We are happy to announce that the Shawanaga Healing Centre will be co-presenting a very special additional presentation!

Rhonda Snow will share the story of the return of the Ojibway Spirit Horses with the aid of her beautiful paintings which were inspired by the Elders drumming and a song by Andrea Dyer from Chippewa on the Thames First Nation. Afterwards the group goes outdoors to meet and pet the ponies.

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is a confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. The film is a moving story of Robertson’s personal journey, overcoming adversity and finding camaraderie alongside the four other men who would become his brothers in music and who together made their mark on music history. Once Were Brothers blends rare archival footage, photography, iconic songs and interviews with many of Robertson’s friends and collaborators including Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson, Ronnie Hawkins, and more.

Building on a career spanning six decades, Robbie Robertson continues to create as a songwriter, producer, performer, actor, author and film composer. As a half-Mohawk, half-Jewish kid from Toronto, Robertson would travel from the dives of Yonge Street to the deep South as an ambitious 16-year-old on a musical mission. His raw talent would thrust him into the spotlight and put him at the centre of a cultural revolution, backing Bob Dylan on his notorious 1966 “electric” world tour and later, as a member of The Band, collaborating with Dylan on the ground-breaking Basement Tapes and inventing Americana with songs like “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” After 17 years, The Band called it quits with a lavish farewell concert on November 25th, 1976, at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, immortalized in the seminal concert film, The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese – considered by many as the greatest rock and roll film of all time.

Watch the trailer

Documentary, 91 min.
(Auditorium, public, Grades 7-8, and high school)

Directed By Slater Jewell-Kemker

YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE takes us inside the rise of the Global Youth Climate Movement. Slater Jewell-Kemker was 15 when she began documenting the untold stories of youth on the front lines of climate change refusing to let their futures slip away. Over the course of 12 years and set against stunning visuals of a planet in crisis, YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE follows the evolution of a diverse network of youth rising up to shape the world they will live in.
YOUTH UNSTOPPABLE premiered at Michael Moore’s invite only Traverse City Film Festival, going on to screen at dozens of festivals around the world and garnering thirteen awards.

(Auditorium, public, Grades 7-8, and high school)

Horses on site!

Classical Horn Musician with the Winnipeg Symphony, Ken MacDonald performs with Anishinawbe storyteller and singer Jodi Contin to share the survival story of the little known Ojibway Horse. That Ojibway Horse lived among the Anishinabek prior to contact and, until recently, was close to extinction. The horses are now being cared for by Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members who opened their hearts and minds to these special horses. Following the performance TJ Stables will be on sight with some of the rescued Ojibway horses for audience members to meet.

Watch the trailer for The Mentor

(Auditorium)
The Mentor: Shared Knowledge, Short film, 5 min.

Directed By Gail Bannon

The Wiigwaas Jiimaan (Birch bark canoe) is deeply rooted within Anishinaabek cultural identity and tradition, connecting people to the water, the land, and each other. Beginning October 7th, the newly created youth collective known as the “Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth” c/o Georgian Bay Biosphere, hosted an immersive 20 day Wiigwaas Jiimaanke. GBAY team members, Dawson Bloor and Kyla Judge, will be sharing about their experiences building and launching the Jiimaan into the waters and what their vision for the future holds.

Watch the trailer

(Auditorium, mature audience)
Short film, 15 min, Biskawbiyung: The Return

Directed By Sage Petahtegoose
Sacred song by Shelley Charles

Jim Dumont is Onaubinisay (Walks Above the Ground), an Ojibway-Anishinabe of the Waubezhayshee(Marten) Clan. He is a 5th Degree Midewiwin of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, originally from the Shawanaga First Nation on Eastern Georgian Bay. Since 1970 Jim has pursued the cultural and spiritual roots of the traditional Anishinabe Way of Life. From 1974, this pursuit has involved him thoroughly in the exploration, participation and learning of the Ojibway-Anishinabe Midewiwin Tradition, which has resulted in the achievement of 5th Degree Midewiwin, sweatlodge rites, ceremonial leadership, and traditional-teacher responsibility. Jim (Onaubinisay) has been “raised up” as Chief at the Eastern Doorway of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, and as such, is the keeper of the sacred Waterdrum and leader in the Eastern part of Anishinabe Midewiwin Territory.

Since 1975, Jim has been professor of Native Studies at the University of Sudbury of Laurentian University. He is one of the founders of the Department and served for four years as its Chair from 1984 to 1988. In his tenure there, he has created and taught courses in Tradition and Culture, Native Psychology, Native Way of Seeing, Native Education, and Issues of Indigenous Peoples in the International Context. He retired in 2000 after 25 years of professorship in Native Studies. Jim now teaches in the Indigenous Masters Program with the Seven Generations Institute.