In 1985, a small but resolute group of Haida elders joined the front lines to fight clearcutting on Lyell Island.
In 2014, actiivists of all ages, ranging from First Nations people to long-time Vancouver residents and new Canadians, ascended Burnaby Mountain in Canada's third largest city. There they made camp on the proposed route of a future pipeline. Their determination to do whatever it takes to keep the project from going forward springs from a firm belief in the need to protect this area of unceded Coastal Salish people for future generations.
This third documentary from Series 1 of La Voix des Mechif, explores the history of Canada's Métis people, dispossessed from land allocated to them in Manitoba as they moved across the prairies into Saskatchewan and later Alberta. The contrast between how the Alberta Government handled the situation from that of Saskatchewan and Manitoba provincial governments reverberates today in the treatment of the Métis people.
The Métis flag is the oldest Indigenous flag in the Northwest, dating back to 1816. As a young woman in Winnipeg reseraches her family roots, she learns about the early history of the Métis or Mechif people as they area also known.
A young family from the Secwepemc First Nation lives in a traditional pit house near Kamloops in the Thompson River Valley of British Columbia. Their lives are rooted in concern for the environment, respect for unceded traditional territory and a return to traditional First Nations culture.
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory runs along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Québec, across from Montréal. It is here, along the river, that Mohawk people have lived for centuries. This is the first of two programs on the Kahnawake First Nation, and it explores how the Mohawks' lives were seriously disrupted with the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway which cuts right through their territory.
The Sliammon First Nation reflect on their history and the personal cost of the very lengthy treaty process in British Columbia.
People from the Kwakwa'kawakw's 'NAMGIS First Nation take a canoe trip through their traditional territory on Vancouver Island. They reflect on their connection to the land-- the core of their lifeblood and culture, and on their intent to negotiate a modern-day Treaty with the government of British Columbia and the government of Canada.
In this second documentary from Series 1 of La Voix des Mechif, the essential need for land ownership to establish any form of jurisdiction is explored, along with how The Manitoba Act of 1870 allocating land to the Métis people failed them through the Scrip program exploited by both Church and State.
Hunting as a way of life for native people is threatened by large-scale resource development. The film reveals the Native world through details of daily life in a summer hunting camp.
People from the Kwakwa'kawakw's 'NAMGIS First Nation take a canoe trip through their traditional territory on Vancouver Island. They reflect on their connection to the land-- the core of their lifeblood and culture, and on their intent to negotiate a modern-day Treaty with the government of British Columbia and the government of Canada.