Original subtitles

[♪♪♪]

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[♪♪♪]

[man sings]

[drumbeat]

[water runs]

♪ Ho cha

[drum beats with keystrokes]

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ La cha e'ah ha

♪ Ho he low

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

♪ We yo'n Hey chey ya na hey...Lo ♪

[♪♪♪]

♪ You've got a sky above you

♪ That calls you by name

♪ You've got an earth below you ♪

♪ That understands your pain

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ A Crazy Horse

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ You're a Chief Dan George

♪ A red man's man

♪ Indian Man

♪ You've got your brothers beside you ♪

♪ That have no shame

♪ You've got your ancestors inside you ♪

♪ That are yours to claim

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ A Crazy Horse

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ You're a Chief Dan George

♪ A red man's man

♪ Indian Man

♪ You've got no sin from the start ♪

♪ Spirits inside your bones move through your heart ♪

♪ You've got no sin from the start ♪

♪ Spirits inside your bones move through your heart, yeah ♪

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ A Crazy Horse

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ You're a Chief Dan George

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ A Crazy Horse

♪ You're an Indian Man

♪ You're a Chief Dan George

♪ Red man's man

♪ Indian Man

♪ Red man's man

♪ Indian Man

[drumbeats]

[typewriter writing]

♪ Ho cha

♪ Ho he lay

♪ Ho he low

I was looking

at the first edition of The Native Voice.

I felt a little bit sad

because all the people in the picture with me

are gone now,

and I'm the only one left,

and it just brings back good memories

of involvement with the Native Brotherhood.

["Onward, Christian Soldiers" plays on an organ]

The Native Brotherhood first begun in the 1930s,

but at that time,

it was illegal for Aboriginal people to meet,

so the people created the Native Brotherhood

to try to find a way to get around that law

and to find a way to fight the...

fight the issues,

and they did that by going under the umbrella of the church,

and the anthem for the Brotherhood at that time

was "Onward, Christian Soldiers."

My name is Edwin Newman, and I'm from Bella Bella.

I was the president of the Native Brotherhood for 11 years.

I remember the first convention I went to in Bella Bella,

many people from the Interior couldn't speak English,

so a lot of the business was done in Chinook,

the trade language.

Henry and I do a little Chinook this morning.

I'm Henry Clifton from Hartley Bay, fisherman.

One of the founders, I guess,

was my great grandfather, Heber Clifton,

and two of my uncles were president,

both named Robert Clifton.

My uncle Edward Nahanee

was the business agent for the Native Brotherhood

for around 27 years.

[speaking in Skwxwu7mesh]

The name that I carry is Latash-Maurice Nahanee.

I'm from the village of Eslahan.

I live in North Vancouver, from the Squamish nation.

♪ Ho cha

[Edwin]: The Native Brotherhood

was a very powerful organization on the coast,

because it brought the bands together

to work together.

There was that sense of belonging,

that we were all in the same cause,

we're all on the same page working together.

Listening to the leaders speak with such passion

about their rights,

because they were fighting, really, for their families.

For some reason in the province of BC,

the court system refused

to recognize Aboriginal rights and title.

They wanted to sweep it aside and ignore it,

but the Brotherhood was really strong

in putting those rights forward and being strong voices for us.

[Edwin]: It battled for many things

for the Aboriginal people,

better education and better health services,

better housing.

Very difficult at that time for our native people

to get a good education,

like a residential school could only go as far as grade 8.

[Henry]: They started with the hunting, the fishing,

and trying to get a union to help the fishermen.

The Brotherhood created programs

like Indian Fishermen's Assistance Program,

and they used that to help Aboriginal people

buy boats and licences

so they could become entrepreneurs in the fishery.

At that time, I guess they were the only organization

that was trying to do those things for Indian people.

We lost a lot of land, our rights were pushed aside,

but it's the leadership of the Brotherhood

that really... really had to fight for us,

and they put their lives on the line,

they put their reputations on the line.

[Edwin]: They got the government

to take the restrictions off the potlatch.

We were able to practice our customs again.

[Henry]: When it came time to conventions,

or if there was a cause that the old guys had to go and do,

the bosses, the women,

started up basket socials, coffee cake-sandwich sales,

and had meetings about what was going on,

what they had to raise money for,

so this happened in all the locals,

the Native Brotherhood locals.

We were the ones that raised the funds

to keep the Native Brotherhood going,

because they didn't have any government funds.

We didn't want government funds,

because we wanted to fight our own battle,

without any restrictions put on us,

and that's the way it was with our people, you know,

we didn't wait for somebody to do something.

We made things happen.

That's what I remember of the Native Brotherhood.

[♪♪♪]

♪ Oh hee lay

♪ Hey lo

[drumming]

[♪♪♪]

My name is William Lavallee.

My name is Richard Brown.

My name is Russell Wallace.

I come from the Lil'wat nation.

I grew up in America

from African-American and Cherokee descendants.

I am from the Metis nation, from St. Laurent, Manitoba.

My name is JJ Lavallee.

My name is Ronnie Dean Harris.

