“You are Our Tomorrow”:

Bones of Crows as Storytelling Autonomy for Restoration and Thrivance

Abstract

“You are our tomorrow,” is an empowering statement that January Spears (Michelle Thrush, Cree) says to her on-screen daughter, Aline (Grace Dove, Secwépemc) in the recent theatrical release of Bones of Crows (2022) by Dene/Métis auteur Marie Clements. For the 10^th Anniversary Issue of Transmotion, I propose to write about the film, using a Diné-lens and analytic to argue that visual storytelling directly benefits the lives of Indigenous peoples and communities. Bones of Crows is the most recent feature-length historical-fiction film about Indian Residential Schools (IRS), and its ongoing effects (Turtle Island “education” is known as residential schools north of the Medicine Line and as boarding schools, south of the Medicine Line). The movie extrapolates almost a century of Indigenous-centred resistance to genocidal legislation (including the starvation policy and the Indian Act) through heartwarming and heartbreaking lived experiences that transcend borders. Clements’s film showcases a Cree-speaking survivor, from her childhood through adulthood to Elderhood. Aline’s life story epitomises thrivance, which according to the journal by the same name, is “Indigenous ways of being, knowing, and doing.” Though I pay homage to key conversations in critical Indigenous film studies, I expand upon my recent deployment of a Diné analytic, which is grounded in Diné language and philosophy. The Dene and Diné are linguistic relatives, yet our kinship ties were severed over time. However, using thrivance to ground the work, I will demonstrate how—despite ongoing adversity— the daily tenants of striving to live a life of wellness and balance (as taught to contemporary Dene and Diné) intersect with onscreen Indigenous presence which culminates in a moving and beautiful rendering of restoration: both personal and communal. Clements’ Indigenous film aesthetics highlight music, languages, and resilience, which exemplify Dene storytelling autonomy to reflect vibrant Indigenous tomorrows.