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CBC
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How her job as a community counsellor taught this filmmaker to be a better storyteller
For Jules Arita Koostachin, filmmaking is a way for her to bring together all aspects of who she is: as a writer, a community worker, and an InNiNew IsKwew (Cree woman). That mix of identities, as well as a career shaped by years of listening, teaching, and healing, comes together in her new film, Angela's Shadow. Born in Moose Factory, Ont., and raised between the Cree-speaking Northern Ontario community of Moosonee and Ottawa, Koostachin grew up surrounded by stories — ones passed down by her Cree grandparents and her mother, a residential school survivor. A member of Attawapiskat First Nation, on the ancestral lands of the MoshKeKo, Koostachin carries those histories forward, not just for her community, but through film, sharing them with the nation and the world. That grounding in lived experience and cultural legacy pulses through every frame of Angela's Shadow. " Angela's Shadow is a deeply personal film rooted in Cree matriarchal strength, and to have audiences respond so powerfully was both humbling and affirming," Koostachin says. "It told me that people are ready — and hungry — for stories that honour Indigenous experience through our own lens, with all the beauty, grief, and spiritual complexity that comes with it." Angela's Shadow — which premiered at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival — revolves around a young couple, Angela and Henry, who travel north from Ottawa to visit Angela's nanny, Mary. When Angela becomes haunted by a menacing shadow figure, Mary turns to banned Cree ceremonies to protect her and her unborn child. As Angela unearths long-buried truths about her ancestry and the spirit's identity, she's drawn deeper into her own spiritual traditions, confronting her husband's increasingly rigid, purity-obsessed worldview. Angela's Shadow is set primarily in the mid-1930s, a time when Indigenous ceremonies were outlawed in Canada and the residential school system was in full force. The story moves between Ottawa and the remote Cree community of KiiWeeTin, along James Bay. "I chose this setting because it's a pivotal era in our herstory — one where Indigenous families were being torn apart, but women like Angela's nanny Mary found ways to preserve knowledge, medicine, and kinship through quiet resistance," Koostachin says. Before turning to filmmaking, Koostachin worked as a counsellor in social services and taught at colleges and universities in Toronto, Sudbury, and Vancouver. Those roles, she says, helped lay the foundation for her storytelling. Koostachin's work in the social service sector and educational system has deeply shaped the way she approaches filmmaking, particularly with a story like Angela's Shadow. "I've sat with people in their most vulnerable moments, and that's taught me to listen with care, to honour silence, and to understand trauma not just as an individual experience, but as something carried through generations, she says." While teaching, Koostachin witnessed how storytelling could bridge worlds: urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. These experiences not only expanded her understanding of how stories move across spaces but also deepened her connection to her own community's histories, languages, and ways of knowing. Koostachin's path into filmmaking was shaped early through her studies in documentary media. In 2010, she completed a master's degree at Toronto Metropolitan University (then called Ryerson University), earning both the Award of Distinction for her thesis and the prestigious Ryerson Gold Medal for highest academic achievement. That academic grounding helped launch a career rooted in storytelling as a form of cultural reclamation. She has since learned to translate lived experience into powerful visual narratives. While in graduate school, she directed her first feature documentary, Remembering Inninimowin — a personal journey of reconnecting with the Cree language. She was later selected as one of six participants for the Creative Women Workshops Association's prestigious Women in the Director's Chair program, where she directed a scene from her award-winning feature script Broken Angel. "Film is visceral," she says. "It lets me layer visuals, sound, silence, and spirit in ways that echo our orality while reaching wide audiences. I'm drawn to its power to hold space for our truths. It's where I can reclaim narrative sovereignty and offer stories that reflect the complexity and beauty of our lived experience." Koostachin deepened her filmmaking practice through doctoral research that centred Indigenous storytelling on its own terms. She earned a PhD in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia, where her dissertation, MooNaHaTihKaaSiWew: Unearthing Spirit, explored how Indigenous knowledge systems can live within cinematic form — ideas that shape both the structure and spirit of Angela's Shadow. "With Angela's Shadow, I brought all of that — the therapeutic, the academic, the cinematic — into a story that is grounded in an InNiNeWak (Cree) worldview, but universally resonant. She says. "Every frame is informed by lived experience, cultural protocol, and a deep respect for our matriarchs. It's where I can reclaim narrative sovereignty and offer stories that reflect the complexity and beauty of our lived experience," she describes. Koostachin's work has garnered numerous awards over the years, with her most recent honour — the Panorama Audience Award at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival for Angela's Shadow — marking a particularly meaningful milestone. For her, the recognition extends far beyond individual acclaim; it's a celebration of the cast, crew, and Cree community who shaped the film, and a tribute to the matriarchs, languages, and generations carried forward through its story. Koostachin invites audiences to watch Angela's Shadow as a vital act of truth-telling, healing, and cultural reclamation. "As a cultural contribution, it challenges dominant narratives and brings forward a Cree worldview that is rarely seen on screen — one that is matriarchal, spiritual, and profoundly relational. It's not just a film; it's a continuation of storywork — a cinematic offering to those still seeking their way home."