My ancestral names are Kwala, Malohalech,

and my people come from Yale, Coquitlam,

the Lil'wat/St'at'imc nations, and also the Sto:lo region.

I am originally from St. Ambroise, Manitoba,

a small Metis community of about 300 people.

My name is Murray Porter.

My name is Corey Payette.

I'm Oji-Cree First Nations

from the Mattagami nation in Northern Ontario.

I'm Mohawk, Turtle clan,

from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory.

I am a singer-songwriter, composer, guitar player.

I am a drummer.

I am a hip-hop artist.

A singer, a composer...

I'm a Metis fiddler.

I am a traditional singer and a composer.

And what I do, sing the blues.

I write songs, I play the piano,

and I sing about the struggle of our people.

[♪♪♪]

[woman sings]

[clock ticking]

[clock ticking]

[paper tearing]

[taking a deep breath]

[gasping]

[clock ticking]

[♪♪♪]

♪ This is how it goes

♪ 'Cause this is how it's always been ♪

♪ Heels diggin' inside the earth ♪

♪ One foot in front of the other ♪

♪ Leaving a small hole to plant a large dream ♪

♪ Leaving a small hole

♪ To plant a large dream

♪ One seed, one dream

♪ One dream, one step

♪ One step steppin'

♪ Leaving my blues behind

♪ One seed, one dream

♪ One dream, one step

♪ One step steppin'

♪ Leaving my blues behind

♪ The man's got a long back

♪ Crawled up there in my hose

♪ My mother said nobody knows

♪ This is how it goes

♪ So you have to stand up

♪ To put your foot down

♪ You've got to find something somehow ♪

♪ You've got to hold on to someone, some way ♪

♪ You've got to get to something ♪

♪ Something you can keep

♪ One seed, one dream

♪ One dream, one step

♪ One step steppin'

♪ With my own mind

♪ One seed, one dream

♪ One dream, one step

♪ One step steppin'

♪ With my own mind

♪ This is how it goes

♪ 'Cause this is how it's always been ♪

♪ Dig your heels into the earth ♪

♪ One foot in front of the other ♪

♪ Leaving a small hole to plant a large dream ♪

♪ Leaving a small hole

♪ To plant a large dream

♪ A large dream

♪ A large hope

♪ A large dream

♪ Growin', growin' right under your feet ♪

[woman singing]

[speaking in language]

My English name is Vera Newman.

I come from the 'Namgis,

and the Mamalilikala tribe,

and the Kwak'wala people,

from Alert Bay.

I always knew about the Brotherhood

because my dad was a fisherman, my grandparents, and my uncles,

they all fished from Alert Bay area,

and we always heard about the fight of the Brotherhood,

and it was quite natural to be a part of it,

something that we were very proud of,

to be part of a Native Sisterhood.

The Native Sisterhood was started way before my time.

My grandmother was part of it back in the '40s.

I got involved in 1973

when a man called George Jeffrey came to Alert Bay,

and we all got elected

to be part of the Native Brotherhood branch of Alert Bay,

and I was elected to be a president

of a Native Sisterhood at the time,

and then we got involved.

We started to go to Brotherhood conventions

and did fundraising to support our fishermen.

My name is Karen Jeffrey.

I'm from the Ganhada tribe.

I'm Tsimshian, from the North Coast.

My grandfather was one of the original founding members

before the Native Brotherhood was established.

Him and my grandmother would travel together

to the various villages to form the Native Brotherhood.

My grandmother was alongside him.

You know, the women were

the backbone of the Native Brotherhood

to help them establish and fight for the native rights.

When I started working for the Native Brotherhood,

my job was to recruit membership,

to liaison with all the various communities

up and down the coast.

I was 19. 19 years old.

At the time, back in the mid-'70s,

vessels were more family oriented,

so basically what I would do is go to the docks

during fishing season

and talk with the fishermen and the women, the families,

and get them to sign up with the Native Brotherhood,

and people were willing to support the cause

because we were a long way from our struggles to be gone.

[Vera]: Our women were dedicated to support our men.

The ladies in the... way before my time,

got together to do all kinds of fundraising events

to help out the struggle,

so when we came along,

we did our own way of fundraising

through different events, raffles and bingo and dances.

[Karen]: It wasn't like a woman's movement,

do you know what I mean?

We didn't play that role.

No.

It was to make sure that the families,

that we had adequate rights.

We learned things by visiting different communities,

what worked there,

and what we could do to make things better

in our village, for our people.

My name is Delhia Nahanee, I'm from the Nisga'a nation.

We grew up in the canneries,

running back and forth on the wharves

while our parents were out fishing

or they were working in the canneries.

I remember when I was 15

and my dad bought me my first pair of rubber boots,

you know, and then he just pointed me towards the office,

and said "Sign up. You're going to go to work,"

and then my Auntie Norma Morgan pulled out a fish,

and she showed me what to do.

She said, "The most important thing

is to sign up for the native union."

We had really good wages and overtime hours,

and, unfortunately, I had a bit of a mishap,

and I ended up in the hospital,

and the union paid for the days that I was in the hospital.

Aboriginal people worked together.

Everyone had a little part.

