We Were Children is a Canadian docudrama which premiered in 2012
The topic is the First Nations of Canada with special focus on the residential school system: what happened to the children who were forcibly removed from their parents and placed in residential schools?
The history of the residential school system is told by focusing on two real cases, on two children who were removed from their parents and placed in a residential school:
Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart
They both survived to become adults. They both agreed to be interviewed and tell their story in front of a camera.
Some scenes of their childhood have been recreated by actors. This film is partly a documentary film and partly a historical drama.
Here is some basic information about it:
** Director: Tim Wolochatiuk
** Writer: Jason Sherman
** Producers: Kyle Irving and David Christensen
** Run time: 82 minutes
Glen Anaquod was sent to the Lebret Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. He died in 2011, shortly before the film was completed.
Lyna Hart was sent to the Guy Hill Residential School in Manitoba in 1958, when she was four years old. She died in 2015, three years after the film was released.
Canada implemented this policy for more than 100 years. During this time, more than 150,000 children of the First Nations were removed from their parents and placed in residential schools.
One half of these schools were run by the Catholic Church, while the other half were run by the Canadian government.
This policy was a serious and a long-running violation of human rights.
In June 2008, the office of the Prime Minister of Canada issued an apology to former students of the residential school system.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper also delivered the apology in the House of Commons, where indigenous leaders and survivors were present and witnessed the speech.
In April 2022, Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, issued an apology for what happened to the children of the First Nations in residential schools which were run the Catholic Church.
In July 2022, Pope Francis travelled to Canada where he repeated his apology to members of the First Nations.
His apology in Canada used stronger words than his apology made while he was in Rome. His first apology used the word “deplorable.”
His apology made in Canada used the word “catastrophic” to describe what happened in residential schools.
Obviously, the recent apology made by the Catholic Church is not mentioned in the film We Were Children which was released in 2012.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
78 percent = IMDb
100 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
Twenty-two user reviews of this film are posted on IMDb. Here are some examples. In each case, I will mention the headline and the rating offered:
70 = Informative
80 = An important film. I had no idea
80 = Heart-breaking
100 = Very important heart-wrenching movie, with painful truths
100 = A must watch to understand recent history of Canada
100 = Must See Movie!
100 = Authentic and heart-breaking
100 = For the first time in my life I’m embarrassed to be a Canadian
100 = Every school & church should show this
On Amazon there are at the moment 183 ratings of this film; 100 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
I understand the numerous positive reviews and I agree with them. The story of the residential school system is an important chapter of Canadian history.
This dark chapter of Canadian history deserves to be told. And in this docudrama, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and video
Pour toi, Flora
English title: Dear Flora
A historical drama which premiered in 2022
A miniseries with six episodes
This fictional story about children in residential schools is inspired by a series of real events
Rating on IMDb = 83 percent
Little Bird
A historical drama which premiered in 2023
A miniseries with six episodes
This fictional story about children in residential schools is inspired by a series of real events
Rating on IMDb = 80 percent
# 2. Books
A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879-1986
By John S. Milloy
(1999 = first edition)
(2017 = second edition)
Residential Schools and Reconciliation:
Canada Confronts its History
By J. R. Miller
(2017)
Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Reconciliation
By David B. MacDonald
(2019)
# 3. Items available online
Erin Millions & Ian Mosby,
Canada’s Residential Schools Were a Horror,
Scientific American
01 August 2021
Antonio Voce, Leyland Cecco and Chris Michael,
Cultural genocide: The shameful history of Canada’s residential schools mapped,
The Guardian
06 September 2021
Anderson Cooper,
Canada’s unmarked graves:
How residential schools carried out ‘cultural genocide’ against indigenous children,
CBS News
06 February 2022
The Associated Press,
Pope Francis issues an historic apology for ‘devastating’ school abuses in Canada,
National Public Radio
25 July 2022
Temitayo Olarewaju
Residential school system recognized as genocide in Canada’s House of Commons: A harbinger of change
The Conversation
11 January 2023
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