Francis Grandmont

In a series of playful portraits, Líl̓wat children and youth go about their daily duties at the community’s summer camp outside Mount Currie, B.C. Infused with a sense of love, togetherness and pride, this short documentary is a remarkable visual archive of a Líl̓wat community through the beautiful faces of their young people. This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge.

François Néwashish was the only one in his family from the Atikamekw community of Manawan not to go to residential school. He recollects a story of hunting with his father and how the spirit of the partridge protects children.

Through a series of still images, the bright, inquisitive and beautiful faces of the children from the Atikamekw community of Manawan are seen at play and at rest.