Biography about Tom Wilson. Storyline includes reenactments of unidentified Indigenous men who showed him where the locations of Lake Louise and Emerald Lake were. Also includes the real Tom Wilson, Pat Brewster, ca. 1932.
Notes
16mm film copied to digital file May 27, 2021: mp4; .mov and .mxf.
Former 08.3 W69 V DVD copy was from a VHS copy.
Although they could not be conscripted, when World War II was declared, thousands of Canadian Indigenous men and women elisted and fought alongside their non-Indigenous countrymen. While they fought for freedom for others, ironically the Indigenous soldiers were not allowed equality in their own country. As a reward for fighting the Canadian Soldier Veteran's Settlement Act allowed returning soldiers to buy land at a cheap price. However, many of the Indigenous solders were never offered, nor told about the land entitlelement. Some returned home to find the government had seized parts of their own reserve land to compensate non-Indigenous war veterans. With narrator Gordon Tootoosis providing a historical review, Indigenous veterans poignantly share thier unforgettable war memories and their heailing process. We join them as they travel back to Europe to perform a sacred circle for friends left behind, but not forgotten,in foreign grave sites.