It's the common goal theory, you know,

and that's just part of being a union as Aboriginal people.

[Vera]: I guess the real special thing for us

is the lifetime friendships we made along the coast,

that we learned to respect each other,

and learned to work together for the betterment of all of us.

[Karen]: The Native Brotherhood stood for unity,

and unity throughout the coast,

and we all stood together proudly.

You would see our flags, the Native Brotherhood flags,

flying high and proud

on the boats throughout the BC coast.

♪ Ho cha

[speaking in Skwxwu7mesh]

My ancestral name is Maykw Cha7em.

My English name is Marissa Nahanee.

I come from the Squamish and Nisga'a peoples,

and I am proud of who I am.

[speaking in Mohawk]

My name is Cheri Maracle.

I'm from Six Nations, Ontario.

I'm Mohawk and Irish,

and I am an actor,

and I am a singer,

and I'm a songwriter.

My name is Shakti Hayes.

I'm from the Cree nation,

George Gordon band in Saskatchewan.

My name is Michelle St. John.

I'm a musician, a vocalist, an artist.

I am an actor, singer, writer.

I'm Wampanoag, African-American, Jewish,

and I grew up in Toronto.

My name is Jennifer Kreisberg.

I'm Tuscarora from North Carolina.

[speaking in language]

I'm a mother, singer, composer, activist.

I've always been encouraged to publicly speak,

to share culture, to be a teacher.

My ancestral name is Shamantsut.

I come from the village of Eslahan and Gitwinksilhkw.

I come from the Squamish and Nisga'a nation.

I'm Tom Berger from Vancouver.

I'm a lawyer.

In the early 1960s,

I worked with an older lawyer named Tom Hurley,

and the law office that Tom occupied

was also used by Maisie, his wife,

to get out The Native Voice.

My name is Moira Movanna, granddaughter of Maisie Hurley.

My grandmother started The Native Voice in 1946,

and she worked with the members of the Native Brotherhood.

The Toronto Star said it was

the most unusual paper in North America,

what they did and how they did it.

[Tom]: The Native Voice

was the voice of the Native Brotherhood

and the native people on the coast.

Mrs. Hurley actually produced The Native Voice in her office.

I still remember her office

with these stacks of The Native Voice,

and the place was crowded,

she had artifacts, portraits,

and she stomped around with her cane

giving orders.

[Moira]: What made her so passionate?

Well, her lineage, her life experiences,

and who she was.

She was a rebel.

She broke wild horses when she was a teenager.

[Tom]: She was entirely devoted to the cause.

A remarkable woman.

[Henry]: When you talk about The Native Voice

and how much it meant to the people in the villages,

that there was no other way of contact.

In the old days, there wasn't a kind of communication system

that you have in place today, like phones.

The only way we could know what other people were doing

was with a newspaper.

It was really important to know what...

what our struggles were,

and all up and down the coast,

and that was one vessel that we used

to get the information across.

I know in Bella Bella,

we would all look forward

to the next edition of The Native Voice

to find out what was going on.

It always felt good

when something good was happening

for some of our people,

even if they didn't come from our community.

It was quite a thrill when we saw our pictures in it.

I come from this tiny little village.

I think the only thing we had was, like, radio,

and it was so exciting to get The Native Voice.

I was just in grade school,

but I knew it was something special, you know,

my parents read it,

and it was always around the house,

and it wasn't used for anything else.

It was just used for reading, and...

[laughter]

When I first read it, I thought it was hilarious,

because they wrote of everything:

weddings, birthdays, what functions are coming,

and...

it was...

it was so...

worldly before its time.

Maisie Hurley did us a big favour

when she helped us

to get The Native Voice of British Columbia.

You know, it was the paper of the Native Brotherhood,

you know?

So thank you for that, granddaughter of Maisie.

[Tom]: When I had gone to law school in the 1950s,

nobody taught anything

about Aboriginal rights, Aboriginal title.

Nobody told us in law school in those days

that the native people of British Columbia

had any rights.

I know it sounds...

it sounds very odd today, but that was the case.

Tom Hurley died suddenly,

he was in his late 70s,

and Maisie said to me

that I would have to represent the native causes

that she had used to arrange for Tom to represent.

She could be imperious, I guess is the word,

but that's how she got me involved.

She just said "This is what you're going to do now."

Within a month, she had come in with the case of two young men,

Clifford White and David Bob of the Nanaimo band,

who had been charged with hunting out of season,

and Guy Williams,

who was the president of the Native Brotherhood

in those days,

spoke to me about the case,

and he said that they had treaties

that protected their hunting rights,

so we went to court.

I remember it all very well

because this was really the first case that I had done,

or that anybody had done,

and I remember at the trial in Nanaimo,

in an old courtroom there,

Maisie Hurley, of course, with her cane,

was standing right behind me,

and native people from Nanaimo and elsewhere

occupied all the seats,

and we argued that there was a treaty,

the government said no, there's no treaty,

it's just a piece of paper, doesn't mean anything,

and we said "well, um, then if there's no treaty,

we stand on our Aboriginal rights of hunting and fishing."

