By Jolene Banning

Returning Home – the first feature-length film by award-winning Secwépemc filmmaker and director of photography Sean Stiller – holds a mirror to both the horrific legacy of Canada’s residential school system and painful impact of a multi-year salmon fishing moratorium at the heart of a B.C.’s Fraser River First Nation community.

In the 72-minute documentary, the first produced by Canadian Geographic Films, Toronto-based Stiller’s focus is on creating thought-provoking dialogue and inspiring people to take real action.

The film is set to tour the festival circuit this fall beginning with a virtual showing at the Vancouver International Film Festival tomorrow (Oct. 1). It had its world premiere last night at the Calgary International Film Festival where it received the DGC Best Canadian Documentary Award.

The doc is loaded with beautiful landscapes and images few are privileged to see as its two threads show the interconnectedness of the violence and trauma caused by colonization in an attempt to sever our ties with the natural world.

Returning Home weaves the story of Phyllis Jack Webstad (pictured) working to heal from the intergenerational trauma of residential school while her people, the Secwépemc, fight to keep the wild Pacific salmon from becoming endangered or extinct.

“One story is the life and work of Phyllis who, you know, is the founder of Orange Shirt Day and a residential school survivor,” Stiller tells Playback Daily. “The other story is about the wild Pacific salmon, and they, like Phyllis and like the Secwépemc Nation more broadly, have suffered their own trauma, their own loss. Their numbers have been in pretty steep decline over the past few decades.”

Today (Sept. 30), the nation commemorates the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It’s a day to remember, to learn, to support survivors, their families and communities.

This time of year, Webstad says she is very busy educating schools and community groups worldwide, trying to make room for everyone, with barely a moment to reflect on what this day means. But the conversation, she adds, is impactful.

“I want Canadians to learn a bit more about the trauma of residential schools and the intergenerational impacts that are still being felt today in 2021 and also the state of our fishery and the environment. What can we do as individuals to make sure the fish always come up the river?” asks Webstad.

It’s a difficult, but much needed, dialogue to open the lines of communication, Webstad says: “So that Canadians will know the truth. This is not only Indigenous history, this is Canadian history and there’s no longer an excuse for not knowing what happened.

Stiller first met Webstad several years ago when he was back on his home territory for another project. He says had been doing some research on his own about the salmon when the two connected and the bigger picture became clear.

“Phyllis was actually working at the gas bar at the time, she was managing it, observing me and finally said, ‘Hey, I have a family fish camp that my family and I arrange every year and would you like to come.’ So I came and that was where the connection was initially made for me.”

Stiller witnessed first-hand the strong relationship between the salmon and the Secwépemc Nation. He says he was compelled to tell the story of the connection. Not only are the salmon an important food source that see the communities through the hard winter months, but the salmon and the land are what connects the people to their culture, to each other with gatherings, and land-based learning.

“I heard Elders talk about the salmon. We sing for the salmon, we talk to the salmon, like their kin, like their extended family. And it made me realize this is like a shared trauma, both human and non-human inhabitants of this territory have suffered the effects of colonization,” says Stiller.

Colonization threatens the land now more than ever with climate change, landslides that prevent the salmon from swimming upstream to lay their eggs, and animal waste from mass farms draining into the river. Marine biologists worry of extinction among particular salmon species.

For the original stewards of the land, the Secwépemc, the land and the salmon are as much of their identity and culture as their fingerprint is. The land is what gives them life and is needed for healing and for the future of all.

The film was funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Government of Canada. There are no distribution plans outside of the festival scene for now, according to a spokesperson for Canadian Geographic.

Jolene Banning is a well-known and respected Anishinaabe-kwe journalist