Sugarcane

Beginning in 1894, Canada's indigenous population were forced to go to Catholic run residential schools that were specifically designed to 'get rid of the Indian problem.' In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered at one of them, sending shockwaves across the country, especially at Indian reserves like "Sugarcane."

Laura's Review: B+

The debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie serves not only as catharsis among survivors and their ancestors of the residential schools which operated for a century in Canada as crimes against them are publicly documented, but as a personal father and son journey between Julian and his father, Ed Archie NoiseCat, the only known survivor of a residential school incinerator. Beginning with Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars guesting on a radio broadcast as the crimes are uncovered, NoiseCat and Kassie follow several story strands they loosely weave together.

We'll see investigators Whitney Spearing and Charlene Belleau, also a survivor, discover DNA evidence linking ancestors of the schools to priests who taught there, as well as documentation of priests accused of abuse being moved to different schools. At St. Joseph's Mission Indian Residential School at Williams Lake in British Columbia, Belleau points out messages scratched into the walls of a barn, voices from the past calling for help and proclaiming their existence.

The documentarians offer us a refreshing break from the tragedy, NoiseCat celebrating his heritage at a Kamloops Native Indian gathering where he'll be surprised to win a ceremonial dance competition. And he'll begin a trip with his father back to St. Joseph's Mission residential school, where his father was found as a baby in a box by an incinerator, a baby born upstairs where the students lived. The scars reach back to Julian's grandmother, who was abused at the same school, then went on to work there. She regrets the loss of the Secwepemc language, part of their culture which has been vanishing.

In the picture perfect setting of the Sugarcane Indian Reserve, we'll also spend time with Rick Gilbert who, along with his wife Anna, rushes to protect the contents of Sugarcane's Catholic Church after a spate of Church arson sweeps the country following the news. Gilbert is shocked when DNA connects him to Father McGrath, a priest whose name has come up earlier in connection with births at the schools. Rick doesn't want to believe it and another survivor, who lost seven of his eleven siblings to suicide, will talk of the societal conditioning of his people by the Church. Another woman speaks of reporting her abuse and continually being referred to someone else, until she told her father and received a beating from him for having done so. Perhaps the most chilling inclusions in NoiseCat and Kassie's documentary is their use of archival footage, b&w documentation of little girls kneeling in beds crammed together being led in evening prayer by nuns or being posed in a Christmas tableau, their eyes vacant.

The atrocities perpetuated upon Canada's indigenous is yet another stain on a Catholic Church which has covered up the sexual crimes of priests around the world and allowed the abuse and deaths of single women in Ireland's notorious Magdalene Laundries. We will see Rick join a group traveling to Rome to meet with Pope Francis who will apologize for the atrocities committed against them. Back in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does the same, Sellars by his side. In a year which also brings us "The Nickel Boys," about a similar horror perpetuated against black youth in the U.S., apologies just don't seem enough.

Robin's Review: B

From 1879, both the US and Canadian governments funded Catholic-run schools to educate indigenous children. Instead, these schools stripped away all vestiges of native culture, language and religion to make the children more “acceptable” to our white culture in “Sugarcane.”

One of the things I remember as a kid watching American westerns, both movies and TV shows, was the phrase, as heinous as it is, that “there is no Indian like a dead Indian.” That phrase flooded in as directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat tell the story of Julian’s dad, Ed Archie NoiseCat, who was one of the victims of that terrible school system that stripped their very being away.

Ed’s story begins in the St. Joseph’s Mission School in Canada’s British Columbia where he landed after being taken from his family to get a white man’s education. Unfortunately, for the many students of this and other “residential schools” across Canada and the US – there were 150000 or more children – this meant having their history and heritage ripped from them.

The native residential school system has been a subject for several years and is currently getting a lot of air time. “Sugarcane” gives us the perspective of one man, Ed, who grew up in the system, as his son, Julian, delves into his dad’s life and the whole native school issue.

It is one thing to rip a child from the bosom of his or her family and thrust in among strangers to change the way the live and think. But, put these children in an environment of predatory priests and the problems become those of unwanted pregnancies and the resulting babies that had to be disposed.

While “Sugarcane” does cover some disturbing facts about white North America and its treatment of native Americans, especial the children, it is mainly about Julian and Ed. Julian learns about his father’s life and memories of the school. Ed is educated about his and other victims’ plights and what their “protectors” did to protect them.

The structure of the story has a meandering quality as it divides its time between the history and heinousness of the schools, the unmarked graves and the crimes committed and Julian and Ed rekindling their father/son bond. I wanted more about the schools and the system that spawned them. It astounds me that they existed for over a century!

National Geographic released "Sugarcane" in select theaters on 8/9/24.  It will debut on the National Geographic Channel on 12/9/24 and begin streaming on Hulu on 12/10/24.