In the end, that case went to the Supreme Court of Canada,

we were successful in upholding the treaty,

and it was backed by the Native Brotherhood throughout,

which was important to enable it

to proceed through each stage of appeal,

and it was really the first shot in the legal battle

to establish Aboriginal rights and Aboriginal title

for First Nations in BC.

After we had won that case,

the four chiefs

of the Nishga nation in the Nass Valley

came to see me,

and that led to the Calder case.

The Nisga'a tribal council went to the Supreme Court of Canada

and established that Aboriginal title

was a living, breathing part of Canadian law.

Today, Section 35 explicitly acknowledges

the Aboriginal rights and treaty rights

of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.

When I started out in this area,

there was no Section 35,

there was no acknowledgement

of Aboriginal rights or Aboriginal title.

The legal profession was essentially ignorant

of the true history of their own province.

[Edwin]: In the days when the Brotherhood was powerful,

we had one common enemy.

That was the Government of Canada.

We pulled out of the treaty process

because they were trying

to extinguish our title and rights,

'cause without our title and rights,

we got nothing,

and the Haisla people would never allow anybody

to extinguish the title and rights

to the ocean and to the land.

That's what the Brotherhood stood for to begin with.

They wanted to do away with our system,

with who we were as First Nations people,

take away our language and take away our culture.

Canada has one of the worst

human rights records in the world,

yet they go around preaching to other people

about how they should treat their people, you know?

Why don't they clean up their own house

before they go out and do that?

This is a big issue here they need to deal with,

and that's the First Nations people.

I know when I hear people talk about forgiveness,

I find it very hard

to forgive the Government of Canada

and the Christian church

for what they did to...

to my... to us.

[♪♪♪]

♪ God is on, on my side

♪ And I am on, on his

♪ It doesn't matter if I'm an Indian ♪

♪ I still look good, mm-mm

♪ Good God, I was a sinner

♪ Good God, I was doomed

♪ Now I am a little lamb a pretty lamb ♪

♪ None too soon, mm-mm Mm-mm ♪

♪ God is on, on my side

♪ And I am on, on his

♪ I can see him smile up above the heavenly miles ♪

♪ I still look good, mm-mm

♪ Good God, I was a sinner

♪ Good God, I was doomed

♪ Now I am a little lamb a pretty lamb ♪

♪ None too soon, mm-mm Mm-mm ♪

♪ God is on, on my side

♪ And I am on, on his

♪ I'm an Indian God's brown child ♪

♪ But I still look good, mm-mm

♪ Good God, I was a sinner

♪ Good God, I was doomed

♪ Now I am little lamb a pretty lamb ♪

[crying]

♪ God's little brown child

♪ Oh, so pretty

♪ Mm-mm

♪ Ooh

[♪♪♪]

[Michelle]: I could've chosen a different profession,

but I chose to be a performer,

and I chose to, um, use who I am to say something.

I am a musician, a blues singer,

a songwriter, all that,

but first and foremost, I'm First Nations, I'm Mohawk,

so I write about things

in a way that entertains but also educates.

If I observe something in the world

that hurts my spirit or hurts my feelings,

and I really feel like that is not cool

and that's got to change,

um, at the age I'm at now and where I'm at in my life now,

it's like "okay, I want to do this in a good way,

in a way that encourages people

to come together to make things better,"

so how can I do that?

Well, for me, that's with harmonies.

I feel that music is kind of an ethereal voice,

um, in both cultures, in all cultures,

and so the sound of the drum is...

is god-like, if you will.

I never approach a show

or I never approach a speech with a script,

'cause I was told that you can speak to people's ears,

it goes in and out.

You speak to people's hearts, and it stays there forever.

[loud, clear voice] The longhouse voice that we use,

it's a loud voice that speaks to your spirits,

so that your spirit reverberates with every word,

the tones and the language and the sounds that we use,

the vibrations that interconnect with your spirit

are important energies,

so this storytelling that we use,

the stories and the tone from our ancestors,

the frustrations of our matriarchs,

might seem like a tax on non-Indigenous people,

but it's how we convey the urgency.

It's how we convey the power that we need to grow forward,

and so the sounds might be harsh,

and it might sound like we're yelling at you,

but this is how we speak to your spirit and your heart,

and hope that we can meet on common grounds of values,

so we can move forward

as a collaborative global community,

and hoping that Indigenous people

will have our say in that global conversation,

even if it sounds mean sometimes.

