Original subtitles

♪

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

♪

[Jet plane]

[Betty Ann] I'm just so excited about the prospect of having

them all in the same room, all four of us together.

When you're a child and you're raised in a foster home or an

adoptive home, and the possibility of meeting your

siblings or meeting your mother or your father,

when that possibility is there you have dreams of,

you know, that they're just, you know, it's they're

wonderful and it's marvelous,

and they're gonna treat you like a princess and,

you know, it's just gonna be over the rainbow glorious.

But when you get to middle age,

when you are, when you hit 50,

life has taught you that nothing's as simple as that.

I don't know what my sisters and brother imagined.

I don't know what their fantasies were.

But for me, I always imagined that if I met my real family

that they would, I'd get something that I didn't have.

[sigh]

There was times where I got down on myself and sort of lonely,

you know, and knowing that this was not really my original,

original family, right, and I knew about that for years and it

just always bothered me, and was always wondering, you know,

do I have siblings out there? Do I have a mother?

Do I, you know, is my mother still alive?

Then I heard about that I had sisters, and that I was the only

brother, and that they've been looking for me for over

twenty-some years.

With someone totally new as strangers, you know, dealing

with them for eight hours a day, eight to ten or whatever

it's gonna be, you know, morning to night to, you know,

the whole entire day doing things, it's just, um,

a totally different thing altogether, and I'm,

I'm worried, but then I'm also excited and it's gonna be fun,

but I'm gonna be, probably for a couple of days anyways,

walking on eggshells,

like everyone else is going to be too, you know.

[Betty Ann] Hey, hey.

How ya doing?

Hey.

[deep sigh]

Yea, we get to spend a week together.

[Laughing]

[Betty Ann] I feel like an expectant father pacing in the,

in the hallway outside the baby being born, you know.

[Laughing]

[rushing water]

We never were given a choice.

We were never asked do you want to be separated.

Why couldn't we have stayed with our mother even though

she was a single mother?

There are single mother everywhere now.

It's more the norm than not, and yet we weren't allowed because

someone decided that she was unable to raise children,

you know, who gave them that right?

I mean it's over 50 years that it took us to come together,

you know.

I just hope that we can get along, 'cause we were all raised

very differently, and we all have our own ideas and our own

sets of values and stuff, so it's gonna be an adventure,

it definitely is gonna be a adventure.

Rosalie, no.

[woman] What, what is going on?

[gasp]

[woman] There she is right now. Ah, there you are.

I made it, I made it, I made it.

Oh, it's so good to see you.

Oh, I made it.

Hi, sweetheart, how are ya?

Hi.

Oh, it's good to see you. -How's my girl?

-Good. I'm, oh, I'm off the plane, I'm off the plane!

Oh, we have our glasses on. We should take them off.

[Laughing]

Oh, that was very scary.

Why?

Well I, well I haven't flown in 10 years.

-Oh. -Oh shit.

[Laughing] That was very scary.

It was, like, and then I was, like, that's the top of the

mountains, you know, you're over the top of the mountains.

I'm used to seeing them from a- that's very heavy,

and my bag is even heavier.

We'll get, we'll get you one of those carts.

-We'll get... -Okay, it's 35 pounds.

...not a problem.

And I bowled six games in the last two days.

-What? -I am so sore. Yeah.

-Bowled? -Yes.

Betty, you're not anxious or anything, are you?

[Laughing]

There was always something missing growing up,

my whole life.

After I graduated high school, I kind of started looking,

and writing letters, but the Canadian government

never really wrote me back or anything.

My mom, she asked me what I was doing, and I told her, and she

goes, well, this is your family, you know, I'm your mom.

It hurt her, I could tell, so I just gave it up.

The first call I got, I mean I was just bawling my eyes out,

and talking to Betty Ann, and it was, I,

I couldn't believe it after all this time.

I'm just hoping to reconnect and be happy, and getting to know

each other, my brother an sister, so,

and my other sister, and so.

[Rose] Anybody that wants to see the complete collection

of my photos is gonna have to come and visit.

-Okay, all right. -Yup.

[Ben] That sounds like a good plan. Okay we'll come and do it.

-Yeah.

-We'll make an effort to come out.

-It's ridiculous the amount--

-Oh, there she is.

Oh.

I don't know, I don't know this girl.

[Esther] I couldn't get my bag off the stupid carousel.

[Rose] Oh, sweetie, here, let me help you.

-Hi sweetie. -Let me take this from you.

Oh.

Hi hon. How you doin'? Good.

[Laughing]

Let's get the hell out of this fucking airport.

-Meet your sister Rosie. -Rosie!

Hi Esther.

How was your flight?

-It was all right. -Yeah?

You're doin' good?

I've been up since midnight. I was in the airport

at LAX until, what, I don't know, it was...

Wow. Surreal.

...two, two o'clock.

Oh. Yeah.

Turn around here.

I need, I think I need another hug.

[Laughing]

[Ben] Get our whole family together here. Oh!

[Laughing]

I can't get my arms around you.

Our glasses, right.

I know.

This is very bizarre.

It is.

Oh God.

We have a clan.

- I love you so much. -I love you more.

Oh God, we're together.

Here, sweetie, let's, let's, guy's trying, he's afraid he's

gonna hit us, and I'm kind of afraid of that, too.

I just need directions.

This is so interesting.

We're travellin'. We're a family.

♪

You can take your card out now.

Thank you.

Just gonna cross Canada, all national parks and all national

historic site, they're listed in there.

And I packed for, like, 16 months.

Now, do we want to go down the stairs, or do we want

to go down the lawn?

You know what? I'm just gonna go.

You guys can go whichever way you want, I'm going this way.

