S-Yéwyáw Awaken

Directed by Liz Marshall
Bullfrog Films & Elders Films Inc. (2023)
91 minutes

Review by Norma Marshall

Liz Marshall’s documentary film, S-Yéwyáw Awaken, focuses on First Nations children who were forcibly removed from their homes to attend the residential schools in Canada. The film opens with a gathering of Native people with the group leader asking each person to imagine “broken bricks . . . that will never fit together again . . . to imagine the bricks falling to the ground . . . to walk away is to decolonize . . . to listen and to feel is to Indigenize.” The leader explains that the shattering of systems creates space for the natural way of knowing to rise. Native people seek the Creator for strength, healing, and encouragement. We sit together in a sacred way, and you are welcome with open arms.

Throughout the film, one can see orange shirts with the slogan “Every Child Matters.” Native people commemorated Orange Shirt Day on September 30, 2024, to remember the children of the residential schools and to recognize Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The documentary shows the determination to bring about healing from the past and to bring healing to today’s generation. In many Native American tribes, historical trauma leads to purpose and traditional healing and wellness. Of special importance is traditional training and leadership through the elders and into prosperity through the wealth of healthy children.

In the film, a young man asks an elder and chief about the gifting of the drum. The elder explains that the drums and regalia had been abolished by the government’s Indian agents. He encourages the youth to learn how to carry the drum and to revive the things lost for many years through the very spirit that was taken away along with the children of the residential schools.

First Nations people look to reconnect to the land and the energy of the land. For example, canoeing connects the canoe family to the land and ancestors. A young man asks an elder and grandmother for teaching to awaken the canoe and how the youth can be caregivers of the canoe paddles and the people. The elder and grandmother speak of the totem and the Creator—the great mystery— that helps them to be humble and true to ancient faith. She mentions the Red Road to the encampment of our fathers across the “River of Hope.”

Residential schools in Canada are synonymous with the boarding schools in the U.S. The federal government in the U.S. looked for ways to terminate, exterminate, desecrate, and assimilate. The U.S. federal government used the concept “kill the Indian, save the man” as the solution to the “Indian problem.” But we have always been here. We hold aboriginal title, and we hold this land in common.

Later in the film, a young woman meets with another chief to develop a program called “Coming Home for the Children” that seeks to connect them to the land. The chief explains his experience fasting while in a cave under a waterfall. The purpose was to release pieces of oneself from childhood that we do not need to carry anymore, and to forgive atrocities that happened to the children, as the heaviness will stick with the person. First Nations people lived through Canada’s child welfare removal system and now call back all that was taken from them, including songs and the children themselves. It takes a lifetime to heal from the trauma.

One segment in the documentary shows an elder and grandmother who advises a young man to ground himself before becoming a teacher, clarifying that he is a tool and that he should work to make himself a better tool. Another person highlighted in the documentary recalls the abuse of young boys that continued even after they left the residential school. During a court hearing, attorneys offered him an out-of-court settlement of $1 million. He tore up the check.

Today, Native people still encounter atrocities against their young people. The national attention given to the repatriation of the remains of the children who died at the residential schools has been positive and promising. We cannot remain silent any longer. We must educate the young children and the youth to be aware and to not allow history to repeat itself. S-Yéwyáw Awaken illuminates that healing and cleansing begins when we return to our humble beginnings.

Norma Marshall (Muscogee) is a senior faculty member at the College of the Muscogee Nation.