I used to be born and raised in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 area, within the northern boreal forest, surrounded by the land of a thousand lakes. As a baby rising up in a looking group, I used to be in a position to expertise a land-based life-style of foraging and fishing. This taught me about my connection to my paternal Woodland Cree roots and group.
Once I was 11, we moved to Saskatoon and I skilled my first tradition shock, transitioning to an city life-style through which schooling was now the strategy of survival. I took as a right the data and abilities that my household and group in La Ronge had transmitted to my sister Annie and I, and it wasn’t till I had kids of my very own that I took duty as a dad or mum to foster a relationship to our communities.
The seed for my 2019 brief movie, Tales Are in Our Bones, was my youngest youngster Corwyn’s want to study fishing from his grandmother, kokum Marian, who had then moved again to La Ronge and returned to a land-based life-style. Each Corwyn and his sibling, Dawlari, have been raised in Regina, and whereas they lived within the Queen Metropolis, I took them to La Ronge so they may eat recent fish caught within the northern lakes of my childhood residence and have the expertise of various members of the family offering. Corwyn felt that this might fill a niche of their data programs.
Once I was a baby, I keep in mind having my very own rod and discovering fishing spots alongside the Montreal River. So Tales Are in Our Bones was meant to be a cinéma vérité strategy to watching my kids learn to fish, and to share that have with household over a meal. The objective was to be much less prescriptive and extra hands-on; as I used to be taught rising up, first do it, and the teachings observe. This movie centres on intergenerational data transmission by way of land engagement, fishing and cooking outside.
Rising up, nobody talked about my Atikamek Cree household historical past, so I didn’t know something about my maternal background till I used to be round eight years outdated, when my grandmother, nohkum Caroline, who raised me and taught me my core teachings, was despatched again to Waswanipi Cree Nation, Quebec. It was later defined that she lived with amnesia for a few years and was lacking from her group after a traumatic head damage. My 2023 movie, Our Maternal House, is about my kids and my era reconnecting with my Aunty Irene in Waswanipi, and reconnecting with the group my grandmother got here from. I had at all times been informed that that is the place my teachings and identification originate.
Clip of Our Maternal House, Janine Windolph, offered by the Nationwide Movie Board of Canada
My observe as a storyteller, educator and filmmaker has moved to centre on intergenerational therapeutic and taking time to transmit tales, data, abilities and ceremonies to the following era. For Our Maternal House, I centered on strolling the land, foraging elements and making ready a feast for the Elders of the group, whereas honouring the ancestors that got here earlier than us, specifically nohkum Caroline. My hope was for the group to embrace and settle for my kids as a part of their household line and to honour the legacy of my grandmother.
As a storyteller, I discover documentary movie is the most effective medium for this work as a result of it provides a strategy to doc the method, to dedicate time and assets to the transmission of information, to share teachings and, with the participation of my kids, give hope for the long run whereas reflecting on the previous and those that got here earlier than us.
As a mom and documentary filmmaker, I’ve noticed that my kids undergo a number of layers of studying and expertise throughout every movie. First, they assist plan what we’ll do for the movie, then they expertise it in manufacturing, after which they mirror on crucial moments in post-production. All of it results in sharing that have with others.
As they received older and watched Tales Are in Our Bones once more, they picked up new classes and remembered issues they’d forgotten through the years. By way of this course of, they’ve additionally turn out to be storytellers themselves. It’s my dream that no matter path they soak up life, my kids will select to proceed nurturing abilities realized on the land, with household and group, and making documentary movies that mirror their life experiences whereas exploring household tales.