Don't bring anymore luggage down.

Why?

I'm gonna see if we can get a place that's on even ground,

because Esther can't do these stairs three times a day.

What you looking at?

I'm seeing where this goes.

Our luggage is unprotected.

Ha-ha.

People are gonna just walk away with our luggage

if we don't watch it.

Ha-ha.

Some bears will steal it.

Oh, shoot, bears.

[Laughing]

We got another one just up the way and there's,

aren't all these stairs.

All right.

Oh.

The thing about being in the mountains,

I hate walking up and down hills.

Okay.

Man, you pack light.

Are you kidding me, it's only T-shirts.

After you, after you. -It's only t-shirts.

T-shirts and toiletries.

Look what else I brought.

I bought these at, um, at Lake Louise years ago.

They're walking sticks. -Yeah.

They're awesome walking sticks, and I always forget them

when I come to the mountains, so today I brought them,

so I'm quite proud of myself.

Okay, the most important thing that's coming out right now.

Awesome and I have something.

Oh, and- [flashlight whirring]

And I have something for Rosalie,

but and, and I,

I didn't get Ben's made yet.

I mean I started to, but it... -Super cute.

Is she going to like that?

Red is such a good colour for her. She loves red.

Oh, that's good to know.

I'm hoping this is gonna go up.

[Blowing on fire]

Go up!

I don't want to get smoked out here.

Phew, phew.

And it hasn't been lit for a while, that's probably why.

But, yeah, there we go.

[fire crackling]

Okay, who are we?

MJ's kids.

This is-- is that a woman' medium?

It's probably for you.

There you go, that one's for you, babe.

Right on.

[Laughing]

And this one's for you.

All right.

Zipper and everything.

Yeah.

This one's for you.

Oh, beautiful, beautiful.

I love it.

Oh yeah.

Oh, totally, man.

-Yeah. -Nice.

Oh, that's sweet, that looks very nice.

And the reason for the season.

-Oh. -Sweet.

I was thinking about the picture that I have,

but it's in that big, huge wooden frame.

That's beautiful.

Wow.

Yeah.

She's here with us, you know.

Ah-ha.

And she's just so happy.

Yeah.

Okay, what am I, oh, I'm doing it wrong.

[Laughing]

Let's get a great picture of that lamp.

That, this phone,

I'm thinking you need to get your money back, baby.

Okay, is that, that's gonna work, right?

Oh yeah, right, with half my face.

Half my face.

How about if I go--?

[Laughing]

Okay, wait, we got to get mom there,

mother, MJ looking over you.

[Click]

-So... -Which one are we doing here?

Oh, the skywalk thing.

And that includes riding on that, on that big bus

out onto the glaciers.

That would be cool.

So are you guys good that I should phone them right now and

see if we need to reserve?

For this one?

Yeah.

Which one, the hot springs?

That's the skywalk.

Hold on, let me get the skywalk.

Free shuttle from Columbia Ice...

What a cute little sweater.

[Laughs]

Yes, that's one of them. That looks like cool stuff.

Here's Lake Louise.

Here's a gondola.

Take a look at that.

That's the top of the mountain.

Oh yeah, wow, huh.

The Skywalk is something else.

I've never done it, but it would be a first time for it,

and it would be so much fun.

You know what?

That's what this whole trip is about.

Yeah, just the first timer thing, it's just gonna

be awesome. Wouldn't you say?

Look at those red boots.

Ah-ha.

And I've been holding myself back.

Well, you know, listen, we're, we're having a birthday

and we're having Christmas. You guys, you know,

if you se something you like tell your big sissy.

Well yeah, I'm still looking.

Will these make it home?

Oh, shit.

How's your day going?

Good, thank you, very good.

Nice.

Yeah, great. It's so beautiful here.

Isn't it?

Yeah. I'm from southern California.

Well, I was born here but...

Oh. Canadian money is so pretty.

[Laughing]

So, where's Betty?

She went to the photo shop.

She said she'd be back.

There's just so much to see.

Yeah.

Like, holy cow.

Oh, my God, did you s--

I didn't even look at the mountains behind us.

I know, I took a picture of that.

That's nice, eh?

That's beautiful. -Yeah.

Do you have a lot of photos that you need printed?

No, no, just, I just want, there's just a few and I want

multiples of them.

Okay. So, we just have to go to...

To the photos, okay.

...no, just through our website first.

-It's alcohol. -Hey, hey, where would you guys,

where would you guys like to put these?

-This girl not to bright, honey. -Hey.

-We're having a pretty day again! Two pretty days.

Hey, hey, where would you want these two?

-Up on the mantle somewhere. -No, I know, where,

where do you want it, like, how do you want it positioned?

-Well, why don't you just start? -Make a decision.

We can do it that way? Okay.

-I think you need to move that one in a little bit and out.

-It smells good. -See. Well then.

-This is just not happening, right, the way I want it to.

-You know what? I think, okay.

-Does anybody want some onions?

-I'm just really, really picky when it comes to shit like this.

It's got to be precise, otherwise it's just,

I'll just really be upset with this.

-Betty Ann? -Hmm?

There's a thing-a-ma-duber in the middle,

what is up with that? -Hmm-hmm-hmm.

-What do you think there, Rose?

Do you like that?

If I don't, I'll rearrange it later when you're not looking.

[Laughing]

Damn it all, anyway, just don't get upset.

-Excuse me.

-Squeeze you, no, I don't know you well enough, I'm sorry.

-Don't do that. [Laughing]

-Okay, we're on the road.

We're on the move.

-Takes us a while to get our poop in a group.

-And Ben didn't forget me today.

-You got to get out the door before he does.

-I did.

-Oh, oh.

