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Poundmaker's Lodge: A Healing Place

Directed by Alanis Obomsawin
Canada, 1987 (documentary, 29 minutes, English)
Also known as "La Maison Poundmaker : la voie de la guérison"
Poundmaker's Lodge: A Healing
Place
Image: © National Film Board of Canada

Film Description:
"Poundmaker's Lodge, named after a nineteenth-century Native leader, is a treatment center in St. Albert, Alberta, where Native people troubled by addiction to drugs and alcohol can come together for mutual support, to partake of healing rituals like the sweat lodge, and to rediscover their traditions. The film places Native alcoholism in its historical and socio-cultural contexts. It shows the despair of a people dispossessed of land, culture, language and dignity, and their strength and courage in overcoming substance abuse."
-- National Film Board of Canada (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by: Alanis Obomsawin
Produced by: Alanis Obomsawin, Marrin Canell, Robert Verrall, Andy Thomson
Film Editing: Rita Roy
Music: Shannon Two Feathers, Dario Domingues
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada
(sources)

Quote about Poundmaker's Lodge: A Healing Place

"It is tempting for filmmakers from minoritized groups to offer positive images as a corrective to negative stereotypes. But this strategy appeals to and reinforces the very value system that oppresses. Instead of this conservative approach, Poundmaker's Lodge historicizes the introduction of alcohol by European explorers and fur traders 'not as a social drink but as a poison,' a tool for facilitating the misappropriation of land and resources. While settler-colonial society by turns condemns or laments alcohol and drug addiction among Indigenous people, it continues to benefit from its ravages."
-- Richard Fung (source)

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