Still Standing - Season 11 Episode 01 Osoyoos Indian Band BC
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#EnglishMovie #cdrama #drama #engsub #chinesedramaengsub #movieshortfull
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Here we are in Osuya's Indian Band!
00:06Very quickly, just to clarify for people watching at home,
00:09because this confused me a little bit,
00:11Osuya's Indian Band, that can refer to the people,
00:14but also to the place, the land.
00:18Also, I should say, the word Indian.
00:21I'm told that that's what people here prefer,
00:23so that's what I'm going with.
00:25I was told specifically by one of your elders,
00:30who's very opinionated about it,
00:32an elder who we'll get to know in the episode,
00:35you guys already know her, Jane Stalkia!
00:42These are Indians! That's who we are!
00:46So, just in case there's anybody watching at home
00:48who might take exception to seeing me say the word Indian,
00:52I'm more afraid of Jane than I am of them, so...
01:00When you grow up in a small town in Newfoundland,
01:02you see the people have a sense of humour about hard times.
01:05I turned that into a career and hit the road.
01:10Now I'm on a mission to find it funny in the places you least expected.
01:13Canada's struggling small towns.
01:15Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there.
01:18Still laughing in the face of adversity.
01:21This is Osuja's Indian Band.
01:33We are in the desert.
01:35I feel like a lot of Canadians don't know that there's full-on deserts here.
01:40Canada's only desert.
01:41Although, despite the fact that you guys can get less than 25 centimetres of precipitation a year,
01:51it's not technically desert desert.
01:55Although that's typical...
01:56Of course a Canadian desert would be like that.
01:58You're like, who me? A desert?
02:00No, I wouldn't call myself a desert.
02:02Oh, no.
02:04I'm...
02:05Semi-arid shrubland.
02:06Maybe.
02:07Maybe.
02:08No.
02:09No.
02:10No.
02:12No.
02:13No.
02:14No.
02:15No.
02:16No.
02:17No.
02:18This place was in hard times.
02:20Now you look around, there's a golf course, a cultural center, a resort, a racetrack.
02:26It's incredible.
02:30But to understand the boom, I needed to know the bust.
02:35And I spoke to mother and son ranchers Jane and Aaron Stalkaya.
02:39And they are still doing it the way the Osuyas Indian Band have been doing it for generations, on horseback.
02:51All the Indians on this reserve were good ranchers.
02:55The Indians and the horses go together.
02:59And back in the day, you didn't buy your horses.
03:01You caught wild ones.
03:03Right here where we're sitting, in those days, this was all covered with horses.
03:09They told me there was wild horses all up and down the valley.
03:13I mean, there still are, not as many.
03:15And Aaron was telling me it was tricky.
03:16For instance, that mountain up there, if you've seen a herd up there, you'd have to sneak around them.
03:22Once you're below the wild horse, they can out-climb you.
03:25Then they're gone.
03:26Yeah, let's go.
03:27And also, you can't lure them.
03:29You can't bait them in any way.
03:30You can't put some hay down, because it's a wild horse.
03:34A real wild horse doesn't even know what hay is.
03:36I thought that was kind of interesting, that a wild horse wouldn't recognize hay.
03:40In fact, I'm going to put that into a song I wrote.
03:42I wrote a song about wild horses.
03:44Lots of people have, but I think mine, mine's going to be a bit more authentic now.
03:50And no, I'm not going to sing it for you here now.
03:52No, I'm not going to sing it for you here now.
04:22One of the things that this Indian band is known for is a successful winery and vineyard.
04:26In the late 60s, Jane was a councillor, and she told me the community was approached by a winemaker from Ontario to lease 200 acres of banned land to grow grapes.
04:40They wanted to lease that land for $5 an acre.
04:45We all said no, so they left.
04:47And then I said, why don't we have a vineyard?
04:51That's how it came about.
04:54So in 1968, the community planted the first ever indigenous-owned, Indian-owned vineyard in Canada.
05:04But starting a vineyard in the desert wasn't easy.
05:09And I was in charge of that.
05:11It was really hard work.
05:13The post has to be put in, and it's all done by hand.
05:17They had to clear trees and rocks.
05:21They had no irrigation.
05:22There's no water.
05:24Just think 200 acres.
05:26Everything was watered by buckets.
05:28Yes, yes.
05:29Oh, jeez.
05:29By hand.
05:30They had to water 200 acres of land with buckets.
05:33That's incredible.
05:34I think that's beyond incredible.
05:36In fact, the only other thing I can think of where a guy went into the desert and used water to make wine, some people said it was a miracle.
05:44But it worked.
05:46Aaron said that getting the vineyard started is what brought a lot of people back to the community.
05:52Realistically, they wanted to be home.
05:54Yeah.
05:54But they couldn't afford to be home.
05:55A lot of young men had to leave to find work across the border into Washington state, across the line, they called it.
06:03The vineyard created more jobs, so they started coming home.
06:06And then the more that were coming home, it needed more housing.
06:08And then it just, it started to snowball.
06:11It started to boom.
06:12And it all started out with the band deciding to build this vineyard.
