Link for the film if needed: https://www.nfb.ca/film/nipawistamasowin-we-will-s

Link for the film if needed:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/nipawistamasowin-we-will-stand-up/.
Length: 500-600 words. (If you go slightly over the word count, that is acceptable as long as the
information is pertinent to the assignment.)
Format: Word Document or Google Doc
Double-spaced,
Font: size 12, Times New Roman or Arial.
MLA for quotations.
Follow essay standards of writing.
As you are watching the film nîpawostamâsowin: We Will Stand Up by Tasha Hubbard, I want
you to reflect on the intention, message, and importance of the film. Below you can find a few
options for guiding questions you can use for your written assignment. Please select one of
these questions to answer and use as a guide for your first written assignment.
1. What is the history of colonialism in Canada depicted in this documentary? Through
Hubbard’s documentary, what are the lingering effects of colonialism still experienced to
this day? Is Colten Boushie’s death a result of this troubled history? How so?
2. In the film we see mentions of the Indian Act, a Canadian parliament act established in
1876, and its repercussions to Indigenous populations in Canada. According to
Hubbard’s film, what did the Indian Act do? Thinking back on the work of Emily Carr and
her depictions of Indigenous traditions in Western Canada as a settler, living through the
Indian Act, what can you mention about how Carr can depict Indigenous practices and
artworks in a time where Indigenous peoples were forbidden to practice ceremony?
3. Two Part question: Historical Context of Colonialism, depicted in nîpawostamâsowin: We
Will Stand Up:
a. Part 1:
i. What were Indigenous people promised in the Treaties?
ii. What would settlers be given in return?
iii. Why did Poundmaker and Big Bear join the Riel Resistance?
iv. How did the resistance end?
v. What has been the impact of broken treaty promises on Indigenous
people?
b. Part 2: How do we still see the effects of these specific colonial actions enacted
in the region of Saskatchewan where the film takes place?
4. The film explores the many ways that settlers benefited from Treaties and colonial
policies when they arrived in Canada. Through these benefits, Indigenous lands were
confiscated and given to settlers for free or for a small fee. How would the tragic death of
Colten Boushie confirm settler fears of Indigenous people reclaiming land? What are
your views on the complexities of an Indigenous person being murdered on
settler-owned land taken away from their ancestors?
5. Going back to Redefining [Art] History by Marc Mayer, why, as people living in Canada,
is it important we watch Tasha Hubbard’s film? How does her film fit into the cannon of
Canadian art history? Based on Tasha Hubbard’s conversation in the Q&A we attended,
why was it important for her to create this film, as both an Indigenous woman and mother
to an Indigenous teenager? Why should films exploring the legacy of colonialism and
Canada’s violent history be taught in Canadian schools?
6. At the end of the film we see Colten’s sister Jade Tootoosis, Colten’s mother Debbie
Baptiste, and various council members speak to members of the Liberal and
Conservative parties in Parliament, however no solid action comes from this interaction.
Inaction speaks loudly. What does this say about Canada’s role in maintaining a
settler-colonial state? How has Canada’s historical enforcement of colonialism and its
continuation of it affect all of us to this day? How does Gerald Stanley’s acquittal point to
the failures in the Canadian justice system and how this system is in place t benefit white
Canadians?
7. When the police came to inform Debbie Baptiste of her son’s death they asked her if she
had been drinking. When there were talks with rural farmers concerned for their safety,
following the murder of Colten Boushie, many focused on talking if the kids that were
caught trespassing had been drinking or not, rather than on the death that occurred.
How do these narratives promote harmful anti-Indigenous stereotypes? How do these
stereotypes promote a dehumanization that allowed this case to be treated more as a
theft than as a murder?
8. Question for settlers: What are our roles and responsibilities as non-Indigenous people
living in a settler colonial context? What was significant about the conversation Tasha
Hubbard had with her grandfather at the end of the film, when speaking about the death
of Colten Boushie? Thinking about Hubbard’s reflection on this conversation in the Q&A,
how can conversation and awareness function as a tool to better educate our family
members on colonialism’s lasting legacy and Canada’s role in the violence against
Indigenous people?