Indian Horse movie inspires reconciliation event
Evening will feature conversation and screening of the movie Indian Horse
People who normally would not see a movie about residential schools will go see a movie about hockey. And this is about both.
Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse has inspired a conversation about truth and reconciliation among Grade 11 students at Scott Collegiate.
Those same students are hoping to reach the broader community during an Education for Reconciliation movie night on Wednesday at the mamaweyatitan centre.
“(It’s) kind of a way for people in the community, people from all over the place, to come together in a big gathering; talking about truth and reconciliation and what it means, and what it means to different people,” said Cailee Ungermann, 16.
It’s important to educate the community about what happened in residential schools and how it affects generations, said Jerico Lonechild, 16. “I think that’s important for every native person and non-native person, to learn about the history.”
The students started studying Wagamese’s 2012 novel Indian Horse in March in their Grade 11 English language arts class. The book inspired the film of the same name, which was released in April and will be screened at the event.
Indian Horse centres on Saul, an Ojibway boy who excels at hockey and uses the sport as an emotional and physical escape from his life at St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School.
But as Saul climbs the ranks, eventually playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ farm team, his past traumas catch up to him.
The story is fictional, but greatly resembles Fred Sasakamoose’s real-life journey.
Sasakamoose, who hails from the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation (also known as Sandy Lake), was the first treaty Indian in the National Hockey League. He played 11 games for the Chicago Blackhawks, after learning to play hockey at St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Duck Lake.
Sasakamoose will be a guest speaker at Wednesday’s event. Wagamese’s son, Jason Schaffer, who lives in Regina, is also scheduled to speak.
Indian Horse is “a really important story” and “incredibly relatable,” said English teacher Tamara Ryba. “A lot of residential school stories can be just heavy, heavy, heavy because some pretty nasty things happened, right? But Richard Wagamese is able to tell the story in a way that makes you want to keep watching and want to know more and really connect with Saul and what he experiences,” said Ryba.
“People who normally would not see a movie about residential schools will go see a movie about hockey. And this is about both.”
Other residential school stories will be shared at the event through a video project the students created after interviewing community members.
For Olivia Isnana, 17, it means recognizing the impact on young Indigenous women.
“You can tell that most native girls nowadays ... don’t hold their head up high,” she said. “How sometimes they feel shame for what has happened.”
For Lonechild, it means recognizing the intergenerational impacts.
“I know I’m affected by it because my mom’s an alcoholic, passed on (to her); drugs and addictions happen because of it; people tried coping with it and now people who went to residential schools don’t know their culture no more,” said Lonechild.
He said it’s important to find out what truth and reconciliation is, what it means for First Nations people, how it helps them heal as human beings, and how they can move on and become better people from it.
Mayor Michael Fougere is slated to speak at the Education for Reconciliation movie night, which runs 6:30-9 p.m. on Wednesday at mamaweyatitan centre, 3355 Sixth Ave.