Innovative Partnership Will Produce Indigenous-led Series about Indigenous Guardians
A member of the Dane nan yḗ dāh Network (Kaska Land Guardians) monitors water quality in northern BC. Photo: Tanya Ball
By Valérie Courtois
November 16, 2021
The Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI) is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with the Royal Canadian Geographic Society (RCGS) to produce a documentary series about the Indigenous Guardians who are caring for lands and waters across the country.
This is a unique collaboration. ILI and the RCGS come from different histories and points of view. But we share a commitment to amplifying Indigenous leadership on the land.
In the face of climate change and loss of biodiversity, Indigenous Guardians are offering solutions for sustaining the health lands, clean waters, and carbon storehouses we all depend on. By joining together, ILI and the RCGS can draw on each other’s strengths to share the story of Guardians with national and international audiences.
“Guardians carry on what Indigenous Peoples have always done: protect the earth for the next seven generations,” said Chief Perry Bellegarde, who was recently named Honorary President of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. “This creative partnership between the Indigenous Leadership Initiative and the RCGS will shine a light on how the work of Guardians sustains the planet and all of our relations — human and beyond.”
Not only will this documentary series shine a spotlight on Indigenous land stewardship. It will also contribute to the growing movement of narrative sovereignty: the power in Indigenous people telling our own stories and seeing ourselves on the screen. There are so many beautiful dimensions of our communities’ experiences—from sustaining knowledge to healing from trauma—and this series can represent some of that richness and diversity.
Both ILI and RCGS are committed to producing the project in a way that embodies responsibility and reciprocity. The series will be led by Indigenous creatives. And it will build on the important work underway in the Indigenous filmmaking community around protocols and pathways.
We hope the partnership can generate additional tools for collaboration. ILI works with many Indigenous Nations and Guardians programs, and we want to ensure their stories, knowledge, and laws are respected in the filmmaking process. We want to identify ways that communities can benefit from the production, including sharing footage and creating opportunities for youth to learn about cinematography, sound, and other aspects of production.
Wahkohtowin Guardians harvested the materials and built a birchbark canoe with canoe master Chuck Commanda near Chapleau, Ont. Photo: Amberly Quakegesic
ILI and RCGS are working with Dene filmmaker Amos Scott to help develop this as a project at the forefront of Indigenous approaches to onscreen storytelling.
An experienced broadcast journalist, Amos was the producer, director, and writer for Dene A Journey, the APTN documentary series that followed several Indigenous people as they reconnect with their culture and language by being on the land. In addition to producing short documentaries for CBC, Amos has also created videos about Indigenous-led conservation for ILI.
We are excited to work with Amos to map out seven 60-minute documentaries, as well as a feature-length film. Every day on the job is different, and the series will follow along as Guardians talk with Elders about climate change, fly in helicopters for caribou research, and lead youth on canoe journeys. And it will reveal how being a Guardian can transform lives and communities.
I have been fortunate to work with Guardians across the country—to experience firsthand their expertise, resilience, humour, and love of the land. This series will give millions of people the chance to see how Guardians are helping create a more sustainable future for all of us.
“The stories of the incredible work of Guardians are needed now more than ever,” shared Charlene Bearhead, Director of Reconciliation for the RCGS. “All Canadians, and indeed all global citizens, need the experiences, wisdom and hope that Guardians bring. This Indigenous-led partnership is the key to that hope.”