-So, I am not, obviously I'm no a native traditionalist,

but I have had some exposure to it. Have you guys had,

like, much exposure to native traditional stuff?

-I don't do any of that.

-No, I'm, I'm too close here. I'm not liking this.

Okay, I'm gonna go turn around just 'cause that's

just the way I roll, okay.

-What about you, Esther?

-I'm thinking.

-Oh, how lovely is this? -Isn't this great?

-But you know that Betty, I asked a lot about that,

and they says all, all the forts in the areas, whenever

they built them, they built them like that for the soldiers, so--

-You realize they, they built it to keep us out, baby.

-Hey, just, Rosalie, come for just a sec, I just, I just want

to go over something, and I, hate to be repetitive, but,

okay, so we're gonna meet this elder, and I don't know if he

might see us as native people and imagine that we know what

we're doing in terms of Aboriginal tradition and stuff.

And so, um, if we give him some tobacco,

that's a sign of respect. -Do we each give him one?

-No, if you've got one and if you give it on our behalf,

that should, I think that, I think that should be adequate.

-Those are gorgeous. How much are they?

-I don't know.

-Two sixty-five.

Hmm, oh sorry mukluks, you're gonna have to stay here.

-Hello.

-Aba Wathtech. Are you a First Nation?

-Yes. -From?

-We're from, well I'm from Fond du Lac, Saskatchewan,

but I live in Saskatoon. You're the elder?

-Yeah, I'm the elder. -Hi, so nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, too. I'm Betty Ann.

-I'm Helmar. -Helmar?

-Hi Helmar, I'm Esther. -And I'm Ben.

-Aba Wathtech. -I'm Rose. How are you?

Good.

-We all come from different places, but we're all brothers

and sisters, and we grew up in separate homes.

We were taken in the 60's scoop. -Ah, yeah.

And this weekend, this week is our first time

of being all together. -Good.

And so we're, we were all raised in white homes.

Yes.

So, you know, we, coming here kind of gives me a shiver, you

know, I feel as though being here is some, this is this kind

of thing that we might have grown up with if the

circumstances were different, and so it feels good to come

here and, and we really appreciate having an opportunity

to have a tour. Do you have that tobacco?

Yes, I do.

We, we were told that, um, giving tobacco was sort of a

traditional thing and we would like to offer that to you.

-Yes, thank you, yeah.

And it's very important to learn your culture.

I'm a survivor of residential school.

I went through a lot of hard times, but I came and learn.

I learn my own language.

The best way to learn is hands-on learning.

Like if you make a smudge bowl, the teacher will tell you what

it is in Cree, and then what it represent.

By the time you're done, you learn about the culture and you

learn at least one word, which to be inside your heart.

Do you ever do the Round dance?

I've, I've done that.

I've been to 'em, yes.

You hit that one, two song, one, two, stop.

Okay.

[Drumming]

-I will try. -Okay.

-I have no rhythm.

-I'm gonna try.

[Drumming]

Okay, you, you count me off and I'll start at the

same time you do.

Okay. One, two, three.

[Drumming]

[Drumming, Aboriginal singing]

-That's so cool.

Do you want to try it?

You try this. This is so cool.

I've never been able to do the drumming, so it was cool.

One, two, three. [Drumming]

Okay, just tap, tap.

That is a very cool feeling.

[Drumming]

[Drumming & flute]

Like at a young age, like her age, she's already went to

school, let's say kindergarten, she watch how they cut up the

meat, everything, and then they teach you how to cut the meat,

everything, put it on a tripod like this.

They start a fire, sometimes we use aspen tree or willow,

dry willow, that give a really good flavour to it.

All these ladies work hard because they're gonna keep the

tribe a lot of food, so the make lots of it.

And then we're gonna start on the scraping hides here.

Okay, we take the hide and we lace it on a frame like this,

really tight.

There's meat on it, eh, and then this you wrap it around your,

like this, and then you flesh the meat, like,

you take all the meat, everything off.

It's one whole day of work.

When it's done, again, you'll feed our dog.

He gets to eat everything.

[Laugh]

And then we lace up the hide really tight, and then you

put it in the sun for four days.

When it's dry, you tight on it, you tap it,

it's just like the drum.

Yeah, nature's people, Rheyam Wichasta.

-Rheyam Wichasta. -Yeah.

-I'll try to remember that. -Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Like I said, welcome home.

Oh, thank you.

Rheyam Wichasta.

You can do it. -Thank you.

You will.

Go for the gold.

Thanks. Thank you.

Yeah.

Haaaa.

Awesome.

What did you think of that?

It was beautiful. It was great. Wow.

Can you imagine, like, living like that and learning all that?

Where did Betty Ann go, to go sit down?

I think she's going to see if we can get a snack and come back.

Yeah.

She's very, um.

Yes, I know, she told me.

-Just overwhelmed, I think, would be a good word.

-I was raised in a good and decent home.

And I've had many people say to me, "Well you were lucky, you

know, do you think you'd be where you are now if, if you,

you know, if you hadn't been taken from your mother?"

And it's almost as if they want me to agree that I'm better off

because I wasn't with my mother, and there was a time in my life

when I would have agreed, but I don't feel that way now.

And I, it's not, this isn't comment about my family who

raised me, this is a comment about my reality of my life as

me as an individual and as a Aboriginal person, and now I

don't feel like I'm lucky, I feel like I'm, been ripped off.

For us, we didn't have the residential school to separate

us from our culture and from our language, and we had,

we had the 60's scoop.

You know, I know a woman who was talking about that she knows how

to tan hides, and I have cousins who tan hides, who know how to

do it and have watched their mother do it and their aunties,

and, and I don't know how to do that, and I'm watching him do

that, and I'm, you know, I'm 56.

