Who Were the Ones?

Who Were the Ones?

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This short film was created by a group of Indigenous filmmakers at the NFB in 1972 and is essentially a song by Willie Dunn sung by Bob Charlie and illustrated by John Fadden: "Who were the ones who bid you welcome and took you by the hand, inviting you here by our campfires, as brothers we might stand?"

The song expresses bitter memories of the past, of trust repaid by treachery, and of friendship debased by exploitation upon the arrival of European colonists.

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Who Were the Ones?, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell
  • producer
    Denis Gillson
  • executive producer
    David Bairstow
  • animation camera
    Cameron Gaul
  • editing
    Dennis Sawyer
    F. Whitman Trecartin
  • re-recording
    Jean-Pierre Joutel
  • animation
    John Fadden
  • music
    Willie Dunn

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