Whenever we talk about the vast indigenous history of this land, talks of oppression, exploitation and cultural marginalization end up taking center stage overshadowing so many diverse aspects of the indigenous communities within Canada.
Stephanie Joline, when directing and co-producing her freshly released CBC documentary series ‘Women of This Land,’ took a different approach to telling indigenous stories to showcase the incredibly diverse cultural practices and history of indigenous women in Atlantic Canada, through the lens of four indigenous women embedded in the Atlantic Canadian provinces.
The 4 part series was released on March 8th in celebration of International Women’s Day and is now airing on CBC Gem online for free access for registered users as part of Season 24 of CBC’s ‘Absolutely Canadian’ series. Stephanie was happy to share her words with The Muse on the series and I was lucky to be able to interview this amazing director.
Inspiration from identity
I asked Joline about her inspiration behind this series. She was candid, “I love collaborating with women, I’m very much a feminist and I love working with other women and lifting each other up, and I love working with indigenous people so, doing a docuseries about inspiring indigenous women in Atlantic Canada just seemed like a dream job.”
Being born and raised in Nova Scotia with her mother being an indigenous woman from Labrador, Stephanie brings that spirit of belonging to her work.
Telling a different perspective on the indigenous story
When asked about media representation in Canada of indigenous people, Joline replied “In general growing up in Canada, I rarely saw indigenous representation on TV. The only things I’d generally see are, stereotypes, of the old wise native man in the films of the missing and murdered indigenous women’s stories, or fisheries dispute – that was it.”
“I didn’t see all the joy and fun and you know, different aspects of the culture and this docuseries, I think, would be a refreshing change of scene from that,” she added.
Joline was optimistic about structural changes in Canadian society and media going towards diversity, saying “I think for representation in Canada in general, things are getting better. I always tend to look at government funding and where they’re going and, I noticed that within the last 15 or 20 years the funding especially in the arts and culture sector is going more towards diversity. It’s almost a ‘trend’ where they want more diversity now and I hope it continues to be that way. I hope it’s more than a passing fad.”
Highlighting new voices
I asked Joline about the difficulties of making it in the media industry as an indigenous woman. Looking back at her own experience, she mentioned, “Through my career, I would get very annoyed coming from a low-income background, seeing that when diversity started becoming trendy, people started posting stuff like come be a shadow director or something and, it’d always be unpaid. So, if I’m already privileged enough to not have to work for a living, I can come into your set and work for free. They would always make it sound like oh aren’t we doing a great thing and I used to be like on principle, I’m not applying to any of these…… On this series when I started pitching it I made it clear that we are going to bring an aspiring indigenous filmmaker on every shoot and we’re going to pay them.”
She was optimistic about the changes in the landscape as well, adding, “There’s more space for diverse voices now than there were before so, it’s getting better, always. There are gatekeepers and maybe you could argue that there always needs to be some gatekeepers, but when the gatekeepers do care about bringing fresh new voices you’re like phew.”
Lessons learned
Joline emphasized the role of humility in having a better glance at indigenous communities and their diverse cultures. “We have such a history where our stories, women’s stories, are written by men, the same with people of colour, their stories being shaped by white people or indigenous stories being written by non-indigenous people. There’s always been this outside point of view on other people’s cultures, and so now being able to get into the culture and telling an inside view from authentic voices feels good. I have humility about it, though; even though I’m from an Inuit background, I cannot walk into any indigenous community and pretend I know everything. I have to approach it in a humble way and learn more about their culture from them.”
She also added, “It was just amazing, to see these women being so passionate about their communities. The remarkable moments, there were many, you know, being surrounded by these amazing women.”
To watch ‘Women of This Land’, visit: https://gem.cbc.ca/absolutely-canadian/s24
To learn more about the series, visit: https://womenofthisland.com/
We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.