The final screening in the “We are Not a Phase” film series opens today — Thursday, Feb. 25.

A partnership between the Turtle Island Aboriginal Education Centre, the Arts Council – Windsor and Region, St. Clair College Indigenous Student Services, and the Vucavu streaming service, the program promotes discussion reflecting on Indigeneity and honours community initiatives that are Indigenous led.

The final entry, entitled “Land Back,” features four films focusing on the return of land to dispossessed Indigenous people, the assertion of jurisdiction over resources and development projects that ensure that future generations live well on their territory:

• The Law Is in the Seed is a video of a poem written by Alex Jacobs, a Mohawk Indian poet from Akwesasne about the Native American concept of democracy as contained in the Great Law, an oral document which originated with the Iroquois Confederacy.
• Extractions explores Canada’s extraction industry and its detrimental effects on the land and Indigenous peoples. This film parallels resource extraction with the booming child apprehension industry currently operating in Canada which is responsible for putting more Indigenous children into foster care than were in residential schools.
• Invasion discusses the Unist’ot’en camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint, and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people. The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years.
• ôtênaw documents the oral storytelling of Dwayne Donald, an educator from Treaty 6. Drawing from nêhiyawak philosophies, he speaks about the multilayered histories of Indigenous peoples' presence both within and around amiskwacîwâskahikan, or what has come to be known as the city of Edmonton.

The films are available for streaming free until 9 a.m. Feb. 27 through Vucavu.