Sovereignty and Resistance

This theme offers film excerpts on land claims, management of natural resources, ancestral rights and recovery of Aboriginal cultural artefacts. It also presents images showing the resistance of Aboriginal peoples to repression by non-Aboriginal culture.

Excerpts

Dancing Around the Table, Part One

Our Nationhood

Riel Country

Totem: The Return of the G'psgolox Pole

2003, Director: Cardinal, Gil

excerpt 2 3 min 29 s

Description
Questions

Help Preferences Fullscreen

Help

Internet connection

Each film on this site is available for viewing at low speed or high speed.

Low speed: recommended if your Internet connection uses a dial-up modem (56 kbps or slower). Low-speed viewing results in lower quality image and sound.
High speed: recommended if you have high-speed Internet (DSL, cable modem) or are connected to an institutional network. Viewing in high-speed mode may cause occasional jerky images and sound interruptions if the speed of your connection is not fast enough.

If you're not sure which speed to use for viewing the films, try high speed first. If the results are not satisfactory, switch to low speed.

Format

Films can be available for viewing in either Macromedia Flash or QuickTime. Image and sound quality are similar for all these formats.

Flash: lets you view the film directly in the Web page without launching an external application. Requires the Flash plug-in (download for free at Macromedia Flash Player).
QuickTime (alternative format): requires QuickTime, version 7 or more recent (download for free at QuickTime).

Closed captions (CC)

Translation of the audio portion of a film into subtitles, for example, dialogue, narration, sound effects, etc. These captions let hearing-impaired viewers read what they cannot hear. Closed captions are available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With closed captions (under Accessibility).

Described video (DV)

A narrated description of a film's key visual elements to enable the vision-impaired to form a mental picture of what is happening on screen. Described video is available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With described video (under Accessibility).

Description The Haisla people of Kitamaat Village are facing a dilemma. If they want to repatriate the G’psgolox pole, they have to comply with the Swedish government’s condition that it be kept in a museum. But this runs against their ancient traditions, whereby the totem pole has to be left outside so it can return to Mother Earth at the end of its days. Members of the community discuss the issues.

Questions 1. What aspects of the repatriation from Sweden of the G’psgolox pole still trouble the Haisla and Xanasiyala people of Kitamaat?

2. What compromise do the Kitamaat Elders struggle with regarding the conditions for repatriation of the G’psgolox pole from Sweden?

View Entire Film

About This Film

Short Description

In 1929, the G’psgolox, a funerary totem pole belonging to the Haisla people, was cut down and transported to Europe. It was discovered in a Swedish museum in 1991. The film recounts the efforts of members of the Haisla Nation from the village of Kitamaat to recuperate the sacred object.