By Andie Mollins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kúkpi7 (chief) Willie Sellars of Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) gave a loud shout as the word ‘Sugarcane’ appeared on his phone, confirming the film’s Oscar nomination for best documentary feature.

“I just started crying, good tears, tears of joy,” Sellars said on Thursday, Jan. 23, the day the Oscar nominations for the 2025 Academy Awards were announced.

He said his emotions were a culmination of five years of hard work as Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie documented WLFN’s investigation into the nearby St. Joseph’s Mission residential school (SJM). 

The documentary became a personal story for co-director NoiseCat, who explores his family’s own history in relation to the residential school during the film.

“It’s a story that is just so much bigger than me,” Sellars told Black Press Media. At least 150,000 children attended federally funded residential schools across the country between the 1880s and 1996, though residential schools existed even before then.

Sellars said the film had the power to educate and heal, and the more people who viewed it, the greater the opportunity to bring understanding and change.

“I would love to see this film part of the curriculum in every school in this country,” he said. “I would love to just think that this film had a big part in the healing journey that we are on as a country and as Indigenous Peoples.”

Looking solemn, proud and emotional, Sellars said he felt blessed and validated.

“I’m still taking it in.”

The film premiered just over a year ago at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Today, Sellars is wondering what a person wears when attending the Oscars, and how to represent his community while doing so.

He’s got until March to figure that out and was able to turn to William Belleau of the nearby community of Esket (Alkali Lake) who played Henry Roan, an Osage husband and father, in the 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon.

Sellars hopes the site of the former St. Joseph’s Mission residential school can become a place of commemoration and healing.

The award-winning documentary Sugarcane is now streaming on Disney+.

Viewers are advised to take care as they watch the documentary, with the film’s website encouraging folks to organize a ‘watch circle’ to create a space for discussion and support.

For those needing support you can reach out to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, National Crisis Line is a service for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their Residential School experience. Call toll-free 1-866-925-4419.

This article first appeared in The Williams Lake Tribune with Files from the Canadian Press.