I'm well into research and writing on the representation of aboriginal
subjects in English Canadian television series, anthology and specials and
a Quebec colleague is looking at the same area in French for Radio-Canada.
The early results look like we will have a touchstone for some of the
cultural differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
 
The CBC's Where the Spirit Lives has been sold to many countries and shown
on PBS. It's about native residential Schools run by the Church in the
1930's and one young girl's resistance. Has anyone among our 417
subscribers seen it? Comments!. It also raises issues of cultural
appropriation (no native writers, producers or directors, but made with
wide consultation and with a native cast.) It's been repeated on the CBC
four times.
 
For you Canadians -- anyone remember the half hour anthology Cariboo
Country (1960-67), the only Canadian Western, shot in the Chilcotin, set in
the 1960's, not the 1880's and completely distinctive -- not an inflection
of the TV Western that ruled the airwaves, but a whole other species. Any
comment? You may remember Education of Phyllistine - a one hour special
from that anthology that won prizes abroad, exposure on the BBC et al.
 
Others from that period included Wojcek's "The Last Man in the World", Don
Williams Death of Nobody (Winnipeg to the CBC net), Riel (GM presents - 2
parts) and Phil Keatly (Producer of Cariboo) producing and significantly
shaping The Beachcombers which introduced the native character Jesse in the
pilot and kept the motif of Salish/white interaction for 19 years.
 
Another cluster is very recent --  Loyalties, Divided Loyalties, Justice
Denied, Spirit (above) and Conspiracy of Silence: The Helen Betty Osborne
Story.
 
Comments Anyone?
 
P.S. re p.c. Post Oka documents from specific "nations" like the Kwkieulth,
of North West Coast BC use "aboriginal", "first nation", "first peoples",
"native" and "indian" in the same paragraph. Indian is however not normally
used by most of the native peoples themselves. Usage and self-perception is
in flux up here. In Quebec Amerind is widely used.
 
Mary Jane Miller
 
Mary Jane Miller
Dept. of Film Studies, Dramatic and Visual Arts
Brock University
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
L2S 3A1
 
Phone (416) 688 5550, ext 3584,  FAX (416) 682 9020, e-mail
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