Wab Kinew: Film Analysis

1. The film brought up various issues such as the difficulties in preserving the indigenous culture throughout the years, and the lack of knowledge that Canadians know about the indigenous people and the historical events such as the sixties scoop, Residential School. When Wab Kinew is presented at the podium, he begins to speak in numerous indigenous dialect, he then explains to everyone that he wanted to make a statement to prove that “the architects of the residential school era failed in their attempt to wipe out indigenous language and culture.” (Kinew, 2016). Residential schools are one of the many historical incidents that affected every indigenous tribe, Wab Kinew mentioned that in one of the Environics studies “33% of all Canadians

The main purpose of this film is to educate the viewer on the experiences that the indigenous people had to go through. While there are many schools that are acknowledging the indigenous tribes, it was not like this in the past. When I went to school, my teacher gave us a vague description of the indigenous culture, it wasn’t until I enrolled into the social service work program that I began to learn the horrible treatment that the indigenous people had to go through. As I mentioned earlier, many indigenous are living in third world conditions, “The median income for aboriginal peoples is 30% lower than that of non-aboriginal Canadians and showing very little improvement over time. “(Hick, 2014) the history of Colonialism left the indigenous people in such a horrible state and the indigenous people had to work to rebuild their culture without receiving help. I also believe that the main purpose of this film was to provide the viewer with the knowledge and perspective of an indigenous person. The attendees in the video, as well as the viewers, had to pleasure to listen to Wab Kinew talk about how his father tried his best to preserve his culture when he talked about the priest getting out of his car and beating Wab Kinew’s father because he was singing a song from his culture or when Wab Kinew father recorded a DVD explaining many aspects to the indigenous culture, at the end of the DVD, his father ends off by saying “To my decedents, this is your language, these are your

I personally believe that this film was being shown in class is because there is not enough publicity on the indigenous people and the events. From my past experiences in the public education system, I did not learn that much about indigenous tribes until I started this program. I found it surprising that something huge such as the Indian act of 1867 or the residential schools were not discussed in the education system. I also believe that the film was shown in class to dispel the belief about Canada being fair to everyone, indigenous people received as much racism (Hick, 2014) I also believe that this film is being shown in class because, while we are on the topic of lack of publicity, there are many social issues happening all throughout the world in which the indigenous people fit into such as housing, employment, mental health. Because many indigenous people are living in third world conditions, one of the factors as I mentioned earlier was employment, not being able live healthy conditions and not being able to provide for themselves and their families. With the talk of mental health becoming more common, many people do not realize that the indigenous go through many mental health issues. We learned in class that Indigenous teen suicide rate was higher than non-indigenous Canadians. I believe that to gain that knowledge, many people first must familiarize themselves with the indigenous