How can we recognize you if we don’t know who you are? 

This was the message received by members of the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation (AWN) when they began to engage with the Government of Canada to press their rights as a First Nations people. 

This was a bitter irony, given that the Indigenous communities that make up the AWN had suffered nearly a century of eviction, harassment, and callous disregard at the hands of that same government. 

Undaunted, the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation came up with an innovative and unquestionably positive solution: provide us with a small pot of funding, they said, and we will produce a documentary film to tell you who we are. The result is the ambitious and deeply moving film Resilient: The Aseniwuche Winewak Story. 

Produced by the majority-Indigenous-owned CIA Solutions from Grand Prairie, Alberta, the one hour and 20-minute film traces the history of the Indigenous people who live in the Grande Cache region from precolonial life in the Jasper region, through the disruption of the fur trade, forcible eviction from Jasper National Park, abuses during the industrial development of the Grande Cache region and reconnection with a sense of collective identity and pride. 

For those unfamiliar with Canada’s ongoing colonial legacy, Resilient is an eye-opening reminder of the recency of Canadian history’s darkest chapters. In weaving its narrative, the film shows that the displacement and degradation of Indigenous communities was not a historical event, but a campaign sustained over decades and even centuries. 

The film opens by recounting how a trend in European fashion kicked off the fur trade, which in turn led to dramatic changes in human activity in the upper Athabasca valley. From this emerged a new and diverse community of Indigenous, Metis and European people living traditional, indigenous lifestyles in the area now know as Jasper National Park. The creation of the Jasper Forest Reserve in 1907 was achieved in part by the forcible eviction of these families, with four remaining “homesteader” families being evicted in 1910-11. 

Many of the families evicted from the Jasper Forest Reserve moved north to the area now known as Grande Cache. The journey was arduous in the extreme, unfolding over two years as the families cut trail for their horses and cattle. 

Once established in the Grande Cache region, the community found itself once again subject to colonial harassment. Outfitters like Jasper legend Donald “Curly” Phillips petitioned the Government of Canada to remove Indigenous families who he accused of depleting economically-valuable game animals. This effort was unsuccessful, due in part to the voice of Forest Ranger James Shand Harvey, who advocated against the removal of Indigenous families. 

In the late 1950s, the industrial development of the Grande Cache region began in earnest with the opening of the McIntyre Porcupine Mine, which was followed by the construction of a townsite, a lumber mill and Highway 40. The film depicts this period as yet another major disruption for the Indigenous community, whose traditional lifestyles were once again upended. Traplines were destroyed by logging activities, gravesites were destroyed by highways and women were abused at the hands of industrial workers. The highway brought with it an inflow of alcohol and drugs, which were followed in lockstep by family violence and suicide. 

In spite of these sustained hardships, the film’s final stanzas adopt a guardedly optimistic tone. Unrecognized by the treaties, the Aseniwuche Winewak Nation addressed their community’s land and housing issues with the creation of cooperative housing “enterprises” in the 1970s. These were followed by formal establishment of the AWN in 1994. The community has since launched an industrial services corporation (the Aseniwuche Development Corporation), an environmental services corporation (the Aseniwuche Environmental Corporation), a “one stop shop” human services centre (the Tawow Centre) and a school.  

While vexing social problems persist—including the unacceptable lack of potable water in the cooperatives—interviews with young community members convey hope for a more collaborative future. Gestures like the Jasper Museum and Historical Society’s 2017 erection of the “Kokum” (grandmother) statue, which depicts Aseniwuche Winewak elder Lucy Wanyandie, signal to the youth that Canadian society is moving toward recognition and reckoning with the colonial legacy. 

Resilient takes on the ambitious task of laying out a long and complex history of movement, struggle and, as the title suggests, resiliency. At times, the narrative thread can be hard to follow, but the core themes of the film ring throughout. The experiences of the Aseniwuche Winewak through nearly a century of colonial displacement and harassment have forged a collective identity that is deserving of recognition. The film makes clear the imperative for the Canadian government and Canadian society to reckon with this legacy so that the dreams and aspirations expressed by the youth of that community can be fully realized. 

DOUG OLTHOF// thejasperlocal@gmail.com