I don't, I don't, I don't, like, everything he showed us today

was brand new to me, and that--

how could, you know, that's not right,

then I don't know, that's, yeah.

-Hey, Bet, you, you go stand there.

You two get in there. I want to get a picture of you guys,

so I can see you with the waterfall and everything, too.

-That's right. That's right.

'Cause, you know, can't mess up the jeans.

-Say cheese.

-Fuzzy underwear.

[click]

This is so amazing. Where did Ben go?

He's way up the trail somewhere.

Oh, he's breaking trail for us, is he?

-Hang on.

Okay.

[click] Got it.

[Laughing]

-You know what, do not sprain your ankle.

-Oh yeah, don't, don't be, don't be, don't be,

don't be doing that.

-Yeah, Ben.

I guess I have to take a picture.

-Now we got to, oh, my God.

-Okay, don't go in the water with your shoes on.

I can do one, that's apparently my limit.

-Two, and it was one, two, three.

You just got to know where you strength lies.

-Yeah.

-Good to know, right.

-Well, I'm thinking we should start with the baby.

-Okay. -My life--

-You want to show us your stuff first?

-Oh God. -You're adorable!

-And I don't know how old I am there.

-You know, you haven't changed really.

-Ha-ha.

That little button nose.

-Maybe, I guess, yeah.

-Aah.

-So, yeah.

It's pretty cute.

-Ben, did your, um, parents have other foster children?

At the time we did, but they al were, as soon as we got them,

they were around for, like,

two months and then they just took off right away.

Those were temporary placements, temporary placements.

Yeah, yeah.

-And so you were a foster child with them until you were

fourteen and then the adoption happened?

Actually, it was twelve.

-Twelve. -Yes.

-Okay. -Yes. Twelve.

All right.

-Okay, now how old-? -There's me.

-Oh, sweet.

-You still have the dimpled knuckles.

-Yeah. -You were little.

-Mm-hmm. -Okay, I got, I've got to see.

This my farm, the farmhouse, and we had, like,

the red and white farmhouse. -Oh yeah.

Right, and that's the front lawn.

I'm probably about 12, this is about 14.

-You see, and this is, this is how you looked when I met you.

You're gonna see on the very next page...

Okay. ...there's our first meeting.

-Oh, no way!

-Yeah, see.

Yeah, I literally was a mini me. I came up to Betty Ann's elbow.

Do you remember that?

Oh, my God.

Sweet.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

In this picture, you look a lot like your mother.

I do.

Like, just look at those cheekbones.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it's the high, high, high cheekbones.

Totally.

-I love the way they're the old black and white pictures

with those little corners.

I remember we had things like that.

-It says 3 weeks, 6 weeks here.

-Yeah, but these are some other children that my mom, she had...

Foster kids, too?

...she had, like, eleven or twelve...

-Whoa. ...before she got me.

Oh boy, okay.

And I was, I don't know, 13 or 14, something like that. I was

the only one she got to adopt, but all of us were very sick.

-Oh, and there's where the pictures turn into colour,

same as with your album.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Valentine, okay, wait a minute.

-So, she kept an album with the foster children she kept.

-Yeah. -Ah, so nice.

-She took so many, they took so many pictures, and I'm guessing

this is me, July '62, when I was about a year old.

This would have been in California already.

No, that was still in Prince Albert.

We didn't go to California 'til 64', 'til March of 64'.

-I was 15 miles away.

-So, these... -That is so sad.

-That is.

-But I think a lot of the foster parents, like in my file it

states that when you are a foster parent you were only

allowed to keep, especially an infant, for three months,

that was it, and then they would move you.

It says that?

It says that right in my file.

You were only allowed to keep a foster child for three months,

to save them, save you from getting attached,

and then they would move you, right.

-Oh, are you, are you kidding? -No, I'm not.

It says it and but I mean...

-But who would come up with a policy like that and to whose

benefit, like? -CPS or whatever you call it.

...but I mean the thing of it was, so, um, and they were,

like, they basically, I'm thinking, they were, they were

not halfway houses, but they were, um, they wanted to adopt

out these children, right.

So, who the heck is making decisions

to take children from their mothers

for some kind of protection allegedly, and then

bouncing a newborn baby around like that?

-Yeah. -I know.

Like, and you're supposed to be bonding?

I don't think bonding was a priority.

Back in them days it mustn't have been.

-It obviously wasn't. -It obviously wasn't.

-There wasn't such a thing as bonding back then.

-I mean there was, but they didn't recognize it back then.

-On the reserves, like, back in the 1800's they had bonding.

Well, of course, the, the thing is the policy-

doesn't seem to have really been about the welfare of the child,

if you ask me. Like, that hurts my, that hurts my heart

to think that my baby sister was bouncing around from home

to home when you were such a sick little thing,

and thank God you got to Irene and Jacques.

-Mm-hmm.

-That, like, and that's the thing, like, I had a phenomenal

childhood and I had a phenomenal life, right.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, so out of all the horrible things that could have happened

to me, I was one of the lucky ones, like, seriously, right,

like, 'cause I was never made to feel like I was different,

right, I was one of the family.

-Yeah, yeah. -Well, let's get back to...

Yeah, sorry, Esther, we digress.

But you were very sick, you said.

You were, yeah.

But it's, it's, but and, and your, your foster mom had taken

care of lots of sick little babies and she, she took care

of you and nursed them back to health.

-Yeah, absolutely. But here's another one on my first,

I guess it's my first birthday, it's July 62'.

- Oh, sweet.

Just cute as a button.