♪ He was on borrowed time

♪ Because of the colour of his skin ♪

♪ 33 years goes fast

♪ When you were born to last

♪ But up that slanted hill

♪ Up that side still

♪ The white people are feeding

♪ Away from my skinny joy

♪ My best boy

[band begins to play]

♪ It's 1965

♪ There is no sun today I know that ♪

♪ But the light it keeps on shining ♪

♪ On those that take bit by fat ♪

♪ Everything is fine

♪ Stuff one more dumpling in your hole ♪

♪ One more serving is a fine line ♪

♪ Away from my skinny joy

♪ My best boy

♪ It's 1975

♪ My boy

♪ It's 1975

♪ My boy is dead

♪ He's gone

♪ I said, my boy is dead

♪ He's gone

♪ But the light it keeps on shining ♪

♪ On those that take bit by fat ♪

♪ Everything is fine

♪ You got lies as deep as your pockets ♪

♪ You got more than you need

♪ You got and you get

♪ While we keep the bleed

♪ 1985

♪ Keep the bleed

♪ 1985

♪ Someone call me a doctor

♪ Someone get me a gun

♪ Someone call my ancestors

♪ Someone help me some

♪ It's 1965

♪ It's 1975

♪ It's 1985

♪ Oh, yeah

♪ Oh, oh, yeah, yeah

♪ Whoa, yeah, yeah

♪ Whoa, yeah

♪ Oh, yeah, oh, yeah

♪ Oh, yeah

♪ There is no sun today

♪ I know that

♪ But the light it keeps on shining ♪

♪ On those that take bit by fat ♪

♪ Everything is fine

[♪♪♪]

[woman sings]

[Jennifer]: My family's history on both sides

has informed who I am as an artist today.

We come from four generations of seven girls who all sang.

My mom had six sisters, and they all used to sing,

and then our grandma, their mother,

had six sisters, there were seven girls,

and they used to sing,

and it goes back two more generations.

I just grew up in a family with music.

That's one of the last things that was left of our culture,

and happily, our family held on to that.

[Michelle]: I am always asking myself questions

around where do I belong and how do I fit in this place?

In that mixed-blood identity,

that's something kind of liberating

about not being afraid of all of those ancestors,

all of those folks

who've had many, many different experiences,

and somehow they thread their way

and work their way down into me.

It's important to understand

the complex multi-dimensional history

that is not necessarily written,

that's not necessarily documented

in a way that is, you know, easy to access,

that you have to find other ways into that history,

into the stories, into the people.

There's a song that came to me,

the melody came to me, um,

as I sat on my great-grandmother's grave,

so I call it the Grandmother's Song,

because I figure she gave it to me.

[singing vocables]

♪ Grandmother sing your songs to me ♪

♪ Sing your songs of love and freedom ♪

♪ Teach us who we are to be ♪

[singing vocables]

I know my grandmother raised 12 children on her own

in a white town,

and they dealt with a lot of racism.

My father dealt with a lot of racism.

He fought his whole life.

Because he fought, I am who I am.

♪ Ancestors pray for my children ♪

♪ Pray your songs of truth and freedom ♪

♪ We are here to honour you

[singing vocables]

♪ Wee wee wee

[Shakti]: I didn't really know my native culture.

My parents never talked about it.

My mom was a Cree speaker,

but she never spoke around us because of her upbringing,

and, um, I kind of had to seek it elsewhere,

but, um, it was an important part of my history

that I felt a right to reclaim,

and so I went about that as an adult

and kind of sought it out

through just meeting people, musicians and artists

that were in touch with that side of my culture,

and just wanting to learn more

about who I was as a native woman from the prairies.

[William]: I didn't meet my mom until I was about 16,

so there was always that kind of wondering who I am,

you know, what kind of shaped me,

and, you know, where did I get this passion for music?

I knew I was native,

but I didn't know what that meant to me.

When I was about 20 years old,

I started learning about my family history

and why me and my brothers and sisters

got put in foster homes,

and then rediscovering

that my family had a big musical history,

and learning that my grandfather used to play fiddle at parties,

like, standing on his... on his head and stuff like that,

and now I know through my musical journey

and learning about who I am as a native man,

and still trying to figure what that is,

'cause I still keep meeting my family all the time.

[Corey]: I didn't grow up on reserve,

and I didn't grow up

with a family that celebrated their culture,

so when I got old enough to start asking those questions,

there was a lot of feeling from my family

that "Why are you asking these questions?

We don't... don't tell people you're First Nations.

Don't talk about who you are.

Just say you're French-Canadian,"

and then in finding out more

about my culture and the history,

I then realized that was my role as an artist,

was to hold up what I hadn't been taught,

and to spark that dialogue in the community.

Here you are.

So what I'll do

is I'll just take this out of the bag for you.

We've got your accessories here.

There you go.

[women singing]

[JJ]: I've been around music since the day I was born.

21 aunts and uncles, somebody plays fiddle,

somebody sings, and it was highly influential.

I remember being a kid,

and I remember falling asleep on my uncle's guitar.

There would be fresh bread baked in the kitchen.

This was at night.

We had a local station called the Polka Party,

and they would play fiddle music,

and my grandmother would grab me,

and we would dance,

and she had sort of like mukluk-type slippers,

leather,

and they would hit the floor,

tss tss tss tss,

and it's like that engraved the beat into my soul somehow.

If you can make that crash cymbal sit,

like, right here,

that would be fantastic.

[Richard]: From the beginning of my interest in playing music,

I always wanted it to be meaningful.

The nature of social politics has definitely impacted my life

on every level, and especially as an artist.

[tuning, conversations]

[Murray]: My great grandfather was a tuba player

in the Pentecostal church.

My grandfather played the drums,

and my grandmother played the piano.

They left the world too early for them to teach me anything,

but somehow, that blood runs through my veins,

and the things that they stood for

come through me as well.

