A filmmaker is setting out to create a documentary about the operation of Indian boarding schools. Ivan MacDonald, born and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, is directing an investigative documentary called "Breaking the Silence" to bring the stories to a national audience.
Brianna Juneau reports - watch the video here:
MacDonald said telling these stories is a personal mission: "As a Blackfeet person, as a Nitzatapi person, I feel telling our narratives is such an important, important thing."
Beginning in the late 1800s and well into the 20th century, Indian boarding schools sought to assimilate Native children by separating them from their families, languages, and cultures. For many Indigenous communities, the effects are still being felt generations later.
MacDonald said the film addresses growing threats to how these histories are told and remembered.
He explained, "You know, it's a system that's had a long standing effects on Indigenous communities. One of the big things we're stressing in the film is kind of this censoring or kind of this, rewriting of history. There was a lot of things at the national level. There was a lot of things kind of in relation to these boarding school narratives which are under threat. And so we think that's such an important part of the story and why it's so timely."
MacDonald hopes the documentary will not only educate audiences, but encourage them to listen to Native voices.
"I hope that people realize that Indigenous communities have given the resources and power can actually really tell these important and timely stories."
The documentary, currently in production, is expected to debut as a short film later this year.
MacDonald said his goal is to ensure future generations know these stories and the people behind them are never forgotten.
"I just keep stressing that, like, the importance of understanding that these narratives are kind of under threat and under attack. Telling them now to hear in the now from the communities and voices who are experiencing them is of utmost importance."
