One Doc and One Series

Almost in tandem, I saw a documentary and a series on HULU (note: ad-free) where in the unseen world threads reach out to each other. I’ll cover the documentary today and possibly write up the FX series, “The Lowdown,” at a future time.

Last year, I heard about Sugarcane and put in a request for the local library to buy it. The request was denied. At that time I only knew it won prestigious awards but not what it was about. I assumed it was about one thing, but you know what they say about assuming things.

From the website:
SUGARCANE premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary, and has since garnered over a dozen awards. Acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films, SUGARCANE is in theaters now and will stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

You may be saying, Lisa, I can see why you wanted to see it, but what is it about?

from wikipedia:
Williams Lake Indian Reserve, also called the Williams Lake First Nation or the Williams Lake Band Reservation and commonly referred to locally as the Sugarcane Reserve, aka Sugarcane or The Cane or SCB, is an Indian reserve in British Columbia, Canada, located at the east end of Williams Lake and 12 km (~7 miles) east of the city of the same name on the right bank of the San Jose River, and is home to the Williams Lake First Nation. The band is part of the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council, also known as the Cariboo Tribal Council, which is one of two tribal councils of the Secwepemc peoples.

The Williams Lake Band has eight reserve landsites in British Columbia. The total area of Williams Lake Indian Band reserve land is 1,927.3, with the Williams Lake Reserve the largest at 1645.30 hectares.

Sugarcane is about residential school abuse of Indian children. Where the documentary comes in begins in 2021, when unmarked graves were becoming more widely known to be on the property of the school. The film takes a multi-faceted approach to the situation. Individuals with ground sonar equipment start scanning the cemetery area of the school. Historians and archivists begin sifting through records. Living members who were institutionalized at the school are interviewed. The director, Julian Brave Noisecat, begins a journey through time and space with his father and other family members who have a personal connection to the residential school.

Most of the readers are familiar with the U.S. and Canadian practices of trying to exterminate the cultures of First Nations peoples through various methods, including “legalized kidnapping” of young children, where they were vulnerable and victimized by the religious members charged with their protection, under the unholy guise of saving their souls. I’m not sure that smokescreen ever worked for anyone, but a lot of resources were put into genocide in its various forms. Sugarcane takes us there, and then it goes beyond, into what has been haunting me ever since I learned of it. There is no way I can know how those individuals who survive it manage to stay sane. Too many have never talked about it and it has eaten them up inside. It is hoped that shedding the light of truth upon the atrocities might help those who survived them get the support they desperately need. Most importantly, they need to know that their children and grandchildren need never fear what they withstood silently for years. Also, there needs to be restoration and compensation for the harms that were caused. There needs to be public apology. It literally is the least the Catholic Church can do. Those abusers still living need to be criminally charged and held responsible for their actions, and I don’t care how old those f***s are. Let them wither in prison until they die.