Use the reflection questions to inspire your thoughts and feelings about the film. They are not meant to be homework questions that are taken up one by one, but rather prompts to conversation to help us locate ourselves in a new story.

(See a printable version below)

"You can create an apparatus so large, so rooted in the Indian Act that by its very definition it is a tool of oppression. I fear that, despite the best intentions of some officials, that's what happened..... they are unable to do it [respond in a just way]. Their own apparatus has handcuffed and paralyzed them". - Julian Falconer, Counsel for Nishnabwe Aski Nation

• Present reality: Colonization is often spoken about as though it is something of the past. In what ways has this film made it clear to me that colonization is very much the ongoing agenda of settlers and our governments; an atrocity of the present, not the past? Why is this level of injustice towards Indigenous children and their families able to continue to such a degree in modern times in spite of caring people like myself and others?

• Unearned Racial Advantage: In the above quote "apparatus" refers to institutions and bureaucracies rooted in white supremacy beliefs and colonial agendas. Not all of us are directly involved in the unjust decisions being made by the government and health care but ALL of us participate in, support, practice, benefit from, and teach the beliefs and practices that uphold the white supremacy culture that supports the unjust apparatus. In what ways am I supporting and sustaining the apparatus? In what ways am I, and other settlers, benefiting from the “apparatus" remaining unchanged? In what ways, am I actively opposing the unearned privileges I get from this corrupt apparatus?

• Connections: We often point to governments that are conceived, raised and sustained within a white supremacy culture to change themselves from within. As this film shows, the apparatus is more likely to change when people like you and I discover how we intersect with it, and then use our power to change the part of it we are connected to. In what ways is Unitarianism connected, supported by, and benefiting from the apparatus? Are there ways we as UU's have become handcuffed and paralyzed from taking real action to rectify colonial beliefs that have infiltrated our faith because we ourselves are steeped in a white supremacy culture? What tangible actions is my group or congregation doing to model the type of change we wish to see of our governments in terms of being accountable for injustices that are continuing towards Indigenous peoples?

• Reframing Narratives: This film was made by an Indigenous filmmaker. What differences do I see in the way she approaches the story compared to how a mainstream media outlet might cover the same type of story? How does the way Indigenous experiences are depicted contribute to or challenge the colonial "apparatus"?

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