Looking for Southern Alberta stories? Check out New Blood, a documentary currently streaming on CBC Gem. Directed by Adam Solway, New Blood is more than a documentary. More like a multimedia art piece, it is a small window into a decades-long storytelling process, as the core of this documentary started long before Solway, from the Blackfoot Nation, came on board.
His task was to document the story of a Theatre project called “New Blood”, running for ten years at Strathmore High School, which itself had been inspired by a trip to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. In 2014, Deanne Bertsch, a drama teacher at the school, visited Writing-on-Stone and was so inspired by what she learned about Blackfoot Culture, that she teamed up with Blackfoot language teacher Eulalia Running Rabbit, to build a Dance Theatre production.
Rabbit performing in the New Blood Dance Show.
The production, based on the experiences of Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman who began attending residential school at age five, dealt with the trauma and legacy of Residential Schools in the community. As the team was conceptualizing the project, Bertsch was given a copy of the album “New Blood” by English musician Peter Gabriel. Originally released in 2011, it was composed of orchestral re-recordings of selected tracks from Gabriel’s career, including the 1982 hit San Jacinto, inspired by tales told to him by a friend from the Apache nation.
It turned out to be the perfect musical backdrop to their project. Bertsch reached out to Gabriel in the hopes of coming up with the funds needed for music rights. To her surprise, Gabriel granted the usage rights completely free of charge. (The album, with its rich orchestral arrangements, dramatic theatrical tone, and lyrics specifically referencing Indigenous Plains culture, seemed perfectly tailored to the story being created in Strathmore. How could he say no?)
The still-running “New Blood” theatre show has been so meaningful to the community of Strathmore, that a documentary project was pitched. When Solway came on board to direct, he was not anticipating being granted the same music usage rights. “I thought, OK, that’s a cool aspect of the show, but I really had no expectations.” But Gabriel came through again to the surprise and delight of Solway who acknowledges that “it brings a whole other level to the film.” Solway has delivered a high level documentary, which captures the healing spirit of the theatre production while adding context and backstory for documentary viewers.
The story is captured through interviews with people involved in the theatre production, interspersed with re-enactments of the project for cinema. Instead of interviewing subjects one at a time, Solway places them together in dialogue, a key artistic decision which brings the themes of the piece to life. For example, by placing Chief Vincent in conversation with actor Hayden Yellow Old Woman, who is also his grandson, inter-generational trauma is illustrated and unpacked before our very eyes. Yet so too are we treated to scenes of caring and resilience through these interactions, reflecting the importance in Blackfoot culture of building and maintaining relationships as an active process.
from dance show co-creator Eulalia Running Rabbit.
While reckoning with the legacy of Residential Schools in Canada has entered mainstream discourse, for many decades survivors suffered in silence, passing without ever sharing their stories. Young Hayden speaks to his grandfather of a feeling of “knowing, but not knowing” the impact of the schools on his elders, and how the play helped him to understand on a deeper level, enabling him to grieve but also to find resilience.
New Blood is also notable for acknowledging the sometimes-overlooked experiences of “day scholars”; students who may not have been fully removed from their families and communities while attending Residential Schools, but who experienced many of the same physical and cultural abuses as those who were boarders.
The “knowing without knowing” is a common experience in Canadian society. Intellectually, the idea that these schools were destructive has reached mainstream discourse, but understanding the impact on an emotional level still faces resistance. “Why can’t they just get over it?” is a refrain unfortunately still heard in mainstream discourse, which does not take into account that acknowledging and talking about this dark part of Canadian history is absolutely critical to the process of “letting go” and “moving forward”.
Yellow Old Woman (right) participating in an interview for New Blood. Hayden was the first lead
actor in the New Blood Dance Show.
New Blood is a documentary that will speak to all people living in Canada, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. It captures the impact of the original “New Blood” theatre production, and succeeds in bringing its healing energies and conversations to a wider audience.
Dance Show. Featuring the artwork of George Littlechild behind her.
