Homelands: Shorts Docs

Keisha Erwin • 10 minutes • 2023 • Canada • Cree, English

pî-kiwîk, will bring viewers on a heartfelt journey of how reconnecting to one’s culture and family can be life-changing, grounding and how it can provide a sense of belonging, pride and purpose .Through this short-documentary, I will capture my personal journey of reconnection as a mixed child of a 60s scoop survivor (disconnected generationally), a grandchild of 2 residential school survivors and as someone who grew up globally and disconnected from my family in kîwîtinohk kisiskâciwanihk. 

I will capture the raw emotions, the heartfelt inspiration, the nitty gritty of building relationships with my family while navigating intergenerational trauma and the beauty of it all, as seen in the scenery of the land, the waters, nohkom’s voice and heard in my reclamation and learning of the Woodland Cree language. Through the telling of my own personal story of returning to and finding home in my community in Northern Saskatchewan, I will convey the transformative power of finding oneself in relation to one’s family, language and culture. Disconnection (due to colonization and forced assimilation) is a sadly common experience for Indigenous peoples across these lands, pî-kiwîk will not only show the strength within Indigenous communities and matriarchs but also that reconnection is possible. pî-kiwîk, come home, our families and ancestors are waiting for us.

Jack Belhumeur • 9 minutes 41 seconds • 2023 • Canada • English

Jack Belhumeur invites the viewers on a ride along as he travels with his father and son to the site of their ancestral community. Jack tells the dark history but paints a brighter narrative of a resilient and strong people with strong roots.

Adrien Harpelle • 24 minutes • Canada • English, Oji-Cree

In September 2019, Nibinamik First Nation Elders Tommy Yellowhead and Stephen Neshinapaise, both born at PinnaeMootang, were accompanied by a small group of youth and a Shebafilms crew as they travelled an historic canoe route to their birthplace. They paddled southward from Nibinamik First Nation to their old village site, with the journey and experiences captured for the film ‘Journey to Our Homelands.’ Elders Tommy Yellowhead and Stephen Neshinapaise hope to inspire all Matawa First Nations to ‘think beyond the Indian Act’ and start reconnecting with each other through their lakes, rivers and trails, as they have done for millennia.

The film hopes to encourage other Matawa members to connect socially with each other through their waterways and trails in order to demonstrate the current and traditional land usage for all Matawa communities and First Nation members.