Big winner

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This article was published 28/06/2024 (500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Little Bird, the series exploring the effects of the ‘60s Scoop on one Indigenous family, won 13 awards at last month’s 2024 Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto, making it the highest-awarded TV show in CSA history.

The show, filmed entirely in Manitoba with a largely local cast and crew, was accompanied by a 90-minute companion documentary, Coming Home/Wanna Icipus Kupi, directed by local filmmaker Erica Daniels, which also received the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program.

“Little Bird’s win is a testament to the series’ emotionally resonant script, engaging storytelling, polished production and affecting performances of the cast as well as the grit and passion of the crew,” says Jess Dunn, 40, who worked alongside 18 other producers to bring the show to fruition.

“As a Manitoban, I’m especially happy about what this recognition means for the local cast and crew who worked on Little Bird, the communities who welcomed us into their spaces and to our local film production community in general.”

Told in in a six episodes, the series shines a light on the malicious and racist government policy that resulted in an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families and communities and shunted into the Canadian child welfare system between the late 1950s and ’80s in order to assimilate them into western society.

The series was co-created by showrunner Jennifer Podemski and playwright Hannah Moscovitch, who realised their vision after more than five years of development.

The story is of Bezhig Little Bird who, together with her two siblings, was forcibly removed from her home on the Long Pine Reserve in Saskatchewan.

The children were separated and Bezhig was adopted by a Jewish woman in Montreal, her name changed to Esther Rosenblum.

Viewers meet the adult Bezhig at her engagement party where, after overhearing a callous remark from her future in-laws, she is spurred to embark on a journey to discover what happened to her birth family.

The action unfolds along two timelines — one in 1968 and the other in 1985 — and exposes the injustices perpetrated against First Nations people to a wider viewing audience, many of whom were unaware of the destructive policies which continue to impact the community to this day.

There is a moment in one episode where viewers see Bezhig and her siblings dragged from the arms of their mother by two social workers into an RCMP vehicle.

The children’s father arrives in the nick of time and tries to save his family but is instead beaten to the point of near-death by two police officers.

The reality of the moment, laid bare in visual form, is a tough watch. The show is filled with scenes like this; some dramatic, others quietly devastating, all of which leave a lasting effect on the viewer.

“It’s easy to tune out facts and figures or to have negative opinions but seeing the actions happen, seeing children taken away from their parents, you see something for what it really is. Making the story personal helps open minds, it helps with understanding what the ‘60s Scoop was. Little Bird was about taking the stats and showing a very human story,” Dunn says.

“That is what really resonates with people. We are still getting letters and emails about the show. We recently got a letter from someone in Germany and there are church groups and Jewish groups across North America that are studying it.”

Shot from April to July 2022 in various Manitoba locations including Selkirk, Brokenhead First Nation, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and Winnipeg, the TV show was helmed by a crew who were mostly from the province. As well as nabbing Best Drama Series, Best Direction in a Drama Series and Best Lead (Darla Contois as the adult Bezhig/Esther) and Best Supporting Performer (Braeden Clarke Leo Little Bird) as in a Drama Series, the show also won a host of technical awards.

“Jennifer and Hannah were able to assemble an Indigenous-led, mainly female key creative team with their collaborators Zoe Hopkins and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers to tell an engaging and entertaining story based from true events in our shared history that has inspired awareness, understanding and compassion among audiences in Canada, the U.S., Australia, France, Germany and Spain,” Dunn says.

The series will be be distributed to educational institutions with streaming rights purchased by the University of British Columbia, Confederation College and Université du Québec. According to Dunn, the educational distributor is currently in talks with school boards to help inform a launch in high schools across the country.

Little Bird premièred on Crave and APTN last year and is now available on a number of streaming services including Prime and Apple TV.

av.kitching@freepress.mb.ca