Both sides of my family went through residential school,

therefore, I didn't have my language or my culture.

I had to learn these things afterwards.

So they influenced me to be a good, strong, respectful man,

and that's what I try to be;

respect your elders, respect the children,

respect women, and respect yourself.

In that order.

♪ I feel your breath I know your pain ♪

♪ I hear you cry

♪ We carry the load together you and I ♪

[Russell]: A long history

is at the heart of the music that I do.

My mom was a traditional singer,

and she learned a lot of music and songs from her family,

from her aunties and such.

She told me to carry that on, and so I do carry that on.

I'm really thankful

that I had a mother who kept the music alive

in spite of having to be

forcefully removed from her community

and having the language beaten out of her.

The Salish languages are very consonant-heavy,

so, like, if I write something in the language,

it's hard to sing,

and that's why we have vocables.

Vocables are primarily made up of vowel sounds,

and so that's what carries a lot of the melody forward.

[singing vocables]

[Jennifer]: Vocables convey an emotion,

or something you're trying to say

without a specific language.

When languages were outlawed everywhere,

because for some reason

they were a threat to, uh, to assimilation,

um, after the language was outlawed,

I guess the vocables came in

as ways to sort of keep culture alive,

keep songs, keep writing new songs,

but if they didn't have language,

I guess you wouldn't get in as much trouble.

[singing]

If you want to write songs

that can go into different communities,

everybody can sing them and share those songs,

because they're not specific lingually,

so there's just sort of a way of uniting the people these days

through song.

[singing]

[Marissa]: Our family has always had

a past history of creating effective changes,

all the way from my first protest,

when I was in grade 4,

and we were supposed to learn French

and go un, deux, trois, quatre,

and it just didn't make sense to me.

I was sitting there, and "This isn't my language.

Why am I learning this language?"

and every single hair on my body just said this is wrong,

and I asked if I could learn my language, Skwxwu7mesh,

and they said no,

because there's no one there to teach it,

and so I refused to learn French,

and they said "Well, you can sit at the office,"

so I went to the office for two weeks, every single day,

and sure enough, after that,

we ended up having a language program,

and I'm very grateful for that opportunity.

[Amanda]: In high school,

I was labelled an "at-risk youth."

When I was growing up,

I was always told to be proud of who I am

and where I come from.

I knew I was Squamish, I knew I was Nisga'a,

I grew up with the songs and dances

and had this immense pride of who I am,

and in high school,

the curriculum and the teachers

didn't really know how to acknowledge our truth

and who we are and where we come from,

and so I felt very resistant to that.

I started learning more about the residential schools,

about the Indian Act,

different Canadian policies that have segregated us,

and that made me really mad.

I tried to utilize my culture in my English writings,

submitting essays, and my teachers would say

"Well, where did you get that information from?

What book did you get that from?

What reference do you have?"

And I'd say "Well, my grandparents.

My grandmother told me that,"

and, like, "Well, that's not, you know, something factual

that you can hand in,"

so you get a D,

and so that kept happening

in different courses

and different projects that I would submit,

and I just dropped out.

I was really tired of being called an at-risk youth.

Today what I call at-risk youth are culturally deprived youth,

because growing up and learning more about society,

about the economy, about the government

and different policies that impact our people,

I'm finding that it was deliberate what they were doing,

deliberately teaching us not to be Squamish

and not to be Nisga'a.

[Ronnie Dean]: My seven-times great grandfather

was Chief Emmitt Liquitum,

and he was our last grand chief

here in the Sto:lo region in the Fraser Canyon,

and was instrumental

in a resistance against gold miners

and militias who came up

to destroy and pillage our lands for gold

in the 1850s Canyon Gold War,

and so it is inherent for me as a young man

stepping into my manhood

that activism and doing my part

is a part of who I am,

and I could feel the ancestors with me as I research,

and as I navigate this new contemporary world

that we live in.

[train approaches]

"A Canadian Constitution with Indian law,

Indian territory into Confederation,

an Indian boundary territory authority,

and an Indian provisional government

that will be elected and controlled

by the Indian nations."

That's powerful.

Like, he thought so far out of the box.

He just didn't compromise.

He didn't ever compromise on anything.

That's what he says about himself,

and that's what all the people closest to him

always say about him.

[train whistle blows]

I was thinking about the Constitution Express

and how, like, these train tracks

are kind of like the spinal cord of colonization

that came through,

and then ended here on the west coast,

and a couple generations and decades later,

your father and those delegates

rode the train back.

It was kind of like a returning of a wave

of this energy going to say "no,"

and, like, I really think

of what the audacity of those...

to just go.

What was, like, the turning point, like...

was there a point in time

when he just mentioned

"This is what we're going to do?"

You mean for the Constitution Express?

Yeah.

Well, in our history, the government attacks us

with some crazy policy they're trying to bring in,

and we fight back.

It was like the white paper policy,

and eventually, it was this constitution

that they wanted to bring to Canada

that didn't include us,

and at first they were fighting

all across Canada,

different bands, different tribal groups,

you know, it wasn't all just coming from one place.