When you were celebrating your first birthday there, I had just

been placed in my foster home, I had been in my foster home

for a few weeks at that point.

And that, so that's in Prince Albert, and I'm on

a farm 15 miles away. Isn't that heart breaking?

-Shit. -It's, like, what--

Betty Ann, we were right there, so close to each other.

That's what makes this so, so, much more special,

we've narrowed it from 15 miles to 15 inches.

[Laughing]

-To see the resemblance of so much of our mother in the girls,

you know, and even in me, too, and it's sweet,

it's really sweet.

To know that there was years of our lives that we never really

got to be with, you know, growing up, the fighting,

the bickering, the loving, the, presents at Christmastime,

the birthdays, the holidays, um, sure we missed a lot.

With this, you can't just sort of just, hey, how ya doin', you

know, it's been great seeing you, I guess.

You know, it's, like, it's been what, two years or something?

Like, you can't do that with this.

Something like this, you missed it, and so it's sad,

and you have to, how do you say?

Relive all them hurts, excuse me.

[Crying]

Thank you.

[man] It's cold out.

- Okay.

[Bus driver] So you see there's a large mountain up there on

the left with lots of snow on it, it's Mt. Athabasca.

It's really popular out here for hikers and climbers and skiers

and snowboarders, all that kind of stuff.

So welcome to the Athabasca, this is what you've been

waiting for, I think.

-Whoa, she's windy up here.

She's windy up here.

-Yeah, it's pretty chilly.

-Over here, you want one?

-No, you hold onto them.

Okay.

-You're going skiing.

-Oh, my God, it's huge.

-You have a really good grip on your boots.

[chatting]

-I'm done, I'm passed out.

-Okay.

-Okay, everybody say Mary Jane.

-Mary Jane!

[click]

-I love you guys.

-Oh, I love you more.

Awesome. -All right.

-Hey, thank you. -Are we all done?

-All right. -Can we go back to the bus now?

-Can we go back to the bus? We're good.

-Okay.

-Here, grab one of these, I'm gonna hold onto Ben.

[click]

Okay beaners, we're high.

We are so frickin' high.

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

And yet, hey, get, get this, and yet,

we're higher in an airplane than this.

Yeah, and you're fine in an airplane, aren't you?

Yeah.

As long as you're not by the window?

It doesn't matter, I don't mind the window,

'cause you can't see nothing but cloud.

-I don't know.

[Laughs] Guys, I don't know.

-Just start walking out on it. Just start walkin'.

- That's what I did.

-Oh, gives you that, that feeling in the pit

of your stomach like you're gonna walk out on.

-And when I, when I first go out, I'm, like, okay,

and my heart was racing.

-Yes.

Don't look down, look straight ahead.

[Laughs]

Just keep looking straight ahead.

-Straight ahead. -It's okay.

-Look at Rosalie. She's laying down.

-Oh, don't do that shit to me, please.

Please don't do that. Do not do that.

-It's okay, just breathe. Look up, look up at the mountaintop.

-It's really kind of scary, it really is.

-Come walk with me.

-It's just- I really don't know if I really can do this now.

-You know what? We're gonna do it quickly.

When we do it, we're gonna walk through it quickly. Come on.

[exhales]

You tell me when you're ready.

-I don't know if I can keep going.

-Sure you can, sure you can, just stick with me.

-Baby steps, just baby steps.

-Sure.

-But it's easier to look down if you go to the edge and look

down, it's easier.

-You know, we'll look down after we get toward the end.

-We, we, we, we will, we will.

-But right now we'll just keep enjoying this.

-Yeah.

-Oh, my God, I can't believe this.

This is so cool.

-I just wish I wasn't so damn scared.

-It's okay, it's okay to be scared.

-Yeah, it is.

-It's totally legit.

-Let's look out at the mountain.

-Oh, I really don't like this.

-You made it. You're doing it.

-I want to, I want to keep going, I want to keep going.

-Yeah, okay. -I don't want to stop.

I just want to get the hell off of this thing.

-For sure.

-You're making a left turn!

You're making a left turn!

-I'm gonna walk a little quicker.

[laughs]

-Want me to let go and you can do the rest on your own?

-Yeah, yeah, I think so. -Go dude.

-I think so. -You're good, you're golden.

-Okay, get me on the cement.

Yea, you did it!

-That was scary.

[Laughing]

-You own it, dude. -Oh, wow.

-That's so amazing.

-I just want to stay here.

-Yeah.

You're okay though.

-Ben? -Ah?

Next time you see me, I'm gonna have short hair.

-Oh, oh there's the sun, oh.

It's just very, um, humbling and knowing that I,

I have much to learn about who I am and my ancestry,

and now I have three people to go on the journey with.

We have to work together to find

our way to being a family, and,

um, making our own traditions,

and learning things like our

birthdays, and our nieces' and

nephews' birthdays, and finding

out, okay, this trip is our

first one, and I'm lobbying very

hard for our next one already,

'cause I'm thinking we have to

make a conscious effort to keep

this up because if we don't

it's gonna be, like, oh, yeah,

I have two sisters and a brother

and we only see each other, you know, whenever.

And I think that in order to be a family,

we're gonna have to make sure we are constantly aware

that we must work at it all the time.

-I actually learned how to drive in a four-speed.

Nice, nice.

Yeah, 'cause that's what we ha at home, two four-speeds.

Right, right, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And my brother taught me.

Ah-ha.

And he wanted to kill me, 'cause there was this one car we had,

and the clutch was really iffy, I mean it was touchy, and, oh,

my God, I put him through the windshield a couple of times,

'cause I mean I wasn't used to the clutch.

[music]

-This was from the weekend that I met our mother.

This is mom?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, you are taller than mom.

