Smallscreen News
Shelagh Rogers Northwords Interview, to CBC October 25
By Anne Brodie Oct 21, 2012, 20:32 GMT
Northwords is a new transmedia documentary project premièring on CBC Documentary on October 25th.
Northwords is a new transmedia documentary project premièring on CBC Documentary on October 25th.
The project includes an interactive experience at northwordscanada.ca, which invites users to read the story in the writers’ own words, explore their creative process and learn more about the majestic Torngat Mountains.
In the summer of 2011, award-winning journalist and activist Shelagh Rogers hand-picked five Canadian writers to journey to the remote Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve at the treeline on the northernmost tip of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Over the course of a week, Alissa York, Noah Richler, Rabindranath Maharaj, Jospeh Boyden and Sarah Leavitt described their experiences of this remote, majestic area in poems, prose, drawings and spoken word. They did and saw things they’d never experienced before, trekking against an endless, ancient 360 degree view, hunting and eating a caribou and learning different modes of thinking from the locals. Rogers calls the trip a life highlight.
M&C: You’re fascinated by the outdoors and the north, and would probably rather be there than here. What’s the appeal?
Shelagh Rogers: I’ve always loved the outdoors, I’m absolutely happiest when I’m outside I don’t know if that’s claustrophobia or what, the other day I got stuck in a subway tunnel for 40 minutes and I thought I'd pull my hair out, it was certifiable. Being outside always brings back very good memories of a happy time in my childhood in the Gatineaus.
We had a cottage and I went to camps like many kids in Ontario, Camp Tawingo in Huntsville on Lake Vernon. That’s when I first went out on a canoe on a 3 day overnighter.
I felt so happy; it was like going back to that place for me. But it’s also been something else. I’ve become involved in efforts to promote reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples and I love being on the traditional territories with aboriginal people.
Their knowledge and ways of knowing has opened a whole new world for me and listening and learning and receiving.
M&C: Being up there must have emphasised how shuttered and narrow our lives can be in the “south”.
SR: Yes. The more connective electronic devices we get the more isolated we are and become. One of the great things about this week, I have to admit as with a couple of writers, was not being online for a week. We had to unplug, I had no choice. There was no Wi-Fi. If I had a choice I would have been online. It was very healthy.
M&C: You took writers to the Torngat Mountains to describe them. They seem to defy description. Did they succeed?
SR: I was more than satisfied. I was just so moved by each of their pieces. They are all so different, Noah the satirical writer, Joseph writing a kid’s story that was so profound and moving Alissa York’s personal essay when I see it “my eyes and heart aren’t big enough”.
I break down every time. Rabim has become a good friend and his voyage is the most extreme from far south to the far north, and what he observed, being from Trinidad was so beautiful. Sarah Leavitt is the Alka Seltzer of the group, with all that effervescence and I love her observations and how she moved off by herself when the caribou (was being dressed). She said “I don’t have to get there, my role is to observe.” And her beautiful intelligence seen through her drawings! I picked this group and I feel very proud, I feel they were just wonderful.
M&C: Did you or the writers know there would be hunting?
SR: No! We didn’t know. We knew it was a possibility but there was so much that was so dependent on the weather and we didn’t know the camp was to run out of food. Maybe what they had in store they thought would last a week, but it was very exciting.
It was an honour to be invited to go along on the caribou hunt. John Merkuratsuk, an amazing hunter and the fact he was able to shoot from an unsteady boat many yards away and make a clean kill right through the heart.
There is a scene where I said “I won’t lie, this is beautiful but very intense”. The beauty was that John prayed over the animal. You can’t film that. It’s sacred and it’s just something that is so private.
I’m often at First Nations gatherings where a sacred fire is lit, and there are no cameras, no filming, no recording; it’s a sacred space. It was a sacred moment. John prayed and thanked the animal and prayed for the health of the herd. I don’t know if I said it on film, but it was sacred, that’s the best word I can use, giving thanks in the fullest.
The show makes these remote areas accessible to Canadians for a short while.
I have to urge Canadians to go, if they possibly can to the north. I do wish it were more financially accessible.
It's so cheap to get to Europe but not our own home and native land unless you have financial support but I feel that until we understand the north, we won’t understand our country in the fullest way. The north is in the news for sovereignty and resource development it’s important that we get to know that part of the country, delighted that the films crew, radio doco is one thing, but to be able to show people the south the pristine beauty and majesty of this place, it is also a chance for us to encounter the people of that land living on it working on it with Parks Canada in agreement that took 27 to forge
Torngat mountains National Park and the Labrador Inuit Development Corporation and Parks Canada. These have been very successful partnerships, lovely, bring reconciliation and action. It’s a wonderful experience and the people are in control.
What other kind of group would you like to take up?
I’d like to take politicians and policy makers and people who are involved in trying to build a new relationship with aboriginals in this place where a new relationship has been forged and really love it.
M&C: It’s amazing what you can do in your job. You must be grateful for the opportunities to get to know the diversity of the world so well.
SR: I’m a dreamer and I find a lot have come true in my life, working with Gzowski for fifteen years, Torngat Mountains not once but twice. Impossible. I gotta say I’ve seen a lot of Canada but not of the world. It's almost time to think about extreme travel abroad
