Where the Spirit Lives

Where the Spirit Lives
Promotional poster
Directed by	Bruce Pittman
Produced by	Heather Haldane Eric Jordan Mary Young Leckie
Written by	Keith Ross Leckie
Starring	Michelle St. John Kim Bruisedhead Fox
Music by	Buffy Sainte-Marie
Cinematography	Rene Ohashi
Edited by	Michael Todd
Production company	Screen Door
Distributed by	Amazing Spirit Productions Ltd.
Running time	96 min.
Country	Canada
Language	English

Where the Spirit Lives (1989) is a TV movie about Aboriginal children in Canada being taken from their tribes to attend residential schools for assimilation into majority culture. Written by Keith Ross Leckie and directed by Bruce Pittman, it aired on CBC Television in 1989.

The film starred Michelle St. John as Amelia, a young Kainai girl captured and confined to the residential school system of the 1930s. The system was an attempt to have aboriginal youth to assimilate into the majority European-Canadian culture. Amelia resists assimilation and plans her escape. The film's cast includes Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Hemblen as teachers at the school.

In 1937, a young Kainai girl named Ashtoh-Komi is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a Canadian policy to educate Aboriginal children and assimilate them into Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school, where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under harsh treatment. Combined with the rejection of her peers (as she is a so-called "Bush Indian" who has not learnt white customs), Komi attempts to escape one night on foot with her little brother, Pita. However her plan is quickly foiled as the Indian Agent assigned to the school, Tiger, catches up and brings them back to the school; where Komi is subjected to further punishment. Eventually Rachel, Komi's only ally among the students, plead with the teachers to free her by promising to teach Komi to behave.

One teacher, Kathleen, is portrayed as sympathetic and she becomes repelled by the bigotry of others at the school. She offers Komi help in the form of giving her English lessons which culminate in cultural exchange, where Kathleen learns Kainai words from Komi in exchange for her learning their English counterparts. Now Amelia, Komi improves her English quickly with the kindness and support of her teacher, gradually adjusting to the school environment while retaining her Kainai identity.