And she, um...

I thought she was tall.

-91'.

-Well, she's tall for a woman, but, but I'm taller.

Well, how, well you're, you're, like, I thought she was,

like, over six foot. -No, no, no.

That's what I always assumed that, that mom and dad,

I knew dad, my dad was over six foot,

because it just kind of came to me.

-So, me and her were about the same height, huh?

Yeah, yeah, you're the most like her.

-Oh yeah.

-Like, you look the most like her.

-Oh I meant to ask, did mom ever speak the language?

-Of course. -Dene?

-Absolutely. -She did.

-Until the day she died. -Oh, wow.

-Absolutely. -And so here she is.

This and that, that would, would have been, that would have been

in the last year of her life. -Mm-hmm.

-Um, by then she was using the wheelchair most of the time.

And let's see.

How old was she again when she?

She was 72 when she died.

This is a picture of her, and this it's really, um,

characteristic of her, she's go her makeup done and her hair

done, and she's wearing jewellery, and she was very

particular about her appearance.

There she is.

-Yeah, I guess I do look like he a bit.

A lot.

Well, you know what?

Like, you have her same eyebrows.

-Mm-hmm. -Yeah.

-I do? [Laughs]

Yeah, you do.

-Yeah.

-And so I, it, this is getting back to the pages I had sent

her, and so I sent her some photos of Fond du Lac from the

plane, and so this is from 1986, and the community has changed

a lot, but, um, I knew that that would interest her.

And here is our Grandfather Ben.

-Oh.

I got to speak to him once on the phone.

-No. Really?

-Yes, I did, I did.

Tell me about that, when was that?

-Tell us all about it.

It was, do you remember when you first found the family?

Yeah, yeah.

And I remember thinking, oh, my God, I've got an uncle with four

children, an aunt with nine, like, oh, my word, I'm, I've got

this huge extended family, and I'm not sure if I had phoned up

there, or they had phoned me, the details escape me, but I

actually got to speak to grandpa before he passed.

Oh, man, I tell you this stuff.

So, this is a letter from Ted.

This is just after I found our family, you know.

Ted wrote me a letter, and I'm just gonna read you,

like, just the first couple of sentences.

So, August 4th, 1984.

"Dear cousin, hi, how are you?

Finally the Dream," dream with capital D, "has come true.

After all these years,

we will be around each other as one big family.

I hope you understand that we all felt bad, just like you do,

but finally this thing is over.

I phone home on Friday and I was given your address,

that's why I'm writing you this letter."

And then, you know, he goes on, but the,

you know, it was, like,

there were people out there saying it's, it's the same as

the letter I sent you, you know, we're out here,

we're waiting for you, and we're thinking about you

and we never forgot you.

You know, and our family is just so awesome.

Like our cousins, they just always, always welcomed us with

open arms and treated us, like--

-Yeah.

-And here's a letter to me from uncle, from our grandfather

after I visited him, and it's basically him giving me shit for

not sending something that I was supposed to send.

Like, maybe it was kind of paperwork.

[Laughing]

Grandpa wants to know when you're sending the blah-blah.

[Laughing]

-So, here's the newspaper that I work for, the Star Phoenix,

and I did a column, and as you can see,

there's a picture here of me and our mom,

and there's my daughter, my girl Alicia.

And this was taken, I wrote this column about the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission into Indian residential schools.

And, um, I was talking about how,

[deep sigh]

you know, we were gonna go there and we were taking the

spirit of Mary Jane with us when we, because she can't be there,

and the policies of the residential schools that

our mom went to residential school and for what?

She never said anything bad about residential school.

She said that she was glad she learned how to knit when she was

there, and she made friends.

But when she left residential school,

she never went home to the reserve.

I don't know why. -Mm-hmm.

But-

children in residential schools, Indian kids in

residential schools were taught that they were inferior

to white people essentially.

It's, it's a known thing, I mean it's, it's a known thing,

and so why did our mother never go home to the reserve,

and why did she only live in, you know, towns and cities,

and why were her partners not native?

And as far as I'm concerned, it's because of something that

happened to her at residential school.

It's because of something she was taught.

And- [clears throat]

And, and the gov-, the Government of Canada apologized

to Indian residential school survivors, and they apologized

to the intergenerational survivors, which is us,

and like I said,

our mother wasn't alive to hear the Prime Minister of

Canada apologize to her for whatever experience she had.

Would it have made a difference if she was alive to hear it?

I mean would she-?

-Well here's the... -You know what?

My, my, my take on the situation why mom didn't go back to the

reserve is because why did the let them take her away?

Where were they, why?

Kind of like...

It, it was the law.

I know it was the law, but why did some people get left behind

and others get taken?

-There's, I think there's a lot of, I think...

-And there's no amount of apology in the world that

could make up for that.

They took away so much from us.

Oh, I'm sorry that happened to you.

Oh, well, I'm sorry you're a dick head, too, you know.

Does, is it really gonna make a difference?

-Well, exactly.

'Cause everybody's gonna be mad, be angry, be and, and you got to

try to let go of it, but it's hard thing to let go of.

How do you let go of something like that?

-Yeah.

-Maybe that's why mom didn't go back,

and if that's why, I don't blame her.

So.

-Well, after the residential schools,

like, they had Indian residential schools

for over a hundred years in Canada, so there were

many generations of children who went through there,

and, and the government, the Government of Canada had said

right off the, off the top, the Prime Minister, um,

John A. Macdonald, who was the first Prime Minister of Canada,

wrote in letters and documents that the, and I think even

talked to, told, told the House of Commons that the reason

they were doing this was because if you educate savages,

they simply become savages who can read, but if you put them

in a school where they'll be taught by religious people and

by white people, then you can take the Indian out of the

child, that was the intention of the residential schools.

