Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Inside the Winnipeg Film Group’s Indigenous Film and Video Collections

Interview with curator Lita Fontaine by Andrew Burke (University of Winnipeg), Jillian Groening (Winnipeg Film Group) and Skye Callow (Winnipeg Film Group)

On November 18, 2025, artist and guide curator Lita Fontaine sat down with Andrew Burke, Jillian Groening and Skye Callow in the offices of the Winnipeg Film Group to talk about the process of curating this educational guide’s film program. Below is the conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length purposes.
 

Jillian Groening (JG): Before we begin our conversation today, we’d like to begin with a Land Acknowledgment. The Winnipeg Film Group is located on Treaty 1 Territory and on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. We respect the treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.

Lita Fontaine (LF): Also, in the spirit of reconciliation and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC, 2015), we call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments in consultation and collaboration with survivors, Indigenous peoples and educators to make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples' historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.
 
We call upon the Council of Minister of Education Canada to maintain an annual commitment to Indigenous education issues, including developing and implementing from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve curriculum and learning resources on Indigenous peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of the residential schools; sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and Indigenous history; and building students capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect. That's very important, because it’s all about collaboration.

Andrew Burke (AB): In terms of Archive/Counter-Archive, part of the desire of the project is to ensure that there is material available for the teaching of Indigenous material, specifically Indigenous film, at the secondary school and post-secondary school level. And to adopt archival best practices in terms of the preservation of this material as well. We are drawing on the section of the TRC that deals with archives and museums. Call Number 67 reads:

“We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations.” And then out of that too, we adhere to, and we want to work in the spirit of Number 70, which is: “We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, a national view of archival policies and best practices.”

 Part of the work of this initiative and Case Study is to figure out how that works on a granular level: What can individual organizations such as the Winnipeg Film Group do to ensure that films in their collection made by Indigenous directors and worked on by Indigenous crews are properly preserved and made available for distribution, both within schools and to a wider public?
 
LF: Yes, that’s very important. The selected films are also representing Indigenous people in the arts. Especially in film, there's not much representation. It’s nice to have that local insight that there are filmmakers who are Indigenous in our communities.

AB: I was wondering if we could start with an overview question. Lita, we gave you an impossible task, which is to select just a handful of films from the collection that could potentially have spoken to you. Once you had a sense of what the project was about and what we were looking for, how did you go about putting together the program that you've given us?
 

LF:  In viewing  several of the films, I felt the main connection between these works was “woman,” but the program/films also deal with cultural identity. There also were all these community connections. Like, “oh I'm familiar with this person’s work, and I know that person, I’ve worked with this person.” So, for me, there was both the neighbourhood connections and the community connection. It was nice to see each film and get reacquainted with some of the people in the films and see what their art is about. 

As I watched each of the stories in these films, I heard the Matriarchal voice, each voice strong in their stance or their resistance. Each filmmaker spoke from lived experiences within their own Home Nations. Each finds empowerment, personal healing and connections to culture and language while using the medium of film as a tool for historical documentation.

AB: I love “the neighbourhood connection” as the title for the overall piece. So, with that in mind, would it be okay to go film by film through to ask you your thoughts on them?
 
LF: Well, the first two short films I watched were Jackie Traverse’s Two Scoops (2008) and Empty (2009).  
I enjoyed the handdrawn child-like illustrations. Through my artist’s eye, the simplicity of the hand drawings attached a loss of innocence to her story.
 
The Sixties Scoops refers to the large number of Indigenous children who were taken away from their homes, literally, “scooped,” throughout the 1960s. Most children were adopted by non-Indigenous families in Canada and the United States. Even across the ocean. The Sixties Scoops has left a legacy of identity loss  and cultures on children and families involved .
 
Empty is almost like a continuation of what she [Jackie] was going through, and it gives a really honest tribute to her mother. Both of the short films are about  finding empowerment through loss.

AB: Do you want to talk about the visual aspect of the films?
 
LF: It's simple but it works. The child-like drawings, for me, added a kind of lost innocence.
 
AB: And it feels so important that she narrates it herself.
 
LF: It's very important because it is her voice, her story. True and authentic.
 
AB: I guess in some ways it's just one part of her larger practice. She does so many other things.
 
LF: Jackie sews, paints. When she was my student, she was a painter.
 
AB: Should we move on to Caroline Monnet?
 
LF: IKWÉ. I found her film to be very heartwarming. The title for her film means “woman”  from her home nation’s language.
 
Made me think about a coming of age ceremony in Anishihnaabe culture, when young women have her first menses, her connection to Nokomis, Grandmother Moon, is strong.
 
Caroline Monnet visually brings it out by using cultural symbols and references: the water, Grandmother Moon.
 
Nokomis within my cultural teachings watches and protects the women. Nokimis protects the water also. 

AB: That one film is a little bit more experimental. If you were showing it to students, what would you say to them before you showed it to them? Just in terms of, like, “Okay, you're gonna see something a little bit different visually.”
 
LF:  How is it speaking to you?  What is Caroline sharing with us? How is it visually?  How is she experimenting with the film medium and why ? What do you like about it or not like about it? 
 
I’d also like to talk about Journey My Heart (2007). Joanne Soldier preps herself for powwow’s competitive dancing. She goes jogging to keep her endurance as a dancer. I’ve seen her dance, and she's just strong. She flows. It's all about total connection with her body and the spirit of dancing. She's a beautiful jingle dancer. It's a sacred dance. It's a medicine dance. And I like the way she carries herself and respects it. It's all about discipline.
 
JG: The first scene with her running outside in winter—that winter that we're all very familiar with here in Winnipeg. The strength it takes to do something like that so consistently.
 
