34 hours right at the top.

And then, you know what, right below it, I'm gonna do 45 years.

(DESCRIPTION)

Shots of urban life, including a three-storied motel, a shop with a sign reads Foods & Housewares, a bridge surrounded by curved caging, A harness hangs from Stephen.

(SPEECH)

(Indigenous music climaxes)

(DESCRIPTION)

He stands in an alleyway in a red hoodie.

Holds cans of spray paint in both hands.

Stands with another man as the two smile and pose for a photo before the mural.

Completed mural of an Indigenous man with a dark mustache, short dark hair, and a checkered scarf, Text on mural reads, 34 hours, 45 years, 2002, 7, 2019, 11.

(SPEECH)

(sirens)

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, Brian Sinclair - an Indigenous man - visited an emergency room in Winnipeg in 2008 for a treatable medical condition.

(SPEECH)

(upbeat, Indigenous music)

(DESCRIPTION)

He died after waiting 34 hours without receiving care, despite concerns raised by fellow patients.

He was 45.

An inquest into Brian Sinclair's death was held in 2014.

His family withdrew from the inquest citing a lack of attention to systemic patterns of racism in the health care system.

(SPEECH)

Wood"]

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, 2019. The life expectancy of First Nations People living in Manitoba was 11 years less than non-Indigenous Manitobans.

Quote, "This portrait of Brian is so large in hopes that you will not be able to look away," unquote, Oil on stone, 2020, S. Gladue.

(SPEECH)

(birds chirping)

(DESCRIPTION)

Black screen

A large canopy of dark green trees.

(SPEECH)

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

(rhythmic drumming and singing)

(DESCRIPTION)

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.

(DESCRIPTION)

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.

(DESCRIPTION)

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.

(DESCRIPTION)

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.

(DESCRIPTION)

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)

(DESCRIPTION)

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.

(DESCRIPTION)

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)

(DESCRIPTION)

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

(DESCRIPTION)

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]

(DESCRIPTION)

Credits: Executive Producer, Ewan Affleck; Director, Christopher Paetkau; "Birth" Co-Director, Adam Gualtieri; "Adolescence" Co-Director, Ewan Affleck, Adam Gualtieri, Chloe Ross-Rogerson; "Adulthood" Co-Director, Adam Gualtieri, Chloe Ross-Rogerson; Created and Written by Ewan Affleck, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson, Adam Gualtieri, Stephen Gladue; Producers, Christopher Paetkau, Chloe Ross-Rogerson; Creative Directors, Stephen Gladue, Jennifer Podemski; Music Director, Leela Gilday; Muralist, Stephen Gladue; Poetry by Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory; Directors of Photography, Adam Gualtieri, Christopher Paetkau; Editor, Adam Gualtieri; Animators, Stephen Gladue, Catherine Vu, Adam Gualtieri; Sound Editor, Adam Gualtieri; Production Manager, Chloe Ross-Rogerson; Production Manager, Chloe Ross-Rogerson; Senior Project Advisor, Alika Lafontaine.

(SPEECH)

♪ I hope you forget me in heaven ♪ ♪ I pray it's just that peaceful ♪ ♪ That you stop looking down ♪ ♪ Through the holes in the clouds ♪ ♪ Keep on baskin’ in healing ♪ ♪ 'Cause that could be the only trade ♪ ♪ For all these things I'm missin' ♪ ♪ And we'll catch up when the world blows up ♪ ♪ In the land of no contrition ♪ ♪ Meet me in the great wide

(DESCRIPTION)

Featuring: Morningstar Mercredi, Sonny Macdonald, Akutaq Williamson-Bathory, Makpa Otak, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Leetia Eegeesiak, Stephen Gladue, Stella Blackbird, Audrey Bone, Rainbow Chartrand, Candace Demarai. A special thanks to those who shared stories: Morningstar Mercredi, Sonny Macdonald, Audrey Bone, Stella Blackbird, Rainbow Chartrand, Candace Demarai. Knowledge holders and subject matter experts: Alika Lafontaine, Aluki Kotierk, Marie Wilson.

(SPEECH)

open ♪ ♪ Where the milk and honey pour free ♪ ♪ And we'll all lay down what burdens us now ♪ ♪ In the great wide open so free ♪ (gentle music) ♪ And you'll pay off your earthly ransom

(DESCRIPTION)

Film Title - The Unforgotten - Courtesy of: Iskwe. Mural image inspired by photograph courtesy of: Maurice Bruneau.

(SPEECH)

♪ ♪ Learn to extend your hand some ♪ ♪ And there'll be plenty of

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Nunavut Production Unit: Director of Photography, Jamie Griffiths from Chickweed Arts; Camera Operator, Jamie Griffiths from Chickweed Arts; Gimbal Camera Operator, Rico Manitok; Drone Pilot, Thibaut Larquey; Field Sound Mixer, Thibaut Larquey; Ice Safety Guide, Jimmy Qaunirq; Dog Team Supervisor, Jovan Simic. Special Thanks: Canadian Medical Association Team, Helen MacDonald and Family, Robert Sinclair and Family, Vilko Zbogar, Steve Loney, Karen Blondin Hall, Janelle Bruneau, Dana Francey, Loren McGinnis, Shooters Productions, Raw Rental House, Midcan Productions, K.T.R. Investments Limited. Transcripts, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Rev dot com. Translations, Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, Edgar dot C.A., Elizabeth Biscaye.

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stalls in the shoppin' mall ♪ ♪ And never a line to stand in ♪ ♪ And for the first time you're gonna feel ageless ♪ ♪ Like a novel in its final pages ♪ ♪ And you'll have full bars ♪ ♪ When you're next to the stars ♪ ♪ And finally feel what grace is ♪ ♪ So rush me to the great wide yonder ♪ ♪ And black out the sin and sonder ♪ ♪ Turn out the light on this little old life ♪ ♪ And allow me to be reunited ♪ ♪ And meet me

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Music: "Fire Songs," written and performed by Nigel Irwin and Bryden Gwiss Kiwenzie; "Rebuild," written and performed by Greyson Gritt and Silla; "Ice," written and performed by Diyet Van Lieshout; "Magdalene," written and performed by David George Leach; "Michael Grandgambe's Love Song (For Rosie)," written and performed by Stephen Kakfwi; "Soft (Aqittiq)," written and performed by Silla nd Rise, "Uqausissaka featuring Elisapie," written and performed by Rita Clair Mike Murphy, Elisapie Issac and Andrew Morrison.

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in the great wide open ♪ ♪ Where the milk and honey pour free ♪ ♪ And we'll all lay down what burdens us now ♪ ♪ In the great wide open so free ♪ ♪ Meet me in the great wide open ♪ ♪ Where the milk and honey pour free ♪

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Text, If this film has triggered strong negative thoughts or feelings, you can find support at: The Hope for Wellness Line (1 8 5 5 2 4 2 3 3 1 0), The Residential School Crisis Line (1 8 6 6 9 2 5 4 4 1 9), The Crisis Services of Canada (1 8 3 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 6).

A Build dot Films and Networked Health Production.

Copyright 2021 Canadian Medical Association.

BUILD

Content Advisory

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