CBC
02-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Cree rider travels coast to coast, visiting Indigenous communities along the way
Cree motorcyclist Paul John Murdoch mapped his route through First Nations What started as a personal adventure during goose break — a spring holiday in many Cree communities — turned into something more revealing for Cree motorcyclist Paul John Murdoch. Murdoch recently finished making his way across Canada on his motorcycle. He started in Newfoundland, heading west, stopping in Indigenous communities along the way. "Meeting people along that way, people don't look at our communities as destinations," said Murdoch, who grew up in Wemindji and Waskaganish. As Murdoch cruised across provinces, often alone on the highway, fellow travellers would pull up beside him or strike up conversations at gas stations and rest stops. "I'd stopped and other motorcycle people and tourists would ask, 'Where are you going?' And I would tell them, 'Newfoundland to B.C.,'" Murdoch said. These conversations usually came with suggestions for must-see landmarks. "They say, 'You have to visit this national park,' or 'You have to go see the big spoon or the big axe or whatever,'" he said — but seeing roadside attractions or parks wasn't his reason for the trip. "I'd tell them that I'm only going to Indigenous communities." That answer often caught people off guard. "There'd always be this pregnant pause, like, 'why?'" Murdoch said. Charting his course The reasons, for him, are rooted in both his personal history and a broader cultural reconnection. "I was born and raised in Quebec, but it's the first time I went to Kanesatake or Kahnawake. I said, 'My God, this is beautiful — why didn't I come visit earlier?'" he said. To chart his course, Murdoch began by downloading government maps that showed reserve lands and Indigenous territories. The reality on the road didn't quite match up. "Even with those maps, I'd be riding along and all of a sudden a sign would pop up that there's a First Nation community there that's not even on anybody's map," said Murdoch. This invisibility extended to travel planning, too. Few Indigenous communities had obvious accommodations for visitors. "The plan was a little bit hard because we don't look at ourselves as destinations and people don't treat us like destinations," he said. Murdoch's thinking echoes the work of Dr. Margaret Wickens Pearce, a cartographer who reimagined Canada's geography through a decolonial lens. Pearce created a map of Canada with no borders — with only highways and Indigenous place names. Murdoch came across her map while preparing for the trip and found it moving. "I don't think she meant it to be used as a roadmap. The more I looked at it, I felt it was a piece of art … it looked like a painting," said Murdoch. A long, fulfilling ride For Murdoch, the idea of moving across land in this way felt deeply cultural, even ancestral. "I think our people and our culture are just naturally predisposed to this kind of travel." Still, the physical toll of the ride was real. "I was trying to average between 5 to 600 kilometres a day, but it's funny how the weather, the landscape — you know, 500 kilometres in one day can take four to five hours," said Murdoch. Other times, 300 kilometres could take seven hours. Murdoch estimates that he has visited at least 50 Indigenous communities over 19 days. The only change he would make is allowing his body to recover — and allow more time to connect with locals. Image | PJ Murdoch and family Caption: Murdoch, alongside his family before his day of departure. His wife followed him by car in the final 3 hours of his journey to Tla-O-Qui-Aht First Nation, BC. (submitted by Paul John Murdoch) Open Image in New Tab "In an ideal world, I would have maybe tripled the time so that when I arrived in each community, I would spend one whole day just hanging out with the community before leaving," he said. "I think my ass would be a lot more thankful for having done it that way." He has ideas to plan a longer trip with friends next goose break: instead of going from east to west, he wants to travel north to south. "Why not north? Like from Alaska to Arizona, staying only in Indigenous communities," said Murdoch. Murdoch encourages people to obtain their licence to explore their sense of freedom. "It's the closest thing to flying the plane that I've experienced so far," said Murdoch. Upon arriving in British Columbia, the final leg of his cross-country road trip, Murdoch expressed that he felt more emotional than he had expected. "If you can dream it up and do it, it's not going to be exactly like your dream probably, but man, it's gonna be wonderful. You'll never regret it," said Murdoch.