It wasn't unified.

And so he's in British Columbia,

and he can't help thinking big,

and between him and his staff,

they came up with this idea of forming this huge lobby,

this big united front

that would go to Ottawa and lobby.

It amazes me to be able

to unify a country of people without the Internet.

Mm.

'Cause we got the Internet now,

and we can barely do it.

I think even if he had the Internet,

he wouldn't have used it.

He was a firm believer

of you go knock on somebody's door.

You gotta go look a person in the eye,

and you have to educate them one on one

about what the urgency is,

and he'd go from community to community like that.

[♪♪♪]

[drum beats]

♪ Hey lo

If you really believe we are the first people

If you really believe we have our own nations

If you really believe we have our own Indian law

If you really believe we have been here forever

If you really believe

You don't ask for it

You take it

My message to you

You don't ask for it

You take it

This is the road you are forcing us to

by not cooperating,

by expropriating our rights,

by taking away our rights in terms of fishing,

in terms of wildlife,

taking away our rights towards sovereignty,

I think you are compelling our people.

[♪♪♪]

[train approaching]

[Vicki-Lynne George]: I remember that time

in 1980 and 1981

when the Trudeau government was trying to leave out

the Aboriginal rights and title in Canada.

I just saw my parents just...

this was the focus,

because we were going to be directly affected.

[♪♪♪]

It was very community-oriented, and, you know, very grassroots,

and making sure that everybody was involved,

elders, young kids,

you know, families,

and the women and their babies going on the train and so forth,

and, you know, that was a big deal,

and everybody was on board,

no pun intended, but they were on board.

[♪♪♪]

[Doreen]: This Indian Government flag design

was thought of,

and everybody had input about what it meant,

you know, the four directions, and our heart,

and it just took off like wildfire.

Everybody wanted to wear it,

and so I started whipping up these shirts really fast,

and selling them right away

and stacking up the money for the Constitution Express.

Yeah. I remember Dad wearing that too,

and talking about raising money for the Constitution Express,

it was so expensive

to have those people from Vancouver to go to Ottawa,

and people sold their furniture

and they did whatever they could to raise money...

That's what your dad did, right?

He did. He sold his furniture.

I remember thinking about his apartment

and everything that was going to go,

and he was just...

I said, "So you're just going to sell your furniture

and you're just going to go?"

And he said "Yeah."

My dad, Ron George,

was one of the organizers

for the Constitution Express train to Ottawa,

and then on to Europe later,

and what I remember

is him saying how this movement was so spiritual

and different than anything he's ever experienced.

There was a code of conduct,

people treated each other with respect and honour,

and there was no dissension between people at all.

It was just they had a goal, they were following your father,

your father's vision, George Manuel,

and, you know, they...

they were following his leadership.

I was listening to a speech of his

just the other day,

and he's talking to a big crowd of people,

and he's saying "You know,

we've got to have at least a thousand people

going on the European Constitution Express.

Can we do it? Can we do it?"

and you just hear this roar of people, just "yes!"

Just, it made me cry, listening to it,

listening to the power of our people.

[♪♪♪]

If you really believe

our children deserve an education

If you really believe our children deserve to eat

If you really believe

our children deserve to drink clean water

If you really believe our children deserve a home

If you really believe

You don't ask for it

You take it

My message to you

You don't ask for it

You take it

The control of our hunting, fishing,

the control of our Indian children,

the control of our Indian lands,

the recovery of our right to govern ourselves,

the right to determine our own future,

and we've been denied all those rights and all those resources.

The shift at that time

was to see ourselves as a larger collective,

a larger group of people

trying to pressure governments and the media

to change the way that they treated us,

to change the way that people viewed us.

[Doreen]: One of the things

that Dad really talked a lot about

is that there was a legal action moving forward,

and there always needed to be a political action,

and the Constitution Express was the political action,

and they fed each other.

They supported each other.

And then also part of that was winning over the media,

'cause when you won over the media,

you won over the public.

[Lorna]: You know, I think that

that was the beauty of what your dad did.

Canadians at that time were so ignorant,

they still are, about our situation.

You know, wherever we went,

when we'd finish doing our presentations,

they'd get up and they'd say

"I'm Canadian.

Why don't I know this?

Why did I go through school

and I didn't know these stories that you're telling us,"

and it was the voice

of the people from the communities

that I think really helped.

[♪♪♪]

If you really believe in your own voice

If you really believe in your own past

If you really believe in your own future

If you really believe

You don't ask for it

My message to you is

You don't ask for it

My message to you is

You don't ask for it

If you really believe

You take it

Implementation of Indian Government

means taking with or without the cooperation

of the provincial government or the federal government.

We as Indians in British Columbia,

through the World Council of Indigenous People,

is going to be compelled

to take a case to the United Nations.

We're going to be compelled

to take our case to the world community.

We're going to be compelled to take our case

to any country who has got the commitment

towards the United Nations

Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

[cheering, applause]

I think about your dad, and, you know, to me,

I think about who our heroes are,

and maybe in my, uh...

borderline worship of him,

you know, he's a deity in my world,

an elder states...

you know, this archetype of the elder...

who were his elders?

