We Were Children

Hello my name is Julian, I am currently 17 years old and born 1997 to let you know my age for the future. It was an experience to see my people back in the day, and also sad. I am a Cree Native and never really got to learn my language fully, though I believe the people in my community gave up on that since we aren't getting classes for it now from grade 9 to 12. But focus on the movie. This movie is a must-see for those who want to know our history. I believe race shouldn't matter, it's sort of stupid to judge someone based on their skin. What if aliens exist? They would say we are stupid for fighting each other. Sorry if this review isn't mostly about the movie, but I have to speak my mind on how it made me think through it, not to mention I don't want to spoil too much. Just watch it, trust me.

Edit: I corrected and deleted a few sentences from this review. I'm updating this in 2025, but want the review to remain somewhat the same. I still believe this movie is a must-watch given the global acknowledgement of residential schools from when I update this.

All I can say about this movie is it is heartbreaking. It is a very honest but sad and truthful movie about how lives were taken and how identities were stolen from the indigenous children.

Being forced to change who you were and they took every inch of their pride and dignity.

This movie will make you cry and break your heart, but it's important we learn about the indigenous culture and what they went through.

We must heal in order to move forward.

Tear jerking and anger provoking. This half dramatic part documentary tells how the Canadian government tried to eradicate a race out of their society by making aboriginal children leave their homes and attend church run boarding schools.

Some of the nuns are God crazy and some of the priests put the children through physical, emotional and sexual and mental abuse.

2 of the 80'000 survivors narrate this harrowing true story that only ceased in 1996

I first viewed this movie at Haskell Indian Nations University during an event titled, A Time of Healing and Restoration, in November 2013. I have personally worked with the Native American people for nearly 20 years, and the historical accounts of the atrocities they endured were not new to me. Therefore, I anticipated the film's content with familiarity. However, this movie was new in that it so authentically retold the very real stories of two survivors of the atrocities so brutally committed. I found myself sobbing, unable to stop. I have long loved the Native American people with all my heart. To see this movie so candidly display these brutalities broke me all over again.

I firmly believe that every individual needs to see this film, especially lay people who are perhaps uneducated regarding Native American history, or who have an unresolved and stereotypical prejudice against them. What most common people do not understand is that these acts were not exclusive to Canada. The United States is equally guilty as well. This film, I believe, needs to be viewed with adult supervision. But nevertheless, it needs to be seen by anyone willing to acknowledge and digest what has happened. And by all means, above all, it should be shown in every educational institution.

The movie should evoke a response other than personal grief. It should awaken compassion and move us toward change: a place of acknowledgment, repentance, and restoration with the host people of this land (in both Canada and the US).

Again, this film was shown at Haskell Indian Nations University in November 2013, and the response was overwhelming by Natives and non- natives alike. Many Native American students did not realize what happened to their parents and grandparents because few speak of it for the grief they endure, and the educational system has either watered it down, omitted it, or re-written it. With this being said, the film was shocking evidence to their history, which opened many young eyes and hearts. This film even served as a beneficial tool to reach our state government, in which an official proclamation was made by our Governor on behalf of the Native American people - one which had never before been decreed.

I fully support the film and its endeavors. The acting was superb; the storyline gripping and accurate; the filming professional and artistic. The testimonies are real and untarnished. It's time they be heard. May God bless it to the fullest extent of its reach.

I could not stomach these fragments. This movie will bring you to tears and disappointment with this past history of Canada that no one knew about until recent years. Should this movie be for truth and reconciliation? Never.

We should always talk about this.