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Indigenous Success Stories
Series
This is a true Story of human weakness and strength in triumph.
OPENNING SCENE:
We SEE a mother in a living room, sitting on a couch wailing with her child sobbing while a SOCIAL WORKER from the Ministry of Social Services slightly strains as he follows his instructions to remove the child, at the age of 3, from the home to take him to residential school.
The young boy cannot hear or understand and is very confused by all this activity. He was born disabled with being deaf, club feet, showing and an additional mental disability. The situation is very distressing to Bill as he recognizes that he is being wrenched from his mother and his family. Bill is too young to yet realize that his life would not be his own.
INFO ON THE DOCUMENTARY:
This documentary is based on MY TRUE STORY of my tragic upbringing as a young boy that sadly represents many Canadian Aboriginals, who until recently knew life only as a ward of the state. Their fate was decided not by their families or by themselves, but by those in authority.
I want to bring this story to life because is not as uncommon as you may think as many Aboriginals did not grow up with their families and endured inadequate foster care. Others grew up in remote communities, with isolation, depression, poverty, substance abuse, inadequate medical care and almost no emotional support. Indigenous stories are but a few of the hardships endured by members of this community right across Canada. Often these children were moved forward in school despite their inability to fully understand their studies, only to get them out of their classroom so that the teachers did not have to deal with them any longer.
The documentary reflects on my memory of being abused, alone and constantly chastised by people I never really knew. I often wondered why these things are happening to me.
Throughout my childhood, doctors and various specialists were of the opinion that I would need personal care the rest of my life, because of my disabilities. They believed I would never finish school because I was, in their words at the time,”a retard, stupid, and crippled.” If this wasn’t enough, the boy was even rejected by most of his peers at school.
“This is a story of Triumph”
However, this is also a story not only triumph, also success, overcoming the odds. Finally meeting his actual mother at the age of forty, this boy met his mother for the first time at age 40 years old. Despite all odds, Bill received his diploma, brought justice to a serial predator, and starts a career in the motion picture industry and starts his own production company. He meets a woman who becomes his wife of 23 years.
On November 22, 2012, Bill was asked to address the Senate Committee from Ottawa in Vancouver, BC to talk about the Human Rights of Aboriginal People of Canada.
Today the young boy, now a man, acts as an advocate for those families that are about to kick out their children, and stop them from doing it because he believes no child should be kicked out at a young age; he has been doing that now for 39 years, as well as advocate for First Nations people in court, probation, police, and other social service agencies.
As strong as these recurring themes are, equally enduring are the stories of success and triumph over adversity that are particularly prevalent amongst today’s generation. A growing number of First Nations people, like this boy, are continuing through high school, and ever-increasing numbers are in college and university. Also, as equally importance is there are more and more First Nations people that have quit alcohol and drugs like this boy who is now a man. Oh, by the way he is on his 39 year of sobriety.
Possible scenes within the documentary that reflects back on several pointed memories of my past.
1. This boy remembers the fateful day when he kicked the school principal who was also the main priest in the shin with his over-sized shoes while at residential school. The man grabbed this boys arm out of anger and frustration, dragged him to the basement door, they lock eyes as the man gives his a look of pure anger, then pushes the boy down the basement steps. Principal runs down to grab the boy’s arm and puts him in a 5x5 cage and puts handcuffs on his ankle so he would not escape. The young boy believes an angel saved him from death as he feared that the man had intended to kill him. . Frighten and scared, the boy begins to whimper quietly as to not be heard. He wants nothing more than to be back with his family and crying inside, and upset that he is not with his family, and His silent anguish is hidden deep within the elements that make him who he is to become.
Due to multiple operations on his feet and the casts placed on both legs, his movements became restricted to him walking around like a zombie. Other children at his school bullied him by running into him in the hallway, knocking his books out of his hands and other pranks they all found funny. No one ever helped him pick his books up, not even the teachers.
