Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler Screens Award-Winning Documentary Sugarcane.

Sugarcane, a Sundance award-winning documentary, follows the survivors and ongoing investigation of St. Joseph’s residential school, its legacy of abuse and missing children, and its ongoing impacts on the surrounding communities. The film features the stories and experiences of many, including writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat (Tsq’escen/Lil’wat) and his father, artist Ed Archie NoiseCat (Tsq’escen/Lil’wat), who was born at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School.

Directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie (Emmy- and Peabody-nominated investigative journalist), along with Oscar-nominated producer Kellen Quinn, present the silenced history and ongoing trauma as it is revealed by survivors immediately following the public announcement of preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Intergenerational Indigenous Trauma is News in Canada

The film takes place in early 2021 after discovering unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School. It follows Williams Lake First Nation’s extensive ground-penetrating radar search of St. Joseph’s Mission near Williams Lake. With modern scientific evidence, these difficult truths, known by Indigenous Peoples, always became news to Canada. The stories and trauma carried by Indigenous Peoples in Canada became real during this time for many non-Indigenous Canadians, as did the realization that these were not exaggerations or isolated incidents perpetrated by individuals but part of a national and systematic plan to ‘get rid of the Indian problem.’

Sharing Stories and Comfort

Sugarcane is not just a film about historical injustices but a film about living survivors and the emotional and physical consequences of their personal experience of shared trauma and grief. Former residents come together to share comfort, stories, and their decades-long efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable and make visible the actions and consequences that others worked so hard to conceal and deny.

Together, the NoiseCats and many others step forward with the courage to pull back the sheet and reveal the truth, not always knowing what lies beneath–a truth that invites memory and a direct encounter with a dark reality and experiences that are difficult to face and hard to carry with an already heavy load. For many, the public investigation and ongoing findings have forced the re-opening of wounds long-buried by silence and a deep desire to forget. Thank you for your courage–the courage to share buried truths and make them visible so there may be healing.

The Mission and its Legacy

In July 2021, Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) launched a formal investigation into the disappeared and deceased Indigenous children at the former SJM Residential School. Operated by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the mission ran St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School onsite from 1886-1981. During this time, thousands of Secwepemc, Tsilhqot’in, Dakelh, and Stʼatʼimc children were taken from their homes by cattle trucks to attend a school that separated them from each other, their families, lands, language, and culture.

From early on, the school received public inquiries regarding its living conditions, and several staff members were imprisoned for sexual abuse following its closure. These instances of attention and accountability were minimal and did not result in the safety and protection of Indigenous children.

The film also includes stories shared by non-Indigenous people who, decades later, realize that the faith and belief they carried as children led them to witness unspeakable acts and participate in activities that led to deep trauma as they recognized their own innocence, faith, and obedience were abused, making them complicit in the abuse and death of Indigenous children at St. Joseph’s.

The Land Holds All

Williams Lake First Nation bought the land the mission stands on in September 2023. Time, the land, and living Indigenous Peoples are reclaiming the old mission site. Iconic religious statues stare across empty fields. The windows are broken, the classrooms are empty, and the perpetrators have gone away. It is returning to what it always was and always will be–Secwepemculecw.

The new Indigenous ownership of the mission site is about more than the title. It is an opportunity to heal on and with the land–to be held by it and feel safe again, to decide how it is used and what stories to tell about it, and to transform generations of trauma into a legacy of healing, truth, and reconciliation.

The land holds all of its people and everything they carry. It holds the children who never made it home and those whose pain became too great to continue long after they left the mission. It also holds the living survivors, their silence and expression, their children, and grandchildren. It lifts the living generation as they dance powwow, learn their languages, and dipnet for salmon, supporting them as they revive cultural practices stolen from their Elders.

It holds space for new questions, first-time answers, and meaningful silences.

Watch a Film and Witness the Truth

Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) is proud to share the award-winning Sugarcane on Thursday August 22, Friday September 27, and Monday September 30, 2024. We invite all​​ to attend the screening, to listen with open minds and hearts to the stories of residential school survivors, to witness and accept these truths, and to share them with others, restoring light to all that has been kept in the dark and bringing voice to all that has been silenced.

The film makes it clear–the pain and consequences of the atrocities that took place at residential schools across Canada are not over for survivors, their families, and all of us who care. It is not over, but it is finally coming to light. Indigenous Peoples in Canada are still dying from, and living in spite of, residential schools and other attempts made by the Canadian government to perpetrate cultural genocide.

We share this film and celebrate its success. We applaud all participants in the documentary for their courage and thank them for their teachings and the strength it took to hold the knowledge so that it could be heard by all and inspire change.

Through Art, Dark Becomes Light

Celebrate beyond survival–celebrate Sugarcane’s success and the space it has opened for honest public dialogue. Share your experience as a witness to the stories in the film. Consider contributing to an organization that supports the healing of residential institution survivors. Visit the SLCC Gallery before or after the Sugarcane screening to view the fused glass works of Ed Archie NoiseCat. Follow WLFN and other communities as they shine a light into Canada’s darkest corners.

For some viewers, learning of residential school reality and ongoing intergenerational trauma shatters the Canadian dream. For others, it is just another reminder of life in an ongoing colonial nightmare. For both, this powerful film can have profound effects as we see our shared history with new eyes and work together to acknowledge and address the immense and ongoing suffering of Indigenous individuals, families, and communities inflicted by the Canadian government and its policies.

See the Trailer

Watch the film at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler

SUGARCANE
Thursday, August 22, 2024 | 4:30 pm | 7:30 pm
Friday, September 27, 2024 | 7:00 pm
Monday, September 30, 2024 | 3:00 pm

Tickets coming soon

Please note this film is rated R: Restricted

To learn more about the Sugarcane film visit:
https://sugarcanefilm.com/
https://films.nationalgeographic.com/sugarcane#about-the-film

Resources from the Sugarcane Film

Support is available for residential school survivors in BC:

• First Nations Health Authority: https://www.fnha.ca/what-we-do/mental-wellness-and-substance-use/residential-schools
• Indian Residential School Survivors Society, phone: 604 985-4464 or toll-free:1 800 721-0066
• Tsow-Tun Le Lum for Indigenous Peoples in BC, phone: 1 888 403-3123
• The Métis Crisis Line for Métis people in BC is available 24 hours a day at 1 833 638-4722
• The KUU-US Crisis Line Society provides a 24-hour, provincewide Indigenous crisis line for Indigenous Peoples in BC

Adults, call 250 723-4050
Children and youth, call 250 723-2040, toll-free: 1 800 588-8717