Where the Spirit Lives
1990In 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.
Acted in
Michelle St. John
as Komi / Amelia
Kim Bruisedhead Fox
as Anataki
Marianne Jones
as Komi's Mother
Gus Chief Moon
as Ka - moos - ee
Clayton Julian
as Pita / Abraham
Margaret Cozry
as Grandmother
Marge Fox
as Anataki's Mother
Ann-Marie MacDonald
as Kathleen
Sean Mulcahy
as Priest
Sam Malkin
as Mr. Crawford
Doris Petrie
as Miss Weir
Chapelle Jaffe
as Miss Appleby
Tina Louise Bomberry
as Asst. Supervisor #2
Barbara Wheeldon
as Matron
John Friesen
as Mr. Babcock
Heather Hess
as Rachel
Cynthia Debassige
as Esther
Franklin Doss
as George
Darlene Shilling
as Rose
Margaret Martina
as Sarah
Sarah Williams
as Ruth
Patricia Collins
as Mrs. Barrington
Graham Greene
as Komi's Father
Rudy Medicine Crane
as Rachel's Mother
David Hemblen
as Reverend Buckley
Ron White
as Taggart