‘Sugarcane’ is an indictment of institutional harm

Sugarcane

Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie (National Geographic, 2024)

A searing indictment of institutional abuse perpetrated against First Nations children by Catholic missionaries, Sugarcane chronicles an intrepid investigation into ghastly crimes committed at a Canadian residential school. But more than a catalogue of horrors that, in slow-burn fashion, develops into a holocaust tale, the documentary depicts the human consequences of generational trauma and the devastating aftermath of abuse toward Indigenous communities.

The film focuses on the St. Joseph Indian Residential School, established on a Catholic mission in British Columbia in the late 19th century. Eager to “get rid of the Indian problem,” as the film states, the Canadian government forced Indigenous children into a boarding school system that robbed them of their ancestral identity and suppressed their native tongue.

The adult survivors in Sugarcane carry their wounds in separate ways. Rosalin Sam, who says she was sexually abused by a “Father Price” and then beaten by her father, explains how she became an alcoholic. Ed Archie NoiseCat, who spends the majority of the film anxiously attempting to unravel the secrets of his upbringing, left his young son and says he cried every day. “I’ll never forget, and it’s pretty hard to forgive,” says Larry Emile, who claims to have seen nuns toss a baby into an incinerator.

Sugarcane also follows former First Nations chief Rick Gilbert, who died in 2023, as he travels to the Vatican for a meeting with Pope Francis. In April 2022, the pope met with representatives of Canada’s Indigenous communities and expressed “sorrow and shame” for the role Catholic clergy played in the abuse. “For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness, and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry,” said Francis.