Where the Spirit Lives ( 1990 )

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.

Top Cast

Michelle St. John

Komi / Amelia

Kim Bruisedhead Fox

Anataki

Marianne Jones

Komi's Mother

Gus Chief Moon

Ka - moos - ee

Clayton Julian

Pita / Abraham

Margaret Cozry

Grandmother

Marge Fox

Anataki's Mother

Ann-Marie MacDonald

Kathleen

Sean Mulcahy

Priest

Sam Malkin

Mr. Crawford

Doris Petrie

Miss Weir

Chapelle Jaffe

Miss Appleby

Tina Louise Bomberry

Asst. Supervisor #2

Barbara Wheeldon

Matron

John Friesen

Mr. Babcock

Heather Hess

Rachel

Cynthia Debassige

Esther

Franklin Doss

George

Darlene Shilling

Rose

Margaret Martina

Sarah

Sarah Williams

Ruth

Patricia Collins

Mrs. Barrington

Graham Greene

Komi's Father

Rudy Medicine Crane

Rachel's Mother

David Hemblen

Reverend Buckley

Ron White

Taggart