Who Were the Ones?

Released in 1968 and often referred to as Canada's first music video, The Ballad of Crowfoot was directed by Willie Dunn, a Mi'kmaq/Scottish folk singer and activist who was part of the historic Indian Film Crew, the first all-Indigenous production unit at the NFB. The film is a powerful look at colonial betrayals told through a striking montage of archival images and a ballad composed by Dunn himself about the legendary 19th-century Siksika (Blackfoot) chief who negotiated Treaty 7 on behalf of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The IFC's inaugural release, Crowfoot was the first Indigenous-directed film to be made at the NFB.

At the 1956 gathering of the Káínaa of Alberta, the exciting spectacle of the Sun Dance was captured on film for the first time. The film examines Káínaa culture and spirituality, showing how the theme of the circle reflects their connection to wildlife, and addresses the predicament of the young generation--those who have relinquished their ties with their own culture but have not yet found a firm place in a changing world.

A visit to the "Indians of Canada" pavilion at Expo 67, Montréal. Inside there are Indigenous artifacts, but even more arresting are the printed placards that tell the story of the Indigenous peoples in North America, written without rancor but recalling what their contact with European settlers has cost in freedom of movement, in loss of land, and in loss of health of body and spirit.