Catholic Church’s culpability in its crimes is a widely known fact to most people in the Western hemisphere. However, like many other historical narratives, whiteness often distorts much of the information that is disseminated and victims of colour are reduced to mere footnotes. This lack of knowledge about federally-funded, Catholic-run schools where children were compelled to go for education concerned non-Indigenous people. “Sugarcane” announces it. These boarding schools that were separated from others and aimed at “humanizing the Indian,” instead became a hotbed of lethal abuses of authority perpetuated by countless generations who have literally got away with murder.
On St Joseph’s Mission, Williams Lake, BC, Canada (closed 1981), this documentary weaves together the testimonies of former students and anthropologists into exposing the brutal truths behind a century-long legacy of violent state oppression that caused deaths and trauma within their community. It turns out to be quite explosive as well.
Co-directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave Noisecat (the latter being his father Ed and grandmother) entered into these intimate stories alongside news media disclosures on these historical injuries which are crucial to understanding these tragedies as well as American Indians’ oppression history. The investigation of the school itself began after unmarked graves were found, with “Sugarcane” bringing everything full circle.
The delicacy and attention demonstrated by Kassie and Noisecat as they reveal what happened at St Joseph’s Mission compounded by its ongoing repercussions elevate this film above others. Instead of acting as an archive folder, it serves as an exploration into generational pain. Whether one considers a long list onsite fatalities with no headstones or standard abuse on all levels leading to staff-sponsored pregnancies followed by staff-induced abortions: the horrors originating from such institutions seem limitless. These charges only describe those actions that took place during enrolled years alone; even so there remains an aftermath with respect to these traumas whose implications include death today through the likes of PTSD, substance abuse as well as suicide in alumni communities. As stated by the film, “Indigenous peoples are still dying from residential schools. And still living, despite them.”
Noisecat’s father was affected by his lifelong struggle to come to terms with his background (and also the pain experienced by Noisecat’s mother for doing so), and this is what influenced Noisecat’s relationship with him; late Chief Rick Gilbert had a religious and ancestral awakening; while Whitney Spearing and Charlene Belleau were researching into crimes. In other words, it is deeply human; because it manifests itself as families and faces breathing life into history even when it has been mono-cultural or impersonal at best if ever acknowledged. It demands responsibility whose form is normally emblematic but not corrective invoked in Trudeau’s weak admissions and Pope Francis’ empty condolences (with nothing more than that: no apology, compensation, or return of artifacts).
“Sugarcane” is deep and moving. It evokes deeply, with spoken memories and moments of not being able to find the words to say heart-wrenching at the same time. The rural cultural backdrop is breathtaking- vast land masses and several diegetic traditional soundscapes, but it highlights tragic incidents against a colorful resilient culture that has continued to exist.
The film does not have an overall theme on oppressive powers inspite of teaching about institutional brutalities in history. Instead, as “I love you” turns into a folk tune, “Sugarcane” shows that they are concerned more about the emotional and personal; surviving and rebuilding their communities despite everything.
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