Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer

This documentary can inspire research, discussion, projects and deeper learning about the Tlingit and photography. How have advancements in digital photography and social media brought about by First Nations people contributed to education, truth telling and the dismantling of negative stereotypes? What are traditional laws and how did colonization and policies, such as the Indian Act, disregard First Nations laws that governed lives for tens of thousands of years? What has been the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual impact on First Nations when it came to settler notions of progress? What were the impacts on families who were forcibly removed with no sense of compassion for their way of life and inherent land use? What can be said about the attitudes, beliefs and ethics of the soldiers and wives who desecrated burial houses and hibernating bears? What is self-government and why do First Nations have the right to self-govern? How did illness projected upon First Nations extend beyond the physical to include fractured spiritual, emotional, and mental health and well-being?