Hamilton-based Lost Heritage Productions is pleased to announce the broadcast premiere of Red Road, a new one-hour documentary about one mans search for identity, aired on LifeNetwork.ca, Saturday, August 28, 2004, at 10 pm ET*.
Where does a bricklayer, raised on British afternoon tea, who speaks some Italian and counts among his ancestors the great Sioux leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, begin the process of piecing his life together? Barry (Whitecap) Hambly was born in 1967 on Carry The Kettle First Nation in Saskatchewan. When he was four, his mother, Darlene Whitecap, ran from the reserve and an abusive relationship, taking Barry and his three siblings with her to Regina, 100km to the west. A victim of alcohol abuse, the 24-year-old mother would soon lose her children when social agencies intervened. This era, known as the Sixties Scoop, saw thousands of aboriginal children adopted into non-Native homes. Some children remained in Canada while others were sent to the U.S. and around the globe. While some have called it assimilation, many claim the scoop era to have been a cultural genocide.
Despite a loss of his aboriginal heritage, abuse from one foster family, and the emotional scars from being shuffled through 10 foster homes, Hambly considers himself one of the lucky ones. He was eventually adopted at the age of nine by Maggie and Don Hambly, a couple of British descent living in Hamilton, Ontario. Struggling through his adolescent years, chased by the ghosts of his past, Hambly landed on his feet after a tough love decision that saw him thrown out of his adoptive home at age 18.
Successful in the Hamilton construction business today, Hambly began his search for his birth parents and his cultural identity when an aboriginal person called him an apple—a slang expression referring to someone who is red on the outside, white on the inside.
Red Road shadows Barry Hamblys journey, returning to Saskatchewan to confront his past and meet his birth mother. After my first call to her, I knew that one day I would have to meet her face-to-face, to help me deal with the anger and answer questions I have had all my life.
The First Nation word waka refers to walking a spiritual path in search of ones origins. Barry Hambly has taken the first step down that road, the red road. Finding the way home is not always easy.
Red Road is produced by Lost Heritage Productions in association with Life Network, and with the financial participation of the Canadian Television Fund (CTF). Copies of this film are available for Institutional and private viewing.
Distribution copies are available from our web site at:
http://novamulti.com/red_road.htm
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Kill the Indian, Save the Manby frybreadqueen200835,330 views
<3 <3 stories of our children
oniedaman2 1 year ago