The Indigenous Literary Studies Association met at UBC last month. The full program is here. It was great to see Daniel Heath Justice, Tenille Campbell, and Deana Reder. The event was structured in a way where we had a lot of opportunities to talk to each other so I was able to meet new people too such as Alexa Manuel.
This is the first time that I was able to attend the Indigenous Literary Studies Association's Annual Gathering. I really enjoyed the experience of being in a room with people who also love Indigenous literature. They told me next year it is in Eastern Canada. I do not like time changes so I'm not sure whether or not I will go. But I will definitely keep an eye out for future events in Western Canada.
I presented as part of a panel on The Future of Indigenous Literary Ethics. My contribution was Dystopian Dreaming: Indigenous Speculative Fiction as a Pedagogical Technique and my speaking notes are below. I hope to turn my presentation into a paper someday. My mom also came which was awesome.
After we were done at the conference, my mom and I went with my dad to Jericho for lunch. It was a beautiful day.
Last month I also did a panel presentation on Centering, Celebrating, and Supporting Indigenous Workers which you can read about here. The event was at McMaster in Ontario. When I leave Vancouver for a few days and come back, I like to do something Vancouver-y to shift my mind and reconnect me to this place. In this case, my Vancouver reconnect strategy was to go to a movie at International Village. I'm not sure why, but International Village often shows Indigenous movies which are not playing elsewhere. I think of it as the unofficial home of Indigenous film in Vancouver. I like it because it's easy to get to by transit. And Pappa Roti is just around the corner,.
I didn't know anything about At the Place of Ghosts Sk+te'kmujue'katik before I went. The poster looked interesting and I like to keep up on Indigenous cinema so when I saw the poster I knew I had to see it.
The first part of the show establishes the main character (Mise’l) working in this city. He suffers some kind of skin ailment and has an interaction with a malicious ghost. He tells his boyfriend he has to go home and his boyfriend wants to come to meet his brother but he says no.
He goes home and his brother lives there. His brother has a daughter and lives with their aunt. Mise’l gets a cold reception from Antle when he arrives. Really, this sibling disconnect is the heart of the horror. The ghosts are the backdrop to this central tension.
Mise'l tells Antle they have to go to the cave because a developer is going to develop that area of the forest. Antle says he does not want to go. But Antle is also suffering from the skin condition and his daughter almost gets drawn into the forest by the malicious ghost.
They meet with an advisor before they go. They pack a canoe and begin to travel up the river but an incident causes a canoe crash and then there is a giant wolf and they barely escape with their lives and have few supplies.
Mise'l is gathering firewood and he returns to their fire. We see Antle's face and it has an expression on it which is confusing to read. He is looking straight ahead at something and it's hard to know what it is because we as an audience can't see it. Then we get Mise'l's facial expression when looking at what Antle is looking at, and it too is an expression of shock. Misel sits down beside Antle, and across from them are two boys. One of the boys hands over half a sandwich, and one of them accepts it and begins to eat. They eat in silence, looking at each other.
Maybe it was the time change, but this scene wrecked me. Probably because its called the place of ghosts and so here we have these youth who are ghosts. Even though they are young, they are taking care of Misel and Antle. But there is also something in the air which is vulnerable. When Antle opens the door for Mise'l earlier in the movie, he is so hard towards him. But now, they are on this joint quest and sharing this strange experience of eating ghost sandwiches after a canoe-wreck. I think that maybe this scene moved me because it was such an accurate emotional representation of fighting with a sibling while also being eternally connected to one's sibling.
The scene was slow and careful. It was laden with some kind of subtle and disturbing grief, yet also incredibly tender. If you are watching this movie and this scene moves you, you will find the rest of the movie gripping. If this scene does nothing for you, you might not enjoy the rest of the movie as much as I did.
It turns out (massive spoilers ahead and trigger warning for child abuse) these two ghost youth are Mise'l and Antle when they were younger. Through flashbacks we learn that when they were younger, their father was very abusive. Their body language in these scenes communicates overwhelming sadness. I think it was Mise'l's stepfather (but I can't really remember and I don't take notes at the movies). Antle is younger. Mise'l suffers particular cruelty. There is a scene where the father drives the boys to a field. He tells them to get out of the truck. He sets up a target. He has a gun. He tells Mise's to stand in front of the target. And then he gives the gun to Antle and tells him to shoot. The terror the boys are experiencing is palatable. Antle hesitates and there is a sense that both of the boys are in danger. Antle accidently shoots the father. Mise'l tells him it's not his fault. They wash up in a creek. And then they drop the body in an underground cave.
Later in the movie, they talk about why they became estranged as adults. Both of them carry guilt, one thinking that when the other looks at him, he makes him sad and the other thinking that his presence causes guilt. As youth, they saved each other. But they could not process the painful event that they had to go through in order to save each other, so they became estranged. But even in their estrangement, each was trying to save the other by drifting away. In the process of going and finding this body and putting it in a lake (I think one of the ghosts told them that they had to put the body in a lake but I don't remember why) they reconcile with each other and make peace with their past.
There were a lot of cool elements of the show that I am skipping past here, including a futuristic forest house, time travel, colonial warfare, and a giant wolf. For me, sibling estrangement was the horror, and sibling reconnection was the thing I was waiting for. I don't think I have ever seen such an emotionally intense portrayal of sibling love on screen. I could not have expected that this would be such a ride. It was novel and well done.
This movie is also visually beautiful. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen. The film did a good job of transporting us to this magical forest.
- Grave Tone, a horror podcast, did an excellent job of reviewing the film while also providing some context about some of the underlying themes in the movie. The episode is 51 minutes long and is a great deep dive if you have time for a deep dive.
- The Queer Gaze did a shorter 14 minute episode which is also a great listen. They review At the Place of Ghosts and also recommend a Māori horror called Mārama. Mārama is not playing near me and is not available to watch at home yet, but I put an alert on my phone so that I will know when it is available to watch at home.
