Waban-Aki: People from Where the Sun Rises

Alanis Obomsawin returns to her home village of Odanak, an Abenaki reserve south of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. In her lyrical portrait, she focuses on the community living there and their traditional culture of basket weaving and canoe building. She skilfully weaves the multifaceted history of her people with a critical reflection on contemporary identity and the so-called ‘status’ that legally defines indigenous affiliation. The colonial Indian Act stipulates that children of indigenous origin can lose their status – and thus their official rights – if their parents marry outside the community. A poetic portrait of the complex past and present of the Abenaki, who once inhabited large parts of what is now New England, the Canadian Maritimes and southeastern Québec. (M.G.)

Introduction Michaela Grill