Music is a universal language, one we can use to learn about history, culture, and identity. This playlist features films that highlight the bounty of Indigenous music from Canada. Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici. Films in This Playlist Include The Ballad of Crowfoot Breaths Evan's Drum Ever Deadly The Fiddlers of James Bay First Stories - His Guidance (Okiskinotahewewin) Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu How the Fiddle Flows Innu-Aimun - The Innu Language RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World Road Forward ,The Stories from Our Land - Inngiruti: The Thing that Sings! Urban.Indigenous.Proud: Full Circle
Music is a universal language, one we can use to learn about history, culture, and identity. This playlist features films that highlight the bounty of Indigenous music from Canada.
Pour visionner cette sélection en français, cliquez ici.
Films in This Playlist Include
The Ballad of Crowfoot
Breaths
Evan's Drum
Ever Deadly
The Fiddlers of James Bay
First Stories - His Guidance (Okiskinotahewewin)
Florent Vollant: I Dream in Innu
How the Fiddle Flows
Innu-Aimun - The Innu Language
RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World
Road Forward ,The
Stories from Our Land - Inngiruti: The Thing that Sings!
Urban.Indigenous.Proud: Full Circle
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.
In this evocative short documentary, Inuk singer-songwriter and humanitarian Susan Aglukark weaves together stories of artistry, family, and belonging as she explores the complex cultural shifts of the last 50 years of Inuit life. Turning her lens on the turbulence of colonial transition, director Nyla Innuksuk examines the forces that shaped Aglukark's voice and how that voice is now being translated for a new generation of Inuit artists.
Since its inception in 1976, Toronto Council Fire Native Cultural Centre has been a place in which the urban Indigenous community could feel safe, learn and grow. Council Fire uses cultural teachings and creates space to restore Indigenous identity, especially for its youth. At the core of Council Fire’s history and teachings is the drum, which they refer to as “our mother.” In Full Circle, we get to know the members of the Toronto Council Fire Youth Program as they embark on new journeys. We meet a drum group that lays down tracks at a professional recording studio and a group of young dancers who showcase their moves at a dance studio.
This short documentary traces the history of the fiddle’s arrival in Canada 300 years ago via Scottish traders from Orkney Island. The Cree population of what is now Northern Québec adopted the instrument, and many contemporary Cree residents are master fiddlers. In this film, two Cree fiddlers travel to the Orkney Islands, the birthplace of the music they learned from their fathers and grandfathers. The film captures the warmth and good will of this reunion.
This short film tells the story of Rocky Morin, a drummer who first felt the pull of the drum almost 15 years ago and hasn't looked back since. It's a powerful reminder of the need to maintain a strong connection to one's roots. First Stories is an emerging filmmaker program for Indigenous youth which produced 3 separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Produced in association with CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND.
The soul of the Innu language is the land, water and forests of the fast-disappearing caribou. Through his music, Florent Vollant continues to make this language heard around the world.
A beautiful music video featuring the talented group Uashtushkuau singing an emotional song, in Innu, about the importance of protecting Aboriginal languages. Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
In Evan’s Drum, an adventurous young boy and his determined mother share a passion for Labrador Inuit drum dancing.
Tanya Tagaq, one of the most innovative musical performers of our time, leads the audience through pain and triumph in this visceral music and cinema experience.
RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World tells the story of a profound, essential, and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons like Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo, RUMBLE will show how these talented Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.