Certain groups of humans on the globe do not really know about Mother Church. More often than not, historians emphasize the white narrative evidence when chronicling an occurrence, allowing people of color to be overlooked. Many outsiders, including members of the First Nations, are unaware that the government took away thousands of Indigenous children from their homes and put them in boarding schools run by the Church. Sugarcane overcomes self-imposed data boundaries. The so-called Indian problem is a form of segregation and the aim of it was to superimpose alien culture but it can never be practiced efficiently and therefore domestic abuse without shame or responsibility made these establishments schools of darkness nurturing the roots of evil.
For example, consider St Joseph’s Mission in Williams Lake, British Columbia (which was closed in the year 1981). The documentary strives to defend itself alongside its own faculties former students and anthropologists while reproducing every detail of wrongdoing to recurrent and systematic violence directed towards one particular group for centuries. At this moment of perspective-shattering event, any person of rational disposition completely loses touch with reality and is left completely ignorant to scope of the events.
The efforts of the two directors, Kassie and Noisecat (who, together with Ed and his grandmother, are the stars of this documentary) to reconstruct the histories of these people, serve as not only a backdrop but are crucial to the narrative of oppression of these people along with the media coverage of the violations and blatant disregard of the Native American identity. Skeleton remains of children have once again sparked the “sugarcane” led investigation of the school, adding to its controversies.
The dedication to detail and the profound care Kassie and Noisecat have while forming and narrating the events involving St Joseph’s Mission and its repercussions are astonishing. The story however, depicts and works as a case for the intergenerational trauma rather than a single file in a legal case; it does give an insight on the site of the events, ranging from untold oppression, witness to mothered children being violently rejected by the workers to a systematic integration of constant evil. The mentioned abuses committed before the children were ever enrolled in the school do not end there. There are contemporary problems derived to be associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, and severe addiction which are highly found in the community. The film gave us the statement “indigenous school children are still dying while developing and so are the schools.”
“Sugarcane” does an authentic portrayal of real emotions, The loss of Noisecat’s father, and the plethora of family Suicides, The case studies conducted by Belleau and Spearing have a real and cruel influence on them and are deeply influenced by Canadian law enforcement. The history behind you once accepted, tends to get vague and un-meaningful.
It is the responsibility of the parties that were subject to reparation to make sure that seeking redress is undertaken. This action, however, is very much more declarative than restorative as is the case with the meager words of apology by Trudeau, and the hollow act of kindness expressed by Pope Francis which comes completely devoid of an apology, reparations, and custodianship of the artifacts.
“Sugarcane” is an emotional bomb, and it is greatly powerful as it encompasses spoken words of memories and instances where there wasn’t enough space to talk that resonates with equal weight. And when the perspective of the cultures of the communities provides the backdrop of a great expanse of land and a rich auditory background of the culture the pain of the tragedies is tempered with the joy of a wonderful culture that endures.
The movie is unencumbered with a central idea of social institutions with a focus on the repressive history. The ironic element is accentuated even more as in the instance where the song “I love you” transcends into a folk tune, Sugarcane bursts forth and highlights how rather their priorities are more emotional how to save and heal what now remains of the previously intact communities.
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