Democracy Now!: “Sugarcane”: Oscar-Nominated Film Explores “Colonial Silence” Around Indian Residential Schools StoryMarch 04, 2025 https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/sugarcane

Hot TopicsDonald TrumpElon MuskImmigrationUkraineGaza2025 Oscar NomineesClimate CrisisAbortionSyria2024 Election “Sugarcane”: Oscar-Nominated Film Explores “Colonial Silence” Around Indian Residential Schools StoryMarch 04, 2025 Watch Full ShowNext Story ListenMedia Options Related Topics Guests Links We speak with Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, the co-directors of the Oscar-nominated documentary Sugarcane, which examines the legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada. For over 150 years, these government-funded and church-run boarding schools forcibly separated First Nations, Métis and Inuit children from their families in an effort to destroy Indigenous languages, cultures and communities. The schools were rife with physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and many children did not survive. In 2021, a First Nation in British Columbia found evidence of 215 child-sized graves on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, setting off a nationwide search for more possible gravesites. Kassie and Brave NoiseCat would document the painful search for answers at Saint Joseph’s Mission, the residential school where Brave NoiseCat’s own relatives had been sent and near where his father was born and abandoned in a dumpster. The film explores “the colonial silence that exists in our broader society about this history” and how it has “seeped into the lives of the people who had survived it,” says Brave NoiseCat. This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today. Donate Related Story StoryJun 08, 2023 “Airpocalypse”: David Wallace-Wells on Red Skies, Raging Wildfires & Pollution Link to Climate Crisis Topics CanadaIndigenousRacism Guests Julian Brave NoiseCat co-director of Sugarcane. Emily Kassie co-director of Sugarcane. Links “Sugarcane” Please check back later for full transcript. The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us. Daily News Digest Our Daily Digest brings Democracy Now! to your inbox each morning. Email Most popular 1 Cory Doctorow on Elon Musk’s “Chaotic Blitz” at DOGE, Living in a Tech Dystopia, Luigi Mangione & More 2 Musk Adds to Federal Workers’ Confusion with New Ultimatum 3 Wayback Machine Saves Thousands of Federal Webpages Amid Purge of Government Data Under Trump 4 Child Dies from Measles in Texas as Disease “Comes Roaring Back” Amid Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Non-commercial news needs your support We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Please do your part today. Make a donation News Home Daily Shows Columns Web Exclusives Topics Democracy Now! About Events Contact Stations Get Involved Education Jobs For Broadcasters Editions English Español Follow Daily Digest RSS & Podcasts Android App iPhone App Get Email Updates Email Democracy Now! is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Please do your part today. Make a donation