WaaPaKe (Tomorrow)

Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s deeply personal documentary WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) asks the difficult question: “Who are we without our pain?”

For generations, the suffering of residential school Survivors has radiated outward, impacting Indigenous families and communities. Children, parents and grandparents have contended with the unspoken trauma, manifested in the lingering effects of colonialism: addiction, emotional abuse and broken relationships.

In her efforts to help the children of Survivors, including herself and her family, Koostachin makes the difficult decision to step in front of the camera and participate in the circle of truth. She is joined in this courageous act of solidarity by members of her own family, as well as an array of voices from Indigenous communities across Turtle Island. Each person’s individual journey is different, but in sharing their experiences, ways to create space, heal from chaos and forge new paths forward are explored.

Employing a range of innovative cinematic means, including collage, soundscapes and set design, the documentary illustrates not only the complex and deep-seated emotional undercurrents at work but also the layered stories of the people, embedded in the land itself. In learning how to actively demonstrate love and break the cycle of abuse, Indigenous ways of being, as well as creativity, play an enormous role—whether it’s filmmaking, poetry or learning to hunt in the Ancestral way.

Moving beyond burying intergenerational trauma, WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) is an invitation to unravel the tangled threads of silence and unite in collective freedom and power.