With Canada 150 celebrations focusing on the 150th anniversary of confederation and the cry from Indigenous peoples to remember they have been on this land for 15,000 years, the Eden Mills Community Club is screening five National Film Board (NFB) films addressing First Nations issues during the 2017-18 season.
The third film in the series, Birth of a Family, is a documentary directed by Tasha Hubbard and is scheduled for Feb. 9 at 7:30pm at the Eden Mills Community Hall.
A discussion will follow the screening.
Three sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet together for the first time in this documentary.
Removed from their young Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s infamous Sixties Scoop, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben were four of the 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or to live in foster care.
Now all middle aged, each has grown up in different circumstances, with different family cultures, different values and no shared memories.
Birth of a Family follows them through the challenges, trepidations and joys of their first steps towards forming their family.
The films, selected from the NFB’s Aabiziingwashi (Wide Awake) series, are created by First Nations artists.
The series continues in 2018 with Totem: The Return of the G’psgolox Pole (2003) by Gil Cardinal and Our Nationhood (2003) by Alanis Obomsawin.
The screening of Birth of a Family will take place on Feb. 9 from 7:30 to 9pm at the Eden Mills Community Hall.
Admission is free but donations are welcome, in support of Eden Mills Community Hall.
For more information visit www.edenmills.ca/canada150.