CBC
26-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Meet the oldest grad from the U of S's Indian Teacher Education Program
Louise Fraser achieved a long-time goal of receiving a teaching degree and plans to fulfill her dream of educating youth on the Cree language.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Fort Qu'Appelle craft store helps Cree designer get his creative groove back
Garth Asham works and creates at Becky's Place With more First Nations, Inuit and Métis people wanting to showcase their cultures through fashion, local arts and crafts stores are playing an important role, sometimes even directly supporting artists. Manager Richard Desnomie's mom Maria opened Becky's Place in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sask., about 75 kilometres northeast of Regina, in 2018. Her goal was to provide a place to go for beadwork, ribbon skirt and powwow dance regalia supplies that was Indigenous-owned and local, rather than going to the city or ordering online. "They're proud to be Indigenous and they want to show it off in fashion," said Desnomie, who is from Peepeekisis Cree Nation. Desnomie took the store over in 2024, when his mom died suddenly from cancer. He said his mom was worried in the first year of opening if the store was going to make it, but today they can't seem to keep up with orders and materials coming in for customers. "People come to us because they feel more comfortable," said Desnomie. Aspiring Cree designer Garth Asham, from Pasqua First Nation, works at the store. He went to school for fashion design in Vancouver and had some of his designs on the runway at London Fashion Week in 2019. When the pandemic hit, it put a damper on his creativity. "It took my inspiration and motivation away; I stopped designing," said Asham. He decided to return home in 2021 and get back in his creative groove by being around his culture and community. He decided to apply at Becky's Place. "They really push me to be creative, whether it's something that can be displayed at a future collection or sold here at the store," said Asham. Asham's older sister Emily Cyr, who is the front store manager, said now Garth gets the opportunity to pull out the sewing machine and make skirts while he is at the store, where she and the store manager encourage him to create. "It's opened the door for him a lot," said Cyr. "He gets to figure out what he wants to make right away once it's in his mind." Asham likes to work with gowns for weddings, proms and gala events. He says when he was younger he would create little rag dolls to give as gifts to people and then challenged himself to make dresses for the dolls of his little cousins. "That's where my fixation on gowns came from," said Asham. Asham loves to work with any medium he can get his hands on, like silk charmeuse, beads, or paints to add designs. "I like to have meaning behind each of my dresses, like bees for save the bees, MMIW for missing and murdered Indigenous women," he said. Cyr learned the skill of sewing from her brother. "There is a difference in his fashion and mine — I like making ribbon skirts and ribbon, and he likes to work with dresses," said Cyr. Together they teach youth sewing skills and how to make ribbon skirts in the evenings at the store. Desnomie said the store also supports other Indigenous designers, having currently sponsored Chelsea Nokusis from Chelsea's Cree-ations to go to Paris and New York for fashion shows.
