[0:02]I remember long ago. It was a black card that came and a man and his wife, white people.
[0:14]They were talking to my mom and dad and that man finally he said, "Would you like to come and live with us, little boy?" I don't know who these people are.
[0:28]Little Bird is a mini series about one woman's experience after being abducted from her home in Saskatchewan and being adopted into a Jewish family in Montreal. The story follows her journey of discovery to uncover the truth of her past about who she is. Where were you from? Montreal? No, where are you from? I'm not really sure. This role hits very close to home because my dad being a member of the 60 scoop changed my entire life. There was a level of compartmentalization that had to happen where it was like I need to separate my own personal experience and put that aside so that I can focus on the work and do the work because stories like this need to be told. Your children were apprehended. They are under the care and protection of the government now. With Little Bird, this is one of those stories. The family unit that's been taken apart. The 60 scoop story isn't unique, unfortunately. Thousands of us taken across the country. There are still thousands that are out there in the world right now, lost. You have to think to yourself, "I'm saving these children." From a life of poverty. When you're telling any indigenous story, the process of authenticating all of the threads of the story is very complex. You need a circle of advisors and those advisors are essential to the authenticity and integrity of the story. You can't do that. You can't do that!
[2:07]No! You can't! And cut! We can't afford to not be authentic because we're reclaiming these stories. Every single department worked on every single detail to ensure authenticity. And then we brought in actual survivors of the 60 Scoop to help us really shape the experience through the lens of being adopted. Your adoption file is sealed, but there is a note on your file that you have a sister, a Dora Mueller, who wishes to be contacted. I didn't know about the 60 Scoop. The thought to me that there was a genocide that wasn't known was just stunning and heartbreaking. Esther is Jewish, and so representing that was also important on the screen. I'm using my Jewishness in order to like get the minutia of being a part of a specific community. I don't know why you try so hard to fit in with these boring people. Who else am I supposed to try to fit in with? It is about coming home. It's about welcoming those who were taken. It's about welcoming what was lost. And it's about the land, it's the language, it's our culture. This story in and of itself is about that relationship with home.
[3:32]I feel very honored to tell this story. It's a huge responsibility. Yes, we make stories for global audiences. But I really make these stories for our people.
[3:47]I'm giving a voice, you know, to my grandmother's story and her sister and many other people in my family that have bond through this.
