Private Project

pî-kiwîk

pî-kiwîk, will bring viewers on a heartfelt journey of how reconnecting to one’s culture and family can be life-changing, grounding and how it can provide a sense of belonging, pride and purpose .Through this short-documentary, I will capture my personal journey of reconnection as a mixed child of a 60s scoop survivor (disconnected generationally), a grandchild of 2 residential school survivors and as someone who grew up globally and disconnected from my family in kîwîtinohk kisiskâciwanihk. I will capture the raw emotions, the heartfelt inspiration, the nitty gritty of building relationships with my family while navigating intergenerational trauma and the beauty of it all, as seen in the scenery of the land, the waters, nohkom’s voice and heard in my reclamation and learning of the Woodland Cree language. Through the telling of my own personal story of returning to and finding home in my community in Northern Saskatchewan, I will convey the transformative power of finding oneself in relation to one’s family, language and culture. Disconnection (due to colonization and forced assimilation) is a sadly common experience for Indigenous peoples across these lands, pî-kiwîk will not only show the strength within Indigenous communities and matriarchs but also that reconnection is possible. pî-kiwîk, come home, our families and ancestors are waiting for us.

  • Keisha Erwin
    Director
  • Keisha Erwin
    Writer
  • Keisha Erwin
    Producer
  • Lori Lozinski
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    short documentary
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 1 second
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    27,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    Cree, English
  • Shooting Format:
    4k 4-perf 35 mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Keisha Erwin

Keisha (wapahkesis) is a 2S nīhithaw (Woods Cree) emerging artist, academic and a band member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in north-central Saskatchewan. They are also Afro-Caribbean (Jamaican) on their mom’s side. Keisha holds a B.A. Honors in Indigenous Studies from York University and is undertaking their Master’s of Educational Foundations at the University of Saskatchewan with a research focus on community-led Indigenous language revitalization. They are a second language learner of nihithawiwin (Woodland Cree-TH dialect) and has released a Cree Kids Book that they illustrated themselves and translated with help from their Cree mentor Christine McKenzie. In the past year, Keisha was selected as part of NSI Indigidocs program and is in the post-production of their film, pî-kiwîk (Come Home) that will premiere on on APTN, documentary Channel, CBC Gem, NFB platform, nsifilms.ca and aptnlumi.ca in 2024. Keisha’s dreams are to get into filmmaking and animation and through which, to tell stories in their Indigenous language (Cree) to inspire and encourage youth to learn Cree.

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Director Statement

My film, pî-kiwîk (come home), is a poetic short of my own experiences as a reconnecting urban Indigenous (Cree) person. Disconnection and identity loss are some of the most personal and traumatic issues facing Indigenous peoples today. Due to colonization, many Indigenous families have been violently torn apart, our kinship structures have been severely impacted and many of us have been displaced from the lands that our ancestors have called home since time immemorial. The focus of my inspirational, heart-warming short is on showcasing the beauty of reestablishing relations to family and connection to land and not solely based on the aforementioned traumas.