Wilfred Buck: star maps and ceremony
Anishinaabe filmmaker, Lisa Jackson's new film about the life of Wilfred Buck
While the world of politics and social media spirals into chaos I reflect that January in Anishinaabe tradition is Minado Giizis (Min-ah-doh Gee-zehs), Spirit Moon, an apt time to launch a film about the triumph of spirit over chaos.
Gary and I met multi-disciplinary film-maker, Lisa Jackson, when she was working on her mind reordering multi-media installation, Transmissions, which was presented at the Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre in the Woodward Building in Vancouver in 2019.
Lisa’s latest film, Wilfred Buck, is
a hybrid feature documentary that looks to the night sky and one man’s life to tell a story that spans generations. Our guide is the wise and irreverent 65-year-old Wilfred Buck, who’s been called the Indiana Jones of Indigenous star knowledge. NFB
Wilfred is an Ininew Dream Keeper. Based on his book, I Have Lived Four Lives, the film incorporates recreations of Wilfred’s mesmerizing Star Maps and traces his personal healing journey from residential school survivor to leader of Sundance ceremony.
Wilfred Buck recently launched on Crave, one of many partners in producing the film. The National Film Board is another partner; you can access it at this link, NFB. It’s free for community groups (or perhaps a gathering of friends).
This photograph was taken by my grandfather at a time when the Canadian government had outlawed all Indigenous ceremony in a disastrous attempt to assimilate Indigenous people into white culture. Some situations do improve, as Wilfred Buck demonstrates.
Transmissions Expanded is also worth a deep dive. It’s an online portal to educational materials related to Lisa’s Transmissions art installation.
Language creates reality. Nothing makes this idea more radically, physically apparent than Lisa Jackson’s new installation Transmissions. Dorothy Woodend, Listening—to Languages, Trees and Time, The Tyee, 19 Sept. 2019
“Transmissions invites us to untether from our day-to-day world and imagine a possible future. It provides a platform to activate and cross-pollinate knowledge systems, from science to storytelling, ecology to linguistics, art to commerce. To begin conversations, to listen deeply, to engage varied perspectives and expertise, to find our place within the circle of all our relations.” Transmissions Expanded website
Lisa’s film production company is Door Number Three Productions
Thank you Ingrid.
Lisas work is for the future as well. Remaking.
Indeed
you really must check out the transmissions material. Lise recorded elders from across Canada telling stories in their own language of how the language itself shapes a world view, and how Indigenous languages are inherently different than English because they are verb based rather than down based.