And when my, our mother came out of a residential school,

she didn't go back to the reserve.

-Mm-hmm.

So, maybe they succeeded in what they were trying

to do to some degree, some perverse kind of a change,

I don't know, and then...

I'm gonna go smoke a cigarette.

Okay.

-What about you?

-Well, you know what? If, if one's out, two's out.

I could use some air. -Yes.

-Yeah, yeah.

-That, that's a provoking thought,

would it make a difference?

Well, I think, I think the only thing that can really make a

difference is if the government stops doing that stuff, and if,

if people who aren't native stop thinking they're superior to us.

That, that's, that's what I think.

But, you know, after they, after they closed down the residential

schools, they still weren't finished with their policy of

trying to get the Indian children away from their

parents, and that's when the 60's scoop began.

And when were we born?

In the 1960's, and what was the policy of the 60's scoop?

It was to put... -Take us.

-...Indian children into white homes.

-To take away the Indian in the child, which is basically,

they kind of succeeded, but no really.

I mean we always knew who we were though, so.

-Sure, we didn't have a language

of our own to speak. We had to speak white.

-This is true. -Like, we learnt white.

Did we get to speak any native? No. We didn't know any native.

-We were taken away.

And that's, you know, that's sort of, you know,

sad because I've seen native growing up,

an they'd talk to me normal, like, you know, you and I now...

-English.

-...and they'd sit there and say, yeah, English, sorry,

they'd speak English, right, but then they say, you know,

"Where are you from?"

"I'm from Edmonton." "What reserve you from?"

"Fond du Lac, up north." "Oh, okay, I'm Blackfoot, I'm, you

know, Crow." "I'm whatever," you know, and they say,

"Can you speak any of your language?"

I'm going, "I don't know single word, all I know is

white," and they'd go, "That is so sad."

[Cough]

So, what about you guys?

-I always knew I was an Indian.

-I wasn't, I always knew-- -I always knew I was an Indian.

-I always knew that I was native, too, but it was just...

-And that's something they can never take away from me.

-Yeah.

-I am First Nations.

-Yeah.

-And I will always be First Nations.

I didn't even know what First Nations was until a year ago.

-Seriously? -Seriously.

-Well because in California, like in the United States,

they don't, I don't think they use that term, do they?

-Mm-mm.

-So, what do they use for the natives down there?

Like, like for-? -Indians.

-They, they call them Native Americans, I think.

-Yeah, right. -Native Americans.

-But as far as First Nations,

I didn't know what First Nations was.

-I don't know what was going on with it, but when they took me,

like, I remember the day,

-Hm-mm.

-I remember the day, and it, it,

an RCMP officer came with the social worker, and,

and they, they took me from her as she was crying.

And I remember she had dre-, I was wearing a dress that day,

and I was three years old, and I remember that they put me in the

front seat of the police car because it was a police car they

had, I think it was a police car, and anyway, it was a car,

and it was a hot sunny summer day, it was June, and the seat

was hot and it burnt. You know, how when you're

wearing shorts and you're on a hot seat...

-Yeah, yeah, it just burns, yeah.

-...and it, I remember that it burned my legs and the poli--,

and the social worker took me and held me on her lap.

And, and then I remember that I was in an airplane looking down,

I knew I was in an airplane, and then, um, I,

you know, I ended up on this farm.

-Did she ever talk about us?

-Um--

-I know maybe she maybe discussed with you two maybe

about it, but she talk about us two ever?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean I talked to her about things.

I have a, I have a book.

And I didn't know if I should bring out one

thing at a time or--

-Do you know how painful that must have been for her?

-Yeah.

-That would have been, I think, extremely painful for her.

Yeah, yeah, like when I, the first times I met her I, um,

didn't, well I did, I did ask her about stuff, and I,

I, one thing that I do, do, this is her funeral card.

-Okay.

-Um, you know you can have one.

Do you guys want to hear the eulogy I gave at her funeral?

-No.

-That's okay then, babe.

-Mm-mm, mm-mm, mm-mm.

-I'm gonna, I'll leave, later I'll, I'll share it with Ben.

You know, I looked for you guys for a long time,

and when I was looking for my pa-,

through my papers and stuff, I was finding evidence

of the search that was going back.

Like, look at the colour of this paper.

-Mm-hmm.

-And, you know, everybody ask us, says, "Oh, you're, oh, that

sounds so great, you're gonna have a reunion, a family

reunion," and I said, "No." -It's not a reunion.

-No, no. Everyone's thinking it should, you know-

It's not a reunion, because, because...

We've never been together before.

-This is a family union. -Union.

-Next year at my house will be a family reunion.

Just putting it out there one more time.

[laughing]

Come here, baby girl.

-If you guys start crying.

[Laughing]

Oh wow, okay.

This is so good.

[Laughing]

-Oh, it's a long time coming, guys.

-I know.

-A long time.

Oh, I love you all so much.

-I love you so much. -We love you, too.

Yes.

-The hardest thing is...

...knowing the pain that Mary Jane must have gone through

when we were taken away from her,

and just her having to live her life without her children.

I mean she kept having children and then every time

they get taken away.

And I don't know how her life was in residential school.

I know it was hard.

I kind of associate residential schools with jail myself,

because that's-

that's essentially what they were doing, I think.

And then growing up and having your own children and

then they're gone, that's hard for me to-

fathom how Mary Jane's life must have been.

I know she coped the best she could.

Now that we've connected-

it's gonna be a lot better, a lot easier to cope with.

I can call any of them anytime of the day or night, they'll be

there, and they know exactly what I'm going through because

they're going through the same thing.

