If you have read any of the new stories about the mass unmarked graves unearthed recently in former Canadian Residential Schools, you will already be slightly familiar with the horrors depicted in Indian Horse - a harrowing tale of assimilation, abuse, and survival.
Far from the feel good hockey movie you may expect stumbling upon this film on Netflix, Indian Horse is a powerful revelation of past trauma and grief. It is not an easy watch, but certainly an important watch. Telling the tale of a precocious First Nations hockey virtuoso who finds solace on the ice only to have his sole means of escape turn into a nightmare itself, Indian Horse realisticallyreminds fans of the sports movie genre that love of the game can only heal so much.
Sometimes, as we see with Saul's courageous endurance, victory is bigger than pucks and ice rinks. Sometimes, it is simply returning to your roots and reconciling with the hauntings of the past. This is an important film. Please watch it on Netflix, and then enjoy our discussion. An even more in-depth and edifying conversation, with the highly esteemed Native American literature professor Kathryn Mitchell, will be dropped in days to supplement this prologue of a podcast episode. Enjoy!
