Skip to content
Accessibility
Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell (3)
Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell
As a young man, former Akwasasne Grand Chief Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell, Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk), was a member of the historic Indian Film Crew, an all-Indigenous group of film trainees formed at the NFB in 1967. One of the most influential IFC films was You Are on Indian Land (1969), directed by Mitchell but only formally credited to him in 2017. Documenting a protest on the international bridge in Akwesasne, a Kanien’kéhaka community straddling the Canada/US border, the film was widely screened, mobilizing activism across the continent and raising new awareness of injustices faced by Indigenous peoples. Mitchell also directed Who Were the Ones? (1972) and co-directed These Are My People (1969).
-
Who Were the Ones?Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell 1972 7 minThis short film was created by a group of Indigenous filmmakers at the NFB in 1972 and is essentially a song by Willie Dunn sung by Bob Charlie and illustrated by John Fadden: "Who were the ones who bid you welcome and took you by the hand, inviting you here by our campfires, as brothers we might stand?" The song expresses bitter memories of the past, of trust repaid by treachery, and of friendship debased by exploitation upon the arrival of European colonists. -
You Are on Indian LandMichael Kanentakeron Mitchell 1969 36 minReleased in 1969, this short documentary was one of the most influential and widely distributed productions made by the Indian Film Crew (IFC), the first all-Indigenous unit at the NFB. It documents a 1969 protest by the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) of Akwesasne, a territory that straddles the Canada–U.S. border. When Canadian authorities prohibited the duty-free cross-border passage of personal purchases—a right established by the Jay Treaty of 1794—Kanien’kéhaka protesters blocked the international bridge between Ontario and New York State. Director Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell later became Grand Chief of Akwesasne. The film was formally credited to him in 2017. You Are on Indian Land screened extensively across the continent, helping to mobilize a new wave of Indigenous activism. It notably was shown at the 1970 occupation of Alcatraz.
-
These Are My People...Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell , Willie Dunn , … 1969 13 minReleased in 1969, These Are My People… was the first NFB film made entirely by an Indigenous crew. It was co-directed by Roy Daniels, Willie Dunn, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell and Barbara Wilson—members of the Indian Film Crew (IFC), an all-Indigenous unit established in 1968 as part of Challenge for Change, a broader organizational initiative to use media to effect social change. One of the first Canadian documentaries to foreground an Indigenous perspective on the history of Indigenous–settler relations, it features Standing Arrow and Tom Porter, from the Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) community of Akwesasne, who discuss longhouse religion, culture, government and the impacts of settler arrival on their way of life.
