Carrier Sekani Family Services unveiled Stories of Hope and Strength, a powerful film series amplifying the voices of Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ2+ communities at the Prince George Playhouse last month.
The project hopes to change the narrative of the ongoing crisis of violence toward Indigenous peoples, sharing personal stories of resilience, healing, empowerment and hope.
Stories of Hope and Strength proudly launched its short film series on social media and writer director Johnny Ketlo’s Guardians of the Lost features the people of Nadleh Whu’ten as they share stories of love, loss and their hope for justice and the future. They embody “you are valued” by honouring families and loved ones and by highlighting the importance of each story and person who has been lost along the Highway of Tears.
Ketlo is from Nadleh Whu’ten, just past Fort Fraser on Highway 16, and he is from the Frog Clan.
“I’ve been a musician, a producer of music and music videos and I also work as a comedy stage hypnotist, and I’ve also done artwork for the Telus vehicle fleet and the First Nations Major Projects Coalition – so pretty major art projects,” Ketlo said.
Ketlo said he had also conducted elder interviews on film in the past.
“The Dakelh People are storytellers, that’s part of our culture, so I wanted to embrace that aspect of culture and bring the film, the art and music – all the things that I do – bring it all together for an important cause such as missing and murdered Indigenous women because we all have a family member or somebody close to us that has been a victim of these things,” Ketlo said.
“Because it lands so close to home, it’s important to tell the story and create awareness in the hopes that it will prevent bad things from happening and will proliferate healing and communication and people supporting each other more. I know that a lot of the trauma from residential school puts certain individuals in a place where they have walls built around their hearts and they cannot function in a loving environment that is copacetic for a happy life. They end up pushing themselves into bad situations and I feel like there needs to be way more attention is brought to healing that trauma and pulling those walls down so these folks can have well-balanced, loving and happy, healed, healthy families and relationships where they’re not going to deflect themselves into drugs and alcohol or into other bad situations and make themselves more susceptible to becoming a victim in some of these circles.”
Ketlo believes it’s important to look at these issues before more women lose their lives, he added.
“If a person can’t feel they are loved and they can’t feel love for themselves because when they were a little child and they brought forth their childlike love to the people they cared for they were abused and because of it they now put up walls,” Ketlo said.
“When they get older and find themselves in a loving situation they want to run from it because it triggers that past abuse even if it is loving. That causes a lot of pain and a lot of people are reeling from that pain even now – today – this day. It’s just not fair. I want them to be healed and I want them to be happy and I think that it’s not the pure cause of the missing and murdered Indigenous women but it is one of the circumstances that is probably an outlier of why some of it is happening. So there’s that as well. I don’t want to see it. These things, how it affects families, children, women and men, too, because men are watching their loved ones get hurt. As they come from a residential school background they usually also have some kind of hang up around emotional safety. If we could just work on those factors by supporting each other and recognizing them early and not blaming, not explaining, not judging but just coming at it by listening, seeking resolution, by building some accountability and just finding a way to get these folks what they need before they start spiraling into where they’re going to get hurt. Some of these ladies have spiraled into situations where they’ve been murdered.”
Ketlo said he’s not saying it’s purely because of residential schools but it’s definitely a factor.
“When people deflect from their emotions they may turn to drugs,” Ketlo said. “They may turn to a hard lifestyle and get into situations where they probably shouldn’t be. They’re not at home in a loving, safe, secure situation. If you’re deflecting and avoiding pain or you have walls built up around your heart and you’re not making good decisions it can put you in a vulnerable state where you’re more likely to trip up on that road and that’s just so dangerous for young women and we need to protect them. I want to make them feel protected, make them feel safe and secure. I don’t really know how to do that except to listen to their stories without judgment, seek to understand their emotions and feelings. To offer my support and hopefully with everybody’s support find a way of prevention and resolution so that people can find a way to be happy, heal and feel loved and cared for with dignity and respect so they can thrive.”
Ketlo offers some guidance to the viewers of Guardians of the Lost.
“Listen wholeheartedly with open ears and open hearts, come together for protection and strength, to heal and to prevent bad things from happening,” Ketlo said.
“You have to cherish the people that you love, while you have them because life is a vapour and tomorrow is not guaranteed. Hold your loved ones close. No matter what you’re going through, go find your family and be with them and love them. You only get one life. You can’t take anything for granted.”
To watch Guardians of the Lost from the Stories of Hope & Strength series visit www.youtube.com/Hope& StrengthGuardiansoftheLost.
