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GwaaG_anad (Diane Brown)

About

07 June 2018

8447 views

Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

"What would we do if we couldn't speak Haida and we couldn't talk to our ancestors? That would be the scariest thing. But that will not happen now, I believe whole heartedly with the film and the 12 women that are going to be teachers."

"When we first started in Yaan, it was just coming out of people, their lines, they were coming easy. And I said to Leo from Ottawa, 'It's as if everybody knows the lines already.' And he said, 'We probably already said them, thousands of years ago.' And I thought about it and then during the film it was easy to feel like you were in the 1800s. With the old village, and speaking just Haida, and being on a canoe in front of an old village."

"My biggest hope would be for the rest of the world to see mainly our connection to Haida Gwaii, to the land, how deeply we are connected to the ocean, to the land, to the sky. Everything depends on everything else."

"More than once it took me back to before contact. The feeling we most have had – the wonderful feeling. It has happened briefly before that you get the feeling how our ancestors lived. But when you live out in Yaan for a month, you felt it, as well as everything else. You felt the presence of our ancestors. You felt how we must have felt landing on a canoe into a village. It pushed us way ahead."

Interviewer: Dana Moraes
Camera and Edit: Graham Richard

 

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Duration:

16m 14s

Uvagut playlists (3):

2021/06/14, 2021/07/07, 2021/07/22

Tukisigiarviit: Language

    • 14m 48s

      K'uyaang (Benjamin Young)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      'I'm Alaskan Haida.'

      'I have kind of an extensive language background. I've been either learning, documenting and teaching language for a little over a decade.'

      'I'm a functional speaker.'

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 15-06-2018

    • 20m 15s

      Jaahljuu (Graham Richard)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      'This particular script came to us very gradually. Very organically.'

      'The script is based, or inspired by, traditional Haida stories.'

      'Our story is definitely fiction but it's based in reality.'

      'We went over and over and over that script so many times.'

      'We consulted a lot.'

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 14-06-2018

    • 7m 58s

      G_uud Yuwans (Willie Russ)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      ‘I was born and raised in Skidegate’

      ‘I actually submitted a 50-pages story that I’ve written a long time ago. And that was too long and they wanted me to write something else but I didn’t get a chance to write anything else.’

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 12-06-2018

    • 5m 21s

      Guustlaas (Trey Rorick)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      "I thought it would be a really good experience learning how to speak X̱aaydaa Kil [Haida] and I thought it would be fun"

      "It's so culturally involved and an inspiration for other Nations to do it."

      "I think most people here would probably watch it by private showings."

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 07-06-2018

    • 6m 59s

      Oot Iiwaans (Leo Gagnon)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      "The language was easy; it was remembering that was the hard part"

      "I'm a carver and I make carving tools for local carvers"

      "I do a lot of weaving, a lot of hunting and fishing"

      "This [knife] if similar to what was used on the film. Made by me."

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 07-06-2018

    • 11m 32s

      SG_aan Kwah Agang (James McGuire)

      uploaded by: clairelittoncohn

      channel: Language

      Interview with Dana Moraes and Graham Richard

      “Of course I’m interested in any kind of thing that pushes Haida culture into the new centuries.”

      “[Atanarjuat] portraits real authentic story from the Nations it was from. It kind of gives you an idea about of how you can represent your culture on the screen.”

      Uqalimakkanirit

      uploaded date: 07-06-2018