SUGARCANE – Review by Nikki Fowler
Directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat chronicle an investigation into a Canadian, Catholic run, Indigenous boarding school of ‘horror’ and those affected by the suffering, murder and abuse inflicted on young innocent children who were being held there against their will under racist conditions.
Taken from their homes in an attempt to convert them to a white ideology, the young children were stripped from their cultural identity. The filmmakers follow the investigation specifically into the lives lost at St Joseph’s Residential Mission School in Williams Lake, British Columbia from 1891 to 1991 as they search to uncover burial sites where the victims of infanticide were disposed of.
Under the mask of religion and community, Nazi-esque atrocities occurred right in broad daylight with many of the children who were removed from their own culture found themselves stifled, confined, coerced and brainwashed to adapt to a White environment that was not their norm.
Sugarcane reports some of the most heart breaking stories that were not only painful to the victims but also the children who were innocent bystanders. Through candid snippets with the members of the current Ingenious community, survivors tell their stories in this must-see documentary.
Residential schools that started in the 1800’s and lasted over 150 years were misconstrued as and the farthest thing from a safe haven for minors. At a time when children are supposed to be protected, thriving and growing, there was a horrific abuse of power. Many young girls were raped by priests and became pregnant, many children went missing. The silence about this even to this day is unacceptable
