Growing up in Yarmouth, Stephanie Joline was always aware of her Indigenous ancestry. The daughter of an Inuk mother and Acadian father, she was raised to be “very proud” of the roots she came from. That came, in part, from her maternal grandmother, who helped raise her.
“It was beading and drum circles since I can remember,” Joline says, speaking by phone with The Coast. “It was always in my life and in my culture.”
But what she didn’t see often were people who looked like her on television or in film. Or if she did, it always seemed to be the same story.
“The only time I would ever hear of [Indigenous people] was when it was about fisheries disputes,” the Halifax-based filmmaker says. Either that, or it was stereotypes “of like a wise, old Native man giving advice in a movie.” Limited roles. And seldom women.
That omission is the driving force behind Joline’s latest work, a four-part documentary series airing on CBC Gem as of International Women's Day, Friday, Mar. 8. Co-produced by Jessica Brown and Jackie Torrens, Women of This Land tells the stories of four Indigenous women from Atlantic Canada in their own words. It’s a story Joline has been wanting to tell for years.
“There’s so many awesome Indigenous women in Atlantic Canada—we could do, like, a million seasons of this show and not run out of people,” Joline says. “To me, it was just such a no-brainer.”
The series follows Inuk artist and teacher Jennie Williams; Lennox Island First Nation chief Darlene Bernard; L’nu poet, playwright and ecologist shalan joudry and Wolastoqey elder Opolahsomuweh (Imelda) Perley. The episodes delve into issues ranging from language preservation, to leadership, to land stewardship.
All of the episodes will be available to stream for free on CBC Gem.
Watch the trailer below.
