Level 10 Native Studies

Videos are listed chronologically by date added, beginning with the most recent

The Pathfinders. Episode 6

The Canadian West is opened by the great fur-trading empires (Hudson's Bay and Northwest Companies), the Indigenous people who were their indispensable allies, and bold explorers and mapmakers: Pierre Esprit Radisson takes New France's trade far into the continent's interior creating an English t...

A Question of Loyalties. Episode 5

At the beginning of the American Revolution (1775), American rebels invade Canada but les Canadiens refuse to take up arms against British rule, and the invasion ultimately fails. The mass migration of 40,000 Loyalists that follows creates an English-speaking Canada virtually overnight. When the ...

When the World Began. Episode 1

This episode looks back more than 15,000 years at the history of the first occupants of the territory that would become Canada. From the rich resources of native oral history and archaeology come the stories of the first people - how dozens of distinct societies took shape, and how they encounter...

Claiming the Wilderness. Episode 3

A small French settlement in New France builds a flourishing society and stakes a claim to a massive continent between 1660 and 1750. New France's populace includes shop keepers, artisans, farmers and landlords, as well as fur-trading expansionists like Governor Frontenac and his commercial partn...

Adventurers and Mystics. Episode 2

With the search for the Northwest Passage and the expansion of the Grand Banks fishery, Newfoundland and along the St. Lawrence soon became a destination for permanent European colonies. Samuel de Champlain begins his legendary journeys and the precarious beginnings of New France are established....

A Solemn Undertaking: The Five Treaties of Saskatchewan

This video explores the treaty relationship between the government, First Nations and other Canadians.

Blind Spot: What Happened to Canada's Aboriginal Fathers?

This video program explores the issue of First Nations children who grow up without their fathers - the "blind spot." Two central themes in the program can lead to classroom discussion. First, the decimation of the buffalo stripped males of their role as providers and protectors. Moving First Nat...

For Angela

Starring Tina Keeper and Tiffany Peters, this production presents a re-enactment of a racial assault on Rhonda Gordon and her daughter Angela. When confronted and verbally abused by a group of youths on a bus, Rhonda worries that the incident will cause Angela to reject her Aboriginal heritage. I...

Aboriginality

Aboriginality re-imagines the strength and spirit of First Nations culture through narrative mediums that connect urban First Nations youth to their rural ancestral histories. Dallas Arcand, world champion hoop dancer and hip-hop artist, is inspired by both new and traditional elements of First N...

ati-wîcahsin (It's Getting Easier)

In ati-wîhcasin (It's Getting Easier) filmmaker Tessa Desnomie celebrates the life and times of her grandmother, Jane Merasty. Born and raised on the trapline, this Woodlands Cree woman witness's significant changes over her 80 years.

O Mother, Where Art Thou?

O Mother, Where Art Thou? by filmmakers Paul John Swiderski takes stock of his adoptive family and the security and well-being that they have always provided for him. However, he begins to wonder about his biological family.

Life Givers: Honouring Our Elders and Children

Life Givers: Honouring Our Elders and Children is a film by Janine Windolph that testifies to the need to grieve and to honour the memory of loved ones.

The Power of a Horse

In The Power of a Horse, filmmaker Cory Generoux deals with the scars that racism left on his life - both as its recipient and perpetrator.

Gene Boy Came Home

Eugene "Gene Boy" (pronounced Genie Boy) Benedict was raised on the Odanak Indian Reserve, Quebec. At age 15, he left home to work construction in New York State. At age 17, he accepted a dare to enlist in the US Marines. A few months later, he was at the frontlines of the Vietnam War. This film ...

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