Two members of Tla’amin Nation are starring in a feature adventure film that will be on screens in 2017.

Kayaking for Beginners stars Ta’Kaiya Blaney with a backup role for film veteran Evan Adams (Smoke Signals).

Although much of the filming took place around Lund and other parts of Tla’amin territory north of Powell River, the filmmakers see it as an ode to the preservation of the Great Bear Rainforest on BC’s central coast.

Director Zoe Hopkins was born in Bella Bella in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. She is Heiltsuk and Mohawk. The Scythia Films’ producers have visited the Inside Passage and committed to protection of the area.

But film logistics meant that the Sunshine Coast was the best location for much of the filming. On the day the Sentinel visited, crews were busy shooting scenes on the boat ramp beside the Lund Hotel.

The Tla’amin-owned hotel was full for about two weeks and local restaurants also benefitted from Kayaking crews’ business.

Other scenes were shot 15 kilometres away at Tla’amin and other Sunshine Coast locations as well as in Vancouver, the Copeland Islands, northern Vancouver Island, Klemtu and Bella Bella.

The Kayaking for Beginners story is both humorous and prescient. Filming began in early September, weeks before a sunken tug began spilling its fuel in the waters of Heiltsuk First Nation near Bella Bella.

The film focuses on a kayak trip by a dysfunctional family who travels through the Great Bear Rainforest so that Ella (played by Ta’Kaiya) can understand the beauty of the coast before she testifies in a hearing about oil tanker traffic through the same waters.

Director Hopkins added a bit of mystery to the story when she said: “Dave is played by Evan Adams, whose character has passed away and has given his testimony to Ella to present at a joint review panel hearing about the proposed oil tanker traffic along the Inside Passage.”

Similar hearings were held for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project that was given Canada’s approval, subject to 209 conditions, in 2014.

On the kayaking journey, Ella is exposed to both the beauty and dangers of the area with other ‘actors’ played by the Spirit Bear, salmon, eagles and orcas.

Those living things, as well as the words passed along to her by the Evan Adams character, influence her subsequent testimony. But perhaps the biggest impact on Ella is her family’s First Nation perspective and the coastal people’s way of life – both culturally and for food – over thousands of years.

“Ella’s mission is shared by the film-makers,” a statement from Scythia Films said. “It’s to convince everyone that these waters, these creatures and this place on the planet are in dire need of protection.”

 

‘Actions speak louder…’

This isn’t the first film for Ta’Kaiya Blaney. She has also appeared in Savage, a short musical drama about a girl in the days before she goes to residential school as well as other films.

But Ta’Kaiya is probably best known for talking about environmental issues, addressing Canada’s Parliament and United Nations gatherings such as the Rio+20 conference in Rio de Janeiro. She also sings and writes music.

She has been a youth advocate for climate change and Indigenous First Nations rights since the age of 10 and is an ambassador for the Native Children’s Survival organization.

“I advocate to change not only the human condition, but also the condition of our planet. In my culture, it’s a fact, and an understanding of life, that everything is connected, and we were put on this earth to be stewards and caretakers of the environment.

“In my culture, it’s a teaching to do more than connect the dots, to see the picture as a whole.  I feel that advocating and speaking at mere conferences isn’t enough. Actions speak louder than words.”

www.takaiyablaney.com

Evan Tlesla Adams won an award for best debut performance in the 1998 film Smoke Signals. That performance as Thomas Builds-the-Fire is well-remembered and commented upon, often to much laughter, when he visits home at Tla’amin.

He has also appeared in a number of other film and television roles from The Beachcombers to Da Vinci’s Inquest.

But since earning his degree in 2002, he is also known as Dr. Adams. His illustrious medical career includes appointment as the deputy provincial health officer for BC in 2012.

In 2014, he became the chief medical officer of the First Nations Health Authority in BC.

Adams completed his medical degree at the University of Calgary with a chief residency at St. Paul’s Hospital/UBC. He also earned a masters degree in public Health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Check out Dr. E online on either YouTube or Twitter.