Who did he go to when he needed assistance?

Who did he talk to when he was...

needed to... get advice?

He went to communities.

It was important to him

not to stay in fancy hotels,

not to waste the people's money that way.

He liked to sleep on people's couches.

He liked to go and talk to...

like, if he were alive,

he'd want to just sit here and talk to you,

and learn from you,

'cause that's what fuelled him,

is looking into the eyes of young people

who wanted a better life for themselves,

who had dreams and ambitions and hope.

"What is it you want?"

[♪♪♪]

What I'd like to see for Aboriginal people in Canada

is for all Canadians to identify

and see the value in Indigenous culture.

I would like to see my children speaking their language,

knowing who they are and where they come from,

and looking anybody in the eye

and saying "I am proud I am Squamish.

I am proud I am Nisga'a.

I am proud I am Ojibwe."

I would like for us to be seen,

and heard, and acknowledged.

This is not one thing.

It's all intertwined.

Um, I would like

for the truth of how this country came to be

to be fully understood

by every single person who lives here,

and I think if that happens,

we have a shot of getting something right.

And if it doesn't happen,

then things continue the way they are.

It just doesn't make sense in today's world

why we still have the issues we had 50 years ago.

It... in today's world, it shouldn't happen,

and it doesn't make sense to me, and it makes me angry.

I would like to see our people

be given the same justice as other people in Canada,

as white people in Canada.

I would like to see our children

become proud of their heritage again,

to learn their language again,

to learn from the elders again,

to get their land back,

to not be murdered and missing.

To walk proud, with your chin high,

and not be afraid to go out.

Not be afraid to be hunted like animals,

as native women are.

Not to be afraid of predators, as native women have become.

[♪♪♪]

[truck approaches]

[♪♪♪]

[woman sings vocables]

♪ I wanted to look for you tonight ♪

♪ Because I thought you would be cold ♪

♪ There's no trail left but these tears ♪

♪ No road but this highway

♪ No way to know

♪ Just this black crow inside my chest ♪

♪ With nowhere to go

♪ Nowhere to go

♪ Momma, don't cry Sing my song ♪

♪ Momma, don't cry Sing my wrongs ♪

♪ No goodbyes

♪ I wanted to look for you tonight ♪

♪ Because I thought

♪ You would be scared of the dark ♪

♪ I wanted to wrap you in my light ♪

♪ And say I'm here

♪ Even in this nowhere

♪ Why?

♪ Momma, don't cry Sing my song ♪

♪ Momma, don't cry Sing my wrongs ♪

♪ No goodbyes

♪ I wanted to tell you tonight ♪

♪ Your love is buried in me

♪ It keeps me warm when I am cold ♪

♪ I wanted to tell you tonight

♪ There is no darkness I can see ♪

♪ No tears, no crows

♪ No lies, no years

♪ You are my mother I will hear your song ♪

♪ You are my girl I will hear your song ♪

♪ I will hear your song

♪ And you will hear mine

♪ I will hear your song

♪ And you will hear mine

♪ Our love is longer

♪ Our song stronger

♪ Than our tears

♪ Our love longer

♪ Our hearts stronger

♪ Than our fears

♪ It doesn't matter what they do ♪

♪ Say it

♪ It doesn't matter what they say ♪

♪ Say it

♪ Our song will always be our song ♪

♪ Our love longer

♪ Than all, all the lies

♪ All the lies

♪ All the lies of any man's highway ♪

[truck approaches]

[whispering voices]

[woman singing]

[singing vocables]

[singing vocables]

[singing vocables]

[singing vocables]

♪ Oh

[singing vocables]

[singing vocables]

One heart one mind with our spirits combined

When opposites become as one a saviour will emerge

One heart one mind as light and dark converge

Surge in the ether as our spirits connect

Walk together in the future with our love we protect

On the back of this turtle stand together here in strength

In the flow of our creator that takes us the whole length

Of this road forward

In to the essence of creation

Becomes the medicine of this turtle island nation

All my relations

All my relations

All my relations

All my relations

♪ I feel you beside me

♪ I know your name

♪ I hear your voice becoming ours ♪

♪ It is the same

[men sing vocables]

♪ On the road forward

♪ There are no tears

♪ On the road forward

♪ There is no fear

♪ You are inside me, brother

♪ Asking us to stand

♪ We will not leave you behind

♪ We will not leave this land

♪ I feel your breath

♪ I know your pain

♪ I hear you cry

♪ We carry the load together You and I ♪

♪ On the road forward

♪ Your hands in ours

♪ On the road forward

♪ We lift our hearts

[singing vocables]

♪ You are inside me, sisters

♪ Your voices shall be heard

♪ We will not leave you behind

♪ When we leave this earth

♪ I feel your breath

♪ I know your pain

♪ I hear you cry

♪ We carry the load together

♪ You and I

[singing vocables]

♪ I feel your breath

♪ I know your pain

♪ I hear you cry

♪ We carry the load together

♪ You and I

[singing vocables]

[♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪]

[man singing vocables]

[second voice joins in]

[voices sing together]