Excuse me, pardon me.

Squeeze you, I hardly even know you.

-I know. -Okay, we're gonna go with...

-We'll start with that. -...we'll start with that.

The cake is in the oven, and I want to go timer,

and I want to go search, there we go.

I am done, I am out.

Birthday cake is in the oven.

-Yea. -Yea.

-Two hundred, well it's 211 birthdays we've missed,

but Ben's, so we're gonna also celebrate Ben's birthday that

happens two weeks from now. -Yeah.

-So, we might as well do 212.

-Oh, okay, that sounds good.

-So, do you think we could do two,

a one and a two with the ten candles?

-Why don't we just get 20 and that, that should cover it?

-Think this would be so difficult.

-The cake's not that big. -Let me sit down.

Well, you put this much though into one birthday cake.

That's right. -And, like,

we've got 212 birthday cakes we're making up for.

-That's right.

-So, it can, it can have a few minutes attention.

-Yes, it can.

-Okay, I think we would like some, four birthday balloons.

-Well, these are pretty better looking.

[Laughing]

-The other question I wanted to ask, I've been trying to find a

local person, do you have a second-hand store here?

-Yeah, I saw one downtown. I saw one on Banff.

We passed right by it.

I'm sorry.

Betty Ann, can I give you this?

-There's also one on this street and it's open quite late.

It's just down to the left beneath the movie theatre.

There's a set of stairs that goes down, yeah.

Yeah, that one's huge, too. They've got, like, everything.

-Ben.

-I would check it out if I were you, it's really nice.

I think we need these.

We'll take four of these, too.

-Sounds great.

-For the party.

-I don't care.

-He doesn't want one.

Three of these things are gonna seem the same,

and one of these things is not.

-We could buy one of these-- -Yeah.

-I'm gonna wear my hat on the plane.

-Oh my, that's gonna be pretty wild.

Four, please.

♪ A very merry happy birthday to me, to you. ♪

[click]

[click]

[click]

So, I was thinking maybe right here,

underneath that whole light,

like that whole thing right there.

-You know, it's up to you. You're in charge of the banner.

-No, I understand that. -I'm delegating.

-I'm just saying. -I'm out.

-I'm just saying, like, I need tape or something.

-You get to make a decision.

-I get to make a decision, yahoo!

[Laughing] -All right.

-Now if we knew each other.

-Oh, for sure, lovely.

-Shoot, no, don't you even think you can do that.

You have no choice.

Crib card, crib card, crib card!

-So I have to take at least one off in the corner here.

It's gonna take me a while to light these, so, um,

I'm gonna,

I think this may be a two person job.

-One of those long lighters, and one of my friends used to call

him Johnny the wad match.

-Oh yeah.

-You know, the long, big ones.

-Oh yeah, yeah. Flame throwers out to here.

-Yeah.

Did you get all of the 60 candles on, Esther?

-Yes.

-So, this is less than half of our actual birthdays.

-We're gonna burn the place down. The smoke det--

-Well, I'm worried about the smoke detector going off.

-Oh, let's open the window a little bit there.

-Oops. Oh, is that okay? I didn't mean to turn

that one off just yet, is that okay though?

-That's fine, that's fine. -All right.

-I'm just gonna start turning the lights out.

-I'll open the door a little bit in case it does smoke

up or something. -No, it'll be fine,

Ben, they're just birthday candles, it's not the fire pit.

-Why is all the rest going?

Like, why is that one flame going so quick?

-Oh, my God, the two is on fire!

-Blow it out, blow it out, blow it out, blow it out.

-Well, here, do we have tongs? Let me get it out of here.

-Blow it out quick, blow it out quick.

-Somebody lit the two.

Who lit the two?

[Laughing]

You weren't supposed to light the two. It's not a candle.

-It's still flashing, it's okay.

-That's too funny.

-The, you know the smoke detector is gonna go off, right?

-Oh, no.

-That's why I said open door so it doesn't do that.

-Esther. -What?

-Take this two outside so it doesn't set off our

smoke detector. -Oh, shoot.

-Oops. -Careful!

[Laughing]

-Oh, this is going just fine.

-It's out. -Okay, here we go.

We'll just sing. ♪ Happy birthday to us, happy birthday ♪

♪ to us, happy birthday...

♪ Betty Ann. ...to MJ's kids. ♪

-Okay. -Whatever!

♪ And dear Rosalie, Esther, Ben and Betty Ann. ♪

♪ Happy birthday to us.

♪ And many more.

[Blowing out candles]

[music]

♪ I pity the country

♪ I pity the state

♪ and the mind of the man

♪ who thrives on hate.

♪ Small are the lives

♪ of the cheats and of liars

♪ of bigoted news press

♪ fascist town criers

♪ Deception annoys me

♪ Deception destroys me

♪ the Bill of Rights throws me

♪ Jails, they all know me

♪ Frustrated are church men

♪ the saving-of-soul men

♪ the tinker, the tailor

♪ the colonial governor

♪ They pull and they paw me

♪ They're seeking to draw me

♪ away from the roundness of the life ♪

♪ Silly civil servants

♪ they thrive off my body

♪ Their trip is with power

♪ back bacon an welfare

♪ Police, they arrest me

♪ Materialists detest me

♪ Pollution it chokes me

♪ Movies they joke me

♪ Politicians exploit me

♪ City life it jades me

♪ Hudson Bay fleeces me

♪ Hunting laws freak me

♪ Government is bumbling

♪ Revolution is rumbling

♪ To be ruled in impunity

♪ It's tradition continuity

♪ I pity the country

♪ I pity the state

♪ and the mind of the man

♪ who thrives on hate.