Where the Spirit Lives

Overview

In 1937, a young First Nations (Canadian native) girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations children to abandon their culture in order to be assimilated into white Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment. Only one sympathetic white teacher who is more and more repelled by this bigotry offers her any help from among the staff. That, with her force of will, Ashtecome (forced to take the name Amelia) is determined to hold on to her identity and that of her siblings, who were also abducted.

Cast

Michelle St. John

Komi / Amelia

K

Kim Bruisedhead Fox

Anataki

M

Marianne Jones

Komi's Mother

G

Gus Chief Moon

Ka - moos - ee

C

Clayton Julian

Pita / Abraham

M

Margaret Cozry

Grandmother

M

Marge Fox

Anataki's Mother

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Kathleen

S

Sean Mulcahy

Priest

Sam Malkin

Mr. Crawford

Doris Petrie

Miss Weir

Chapelle Jaffe

Miss Appleby

T

Tina Louise Bomberry

Asst. Supervisor #2

B

Barbara Wheeldon

Matron

John Friesen

Mr. Babcock

About the Movie