Michelle Thrush, left, and Michael Greyeyes in Tasha Hubbard's Meadowlarks.Elora Braden/Supplied
Canadian documentary filmmaker Tasha Hubbard has spent more than two decades capturing Indigenous experiences, winning awards and accolades along the way. Nevertheless, when longtime producer Julia Rosenberg approached her with the idea to adapt Hubbard’s 2017 documentary Birth of a Family into a narrative feature, she hesitated. Would she be able to find the heartbeat of a new – if not wholly unrelated – form?
“I just was nervous to try. You are like, ‘Okay, I know how to make documentaries. I’m getting better at it all the time. I have these great stories that come to me,’” says Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Singing Back the Buffalo), during a video interview, of her hesitation to move into feature filmmaking.
Birth of Family premiered at HotDocs eight years ago and told the story of four Indigenous siblings, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben, who had been taken from their families as part of the Sixties Scoop. While the larger Canadian public is becoming more aware of the many ways Indigenous peoples have been disenfranchised, they are still largely ignorant about the dark chapter of Canadian history where an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children were removed from their homes by child welfare authorities. Over a three decade period, many were placed in foster care or adopted out to non-Indigenous families.
The documentary captured the four siblings meeting for the first time, to piece together their shared history and mend a broken bond. It stands on its own, says Hubbard. It’s a portrait of a family that went through a terrible experience and remains in the present moment of their coming together.
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Meadowlarks takes a more metaphorical approach, while expanding the story. In it, four Cree siblings Anthony (Michael Greyeyes), Gwen (Michelle Thrush), Connie (Carmen Moore) and Marianne (Alex Rice) meet for the first time, after being separated as children. A fifth sibling George (Lorne Duquette) declines to join. Now in their fifties, they come together to spend a weekend in Banff, to reconnect and contend with their past, present and future. Each sibling becomes a representation of the vastly different experiences of Indigenous children taken away from their families.
“Some were adopted as labour, some abused. Some who had love, and some who didn’t. What happens when all of that intersects, when those experiences that these people have had come together? I was curious to explore that in a fictional space,” says Hubbard.
Her own experiences as a survivor of the Sixties Scoop informed both projects. Hubbard calls herself fortunate. She was adopted into a loving family. Her adoptive mother helped Hubbard find her birth family when she was in her teens. When she began a relationship with her birth family, she discovered they were steeped in the arts, leading her to wonder about her own place in it. At the time, her birth father took her to Edmonton’s Dreamspeakers International Indigenous Film Festival, introducing her to luminaries such as Tantoo Cardinal and Gil Cardinal.
Meadowlarks tells the story of four Cree siblings who meet for the first time after being separated as children.BOAF Films/Supplied
An adoptee himself, Gil advised Hubbard to seek out her own history for others to learn from. That spark of inspiration eventually led Hubbard to work on the CBC miniseries Big Bear (1998), where she first met Greyeyes. A deep friendship grew between them, and they kept in touch as each of their careers evolved. When Hubbard started to sketch out the character of Anthony, the eldest of the four siblings to come together, she had Greyeyes in mind.
Tall, with a regal bearing, Greyeyes is an imposing figure in film and TV today, with a long list of credits including 40 Acres, Rutherford Falls and Blood Quantum, playing characters known for their stoicism and toughness. Anthony’s vulnerability was a novel trait for Greyeyes.
“I’m cast because of the way I look. I’m a big Cree guy from out west, and I play a lot of tough guy,” he says. What was incredible about Anthony, he adds, was that “he was a big guy who was actually a 10-year-old boy inside … He was very fragile in a way, extremely vulnerable. I think it’s important to have those kinds of characterizations out there in the world.”
To play the role, Greyeyes had to find ways to shrink himself, physically and emotionally. Hubbard helped him understand Anthony, who was based on a boyfriend she once had.
While Meadowlarks draws from a painful past, it’s ultimately a celebration of Indigenous joy and family. Shot in 21 days against the scenic backdrops of Golden, B.C., Banff and Calgary, the film follows the siblings as they navigate through a complex web of emotions while they wander around as tourists in unfamiliar settings.
In a way, it’s just like any other family drama, says Greyeyes. But the film asks its audience to do the work of learning Indigenous histories rather than expecting to be spoon fed context.
“Indigenous artists are looking forward, to the future,” he says. “We’re asking people to just catch up. Come with us, but do your work.”
Canadians don’t know their Indigenous histories usually because of a purposeful failure of the education system, says Hubbard. She doesn’t judge audiences who don’t know these stories and resists the expectations of teaching moments.
Each sibling in the film becomes a representation of the different experiences Indigenous children take away from their families.Courtesy of BOAF Films/Supplied
“I didn’t want to include a mini history lesson. I want people to come right into the stories, right into meeting these characters, and figuring it out. Who are they? Why are they here? What do they want? The same with any movie, right,” she says.
“I want people to come away with some knowledge, for sure. But really, I just want people to see themselves in us … because families are always challenging for different reasons, and yet worth it.”
Meadowlarks opens in theatres Nov. 28.
Special to The Globe and Mail