Episode Information

For the first time on television and in digital media, 11 First Peoples, whose homelands host Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, and beyond, are telling us their story. Each in turn, Abenaki, Anishinaabe, Atikamekw, Cree of Eeyou Istchee, Innu, Inuit, Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk), Mi'kmaq, Naskapi, Huron-Wendat and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) tell us who they are, in their own way and from their point of view: their worldview, their connection to the Land, their values, their spirituality, their stories that go back thousands of years, their wounds, their struggles, their victories, and their hopes. They give depth to our great collective narrative, decolonize History, and honour the Ancestors and Mother Earth. 11 First Peoples, 11 cultures, 11 languages. A history spanning thousands of years. Award-winning Abenaki director Kim O'Bomsawin (Call Me Human, Quiet Killing) and her team travelled more than 30,000 kilometres between September 2020 and May 2022 and visited more than thirty communities and villages in the northeastern part of Canada. Over one hundred women and men of all generations took up the talking stick with humour, wisdom, and generosity, to speak to us in Indigenous languages, French, and English. Others expressed themselves through dance, music, animation, slam. Strikingly beautiful images pay tribute to the Land that is at the heart of their identities, beliefs, and knowledge.