First Nations Awareness Campaign

Hi my name is Brian Houston. I am raising funds to help make a video to educate people and create awareness of the abuse suffered by First Nations peoples in North America.

My story:

In 2017 as I visited native people in northern Quebec who told me the story of the horrendous treatment they suffered from being forced to go to residential schools there. I was shocked and ashamed of what had happened. As I travelled around native villages I heard more and more first hand stories from the people who actually went to these places. I gradually became aware of how little was known about what went on.

In 2018 a friend took me to the site of a closed down school. I was amazed to discover the last of these sites only closed in 1997. As I sat there on the bleak haunted ground, I was moved to tears and in one burst of inspiration a song came to me. Good friends helped me make a recording of it and also a version for the United States that Alex Castillo a Taino Arawak man also recorded. The idea is that the video will work for both versions of the track. One is called Carlisle South Pennsylvania and the other is Spanish Northern Ontario.

Many people still believe that alcoholism, high infant mortality, sexual abuse and low life expectancy rates are purely a native problem. These people thrived for hundreds of years before Europeans "discovered" them. I have listened with my own ears to a native chief explain that their culture of fathering their children and family unity was destroyed by the residential school system and that is why these problems exist today. His unique perspective opened my eyes to the damage we have done. It is my belief that we caused the problem and we are responsible to find ways to repair and heal it. European imperialism and the doctrine of manifest destiny were the justification and residential schools were the tool used to wreak a holocaust on an ancient people who neither asked for nor needed our "help!"

But the more we know the more we can actually do to begin to make things right. Heightening awareness is an essential step and changing peoples minds. With your help I want to make a video that will raise the profile of what went on and how people were abused and killed. With this video we hope to make a dramatic work that will more effectively illustrate the emotional and cultural impact of the lyric of the song.

The money you donate will help with the cost of shooting and editing the video and any extra we receive will go towards marketing campaigns for telling people about the issue. Your donation (no matter how small) will help us make this happen. We will make no money from the project but hope to get more than we ask for in order to create as high profile marketing campaign as possible.

WE WOULD LOVE TO DRAW MORE ATTENTION TO THIS ISSUE WITH THE CANADIAN AND UNITED STATES GOVERNMENTS AND ITS OUR DESIRE THAT THEY FUND A PROGRAM TO RE-EDUCATE AND RE-ESTABLISH NATIVE VALUES AND CULTURE WITHIN THE FIRST PEOPLE OF NORTH AMERICA. THEY HAVE BEEN ABUSED TOO LONG. THE HEALING MUST BEGIN HERE. YOU CAN HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!

Thank you for reading this far and considering helping me.

Many friends of mine have already helped tremendously by donating their time and effort in finding locations and negotiating rates etc. The director and everyone else involved have put weeks into writing the script and are charging well below minimum wage for their time. Because of their generosity we've managed to keep the budget very modest so that more money can be put toward marketing etc.

Incidentally the first money put into this was from my friend and Cree father Chief Kenny Blacksmith honorary battle chief of the Northern Cree Nation.

The approximate costs are as follows

Video shoot and editing £1000

Set and site location rent £200

Props and clothing £60

Food and transport cost etc. £200

Public Relations company £500

Miscellaneous £40

Marketing £ as much as we can raise