1. Adding to his daily frustrations and fears, his late foster mother did not care about him either. It was obvious she would hit on the hands with a big oversized ruler if he dared to use his fingers to work out his math homework. She often referred to him in painful hurtful terms such as stupid, or an idiot. These actions only made the young boy more nervous about getting answers wrong or even trying to work out the problem.
His late foster dad was no better and did not protect him from any abuse. His late dad proved that he believed beating your child was permitted and encouraged, knocking him to the ground and punished only to be kicked out of the house at the young age of 13.
4. This young teenager now went for a sunny Sunday afternoon walk to reflect on his life. He stops after walking for two hours to rest on a bench. He sits there for a while and a van drove by, stopping to ask directions, the boy pointed in the direction the driver needed to go. The driver falsely acted confused and instead he stopped his van as the driver requested that this young teenager to show him how to get to his destination. The teenager agreed to help him out. What’s more enlightening is that this young teenager at the time he got kicked out of his late foster parents is when he first heard after multiple operations on his feet and ears.
Passing his destination, this young teenager became terrified. He did not understand what was taking place and where they were going. Finally parking the van, the man ordered Bill to remove his close or he would kill him. This young teenager frightened as it is, was equally afraid of jumping out of a moving van that he would die as a result. After the driver finished, he pushed this young teenager out of his van while still driving. But before he left fully this bright teenager was able to memorize the last three of the plate’s digits.
Not only did the young teenager make his way back to his place of residence, he was able to report the crime and helps identify the man eventually leading to a court hearing bringing the man to justice. What was shocking and disturbing was when this young teenager walked by the accused who said to this young teenager and I quote: “I did not kill you up in the mountains, but I will kill you when I get out”. This man got out with two years of good behavior of which this young teenager lived his life in fear of this man killing him.
This young teenager lived most of his life up until he was forty years old when he met his now wife. He told his wife what had happened and she said: “you’re the most courageous person I know”. He said to his wife that he needed to go up the mountains where this happened of almost getting killed. When they arrived this now adult person looked at where the van was and started shivering and sweating. He wrote a note earlier saying I forgive you and I let you go. This courageous adult reached into his pocket and looked at the van once more and the man that nearly killed him, as he reached his hand out he said I forgive you and I let you go. And as if this man’s spirit left this adult. From that time on this now adult live his life in piece and today this adult is now a filmmaker, advocate for the first nation’s people in court, police, probation and other social service agency.
As strong as these recurring themes are, equally enduring are the stories of success and triumph over adversity that is particularly prevalent amongst today generation. A growing number of First Nation people, like this now adult person, are continuing through high school, and ever-increasing numbers are in college and university. And a lot of First Nations people have doctoral degree.
This adult is working on the next series of Indigenous Success Stories series on those people that have quit alcohol and drugs. This adult is on his 39 year of sobriety and as he reflects on his sobriety, he remembers on one occasion that people were being negative on this adult like not believing he could do it, that he would be a drunken Indian the rest of his life. It got so bad that one day this adult decided he would take his own life by hanging himself. Again God was in control, there was a knock on the door and this adult slipped off the chair and the person knocking on the door was his A.A. sponsor. His sponsor had a feeling what was happening, so he kicked the door open and saw this young adult hanging. His sponsor took him down and held him in his arms and asked why he was hanging himself. The young adult said that there were more people against him, being negative about him quitting alcohol and drugs. That no one loved him, this young adult could not take it anymore and he wanted to hang himself. His sponsor said I love you, do you know who you are? The young adult said no. His sponsor said that you are going to go on helping people out of their situations of alcohol and drugs. The heck with what these people are saying about you, we’re always going to have these negative people, but the important thing is that you quit alcohol and drugs. You don’t have to prove to anyone.
The End
Hope you enjoyed this treatment and that it isn’t too over whelming. Are you ready to join us for all of our journeys, come join us?
admin@bgwfilmstudios.com, October 10, 2024, Campbell River, BC
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