Amid a global pandemic and the lowest salmon run in Canadian history, Returning Home runs a thread between the lingering trauma of residential schools and the looming threat of extinction of the Pacific salmon. Secwépemc filmmaker Sean Stiller follows the founder of Orange Shirt Day, Phyllis Jack Webstad, on a cathartic nationwide educational tour; meanwhile, her family struggles to heal multigenerational wounds at home in Secwépemc territory, where a multi-year federal fishing moratorium threatens the social fabric and way of life of their community. Much like the calculated extermination of the prairie bison that so many Indigenous peoples relied on for survival, we're witnessing history repeat itself. Sharing teachings of how to begin to heal and live in harmony with our natural world, Returning Home illuminates a path to reconciliation, if settlers can listen and learn.

Screening with Runs Through Their Blood: A Life Impacted | D: Helen "DJ" Pyette | Canada | 22 min | 2021
A collaboration created entirely by Weengushk Film Institute students, and the first student film to be shown on television, this short film explores the intergenerational effects of the residential school system.

Tickets: FREE for everyone

In recognition of National Truth and Reconciliation Day, this screening is offered for free with a suggested donation to the Hot Docs-Weengushk Film Institute Fund. 100% of donations collected will go directly to the school to support its important work.