LF: Joanne’s jogging in the winter will only create stamina, and strength in her dancing practice. At a Powwow one can dance continuously for 15 or 20 minutes straight, without a break. Depending how long the Powwow song or eagle whistles are.
 
JG: She kind of speaks to the mental aspect of it, too. The audience, or whoever is around you that you're competing with, they need to also see that you could go forever.
 
LF: Dancing is Prayer, It is very spiritual.
 
There’s a story about the first jingle dancer. Her name was Maggie White, from Whitefish Bay , Ontario.
 
In her Grandfather’s  dream, he was told to make the dress so his granddaughter could get healed. So, he made the dress, and she became healed. And she did! Maggie was well into her early 90’s when she pass away.
 
AB: She also brings up at the end of the film how important this is for intergenerational connection.
 
LF: Dancing is a tradition, dancing is physical, which is probably why Ms. Soldier runs. Mentally dancing creates stamina. Spiritually, dancing becomes prayer.

AB: Do you want to talk about Moccasin Stories next?

LF: I felt a lot of connection to this film because we all wear moccasins. I can wear shoes, but with moccasins, you can feel the ground better. There is a  connection to the Earth. the moccasin protects one’s feet. The beadwork on top of the moccs can represent a personal symbol. 

JG: I also really enjoyed hearing Gloria speak. She talks about running away from residential school, and the healing process of going back to those traditions. There's a mentorship role with her as well. The film offers a sense that there is a cycle through the continuity of traditional knowledge.

AB: It’s amazing. The film is also so accomplished visually. And Charlene Moore, the director, is young. When you were watching this, did you have a sense this was a film made by the new generation? In your program, you've really put different things in conversation with one another in an interesting way, especially generationally.

LF: Cultures evolve. In this film I saw how the moccasin story has changed, it has evolved. But the continuity of making the moccasin has not. The act of moccasins-making brings families together, connects them. It’s an act of survival. Passing on the tradition and getting a pair of handmade moccasin is an act of survival.

AB: Would it make sense to go on to Sonya Ballantyne’s film, Nosisim (2017), now? It feels as if it's like, once again, it was made by a new generation. At its heart is a drawing by Daphne Odjig. Did you ever meet Odjig? Did you know her?

LF: I did meet her over the years through Robert Houle. He introduced us.

AB: So, it's another story of—

LF: Neighbourhood! (laughs)

AB: But also, of displacement. Because it’s the story of Easterville and the Chemawawin First Nation. That’s something I would hope students could talk about—the displacement, especially in northern communities, for hydroelectric developments in Manitoba. Could you see how this film could be used in classrooms?

LF: I think it would be good especially in classes dealing with the environment and climate change and things like that. They would see the devastation of a landscape so watered down.

Skye Callow (SC): There's a really powerful part of that film too, where she talks about her relationship with her grandmother and the fact her grandma couldn't really communicate with her because she didn't speak the language.
 
AB: The film is about the loss of the community, but it is literally about the loss of her grandmother and the guilt that she feels about that because she didn’t make it back in time, right? This is about her displacement because she had to relocate to go to university, I guess.
 
LF: Yes. The drawing is the connection, the connection to her family. A family archive, an heirloom. Thank God for the drawing. It's a family historical document.
 
AB: Then it's amazing at the end that she says, “Oh, I went back to the gallery and could tell them things about this drawing that they didn't know.” […] There's also a Bannock moment in it as well, right? Because making Bannock was the way to spend time with her grandma.
 
LF: We all meet for dinner. Bannock is important. Did you know Bannock is an oppressed food? Because during the time when Indigenous people were getting locked up and put in these little areas, the government used to just ration them with flour and water. So, it was a ration food at first. Then it became whatever it is now. They turned it around into something more positive. Instead of starvation, they made it into the opposite of that. […]
 
LF: In Bannock (2006), we see this connection with Darryl’s mom. It's nice to meet up with mom in the kitchen. […] Bannock to me is the most endearing of Darryl’s films, that’s why I put it in there.
 
AB: It's also just amazing how warm the kitchen feels in the film—the warmth of family and sort of doing things together. […]

AB: So, we've gone through each of the films—
 
JG: Except Farandole (2012) and Treaty Number Three (2013).
 
LF: I thought I'd also focus on Métis culture. I have a lot of connections with Métis artists in my community. And it was nice to see the work. Embroidery is also connecting to bead work, especially when it comes to those floral patterns and things like that […] I think it's just overall good to see another nation's work. It keeps that balance with the community, because we can't always just say “Indigenous,” we also have to talk about the Métis community as well.
 
LF: Okay so what’s the next film?
 
AB: It's Danielle Sturk’s short work on Rebecca Belmore, Treaty Number Three  .
 
LF: Belmore knows how to marry her materials together. She makes the perfect marriage to whatever she brings in, like the red dress, and the ripping of it on the pole. Wow, that's the perfect marriage there.
 
JG: She’s such a brilliant artist. I love the simplicity of her art and how impactful these simple ideas are.
 
LF: I don't know how she does it. She's magic. She’s strong, too. The film is four minutes. It's more of an introduction about what she does and who she is. This is from 2013, and she was just given the Governor General Awards in Media Arts at the time.
 
SC: When I watched this collection of films at home, I remember I said to Jillian: “I just imagine myself being a young person seeing these when I was in high school. Just being able to see these points of view at that age is something that I think a lot of young people don't often have access to.”
 
LF: These films resonate and stay in the subconscious. For filmmakers, the way of handing down tradition is through their films. That’s survivance. In whatever medium we are voicing our stories, our culture, our identity, that’s survivance.