Join us on June 21st at the Centre for Socialist Education for a special Indigneous Peoples Day event. We will be screening the documentary The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson’s Bay Company. A broad and open discussion will follow the film.

We will be discussing the socio-economic impact of the Hudson’s Bay Company on Indigenous peoples, highlighting issues of inequality, land use, and predatory colonial relationships.

Doors will open at 6:30pm with the screening starting at 7pm. Entry will be donation. Bannock will be for sale!

More on the film:

The Hudson’s Bay Company’s 300th-anniversary celebration in 1970 was no occasion for joy among the people whose lives were tied to the trading stores. Narrated by George Manuel, then president of the National Indian Brotherhood, this landmark film presents Indigenous perspectives on the company whose fur-trading empire drove colonization across vast tracts of land in central, western and northern Canada. There is a sharp contrast between the official celebrations, with Queen Elizabeth II among the guests, and what Indigenous people have to say about their lot in the Company’s operations. Released in 1972, the film was co-directed by Martin Defalco and Willie Dunn—a member of the historic Indian Film Crew, an all-Indigenous production unit established at the NFB in 1968.