06:17In a way, it's perfect.
06:19Like, what could be better than a vineyard to give the people a good Riesling to get the band back together?
06:24I wanted to know more about the winery.
06:43I heard a bit of it through the grapevine, but I got the finer notes from a state winemaker, Justin Hall.
06:50The name of this wine is interesting to me.
06:58But you're going to have to say it once.
06:59You've got to say it once now.
07:00Come on, give it to me once.
07:01I'm going to go with Incomyp?
07:05Incomyp.
07:06Yep, perfect.
07:06Incomyp.
07:07Perfect, yep.
07:07Justin works at Incomyp Cellars, growing a huge variety of grapes and selling almost 150,000 bottles of wine every year.
07:18And in fact, they think maybe more this year because more people are interested in buying Canadian and because my producer Barb is here.
07:28The Okanagan Valley is such a huge, diverse place.
07:32I would say what makes O'Suja's Indian Man land and Incomyp Cellars special is that it's the only desert in Canada.
07:38So we have extremely high heat days which make our reds super ripe and rich.
07:43But it's ironic.
07:44Justin told me when the reserve was created, he said the government's idea was to give you this bit of dry, dusty desert land because it was no good for farming.
07:55Thousand acres of desert, baby.
07:57Yeah.
07:57And I always use the oldest saying of all, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
08:02So maybe you wouldn't want to grow a tomato in that type of earth.
08:06But what can you do?
08:07He said it is the perfect place to grow grapes.
08:11They like it a little bit hot.
08:12They like a little bit of stress.
08:14They're fine in the desert.
08:15He said grapes thrive with a little bit of stress.
08:19And it almost reminds me of a girl I used to date.
08:22She loved the heat, always a bit stressed.
08:25And when she was pressed, turned to wine.
08:30There's a unique taste to the wines of this area.
08:34Some wine writers came through and they said there's a sage sweet character that comes through in the South Okanagan specifically.
08:41He said it comes from the desert soil.
08:44We call it Sin-eat-team-hulauch.
08:47He said it means sweet smelling earth.
08:50Very specifically, sage is kind of comes through in this sweet smell of greasewood.
08:55But I was like, I never heard of greasewood.
08:57Antelope brush is another name?
08:59Antelope brush.
08:59Yeah.
08:59Okay.
09:00I was like, I've never brushed an antelope either.
09:02But I asked this and I said, so then what are the challenges of growing grapes here?
09:09Definitely the black bears.
09:10If they start to find your vineyard or holes in the fence, they can absolutely obliterate a crop.
09:16So you can lose thousands and thousands of dollars per week with a couple of bears.
09:21He said an adult black bear in one week can eat a ton of grapes.
09:26Like a literal metric ton of something like $5,000 worth of grapes.
09:31And then he said also, you know, this is the desert.
09:34We have scorpions.
09:34Oh my God.
09:35And I freaked out.
09:37This was the first time anybody mentioned scorpions to me.
09:40I was like, oh my God.
09:40I don't even want to know how many grapes a scorpion can eat.
09:43We got 50 mils of wine.
09:51We're going to take 25% phosphoric acid.
09:54This is going to help release the sulfur in the wine.
09:57He showed me a test for sulfur and another one that measured volatile acids.
10:01And he said, you've got to monitor this.
10:03If it gets out of hand at all, it can ruin your wine.
10:06If it sits for too long, it becomes a mercaptan.
10:09Mercaptan.
10:10Mercaptans are particularly nasty.
10:12Cabbage, burnt rubber.
10:14You can end up with wine that smells like burnt rubber and cabbage.
10:19And I know for a fact that people don't like that combination, burnt rubber and cabbage.
10:26Because I was trying to impress a girl one time in my Camaro and I did a burnout, but I was so nervous I farted.
10:32And you're looking for 0.5 to 0.8 molecular, you know, it gets a little nerdy again.
10:39And I was starting to get confused and he was using very big words, scientific terms.
10:43And I was like starting to feel insecure.
10:45I was like, oh, I'm dumb.
10:46I don't know anything about wine.
10:48But then he brought it right back down to a human level.
10:51He said, you can have wine when you're crying.
10:53You can have wine when you're happy.
10:56It's all about experiencing emotions.
10:59And then all my worry and confusion went away.
11:02And I realized, you know, I just had an estate winemaker tell me you can drink wine when you're crying.
11:09And that means I've been doing it right all along.
11:12I met a local artist who studies the pictographs, ancient rock paintings found in this area.
11:34And she creates her own pieces that pay tribute to them, which perhaps makes her the best tribute rock artist in Canada since my cover band, Nickelbackman Triumph Overdrive.
11:48Taylor Baptiste Sparrow.
11:50A pictograph is a rock painting that's been left behind on the land made with ochre pigment paint.
12:03She said these pictographs, they were done so long ago.
12:07It's hard to know or impossible to know really exactly what they mean.
12:11It's open to interpretation.
12:13And even if you visit the same pictograph several times, each time you might take something different from it.
12:18I love that.
12:19This is right up my alley.
12:20I did an art history class in university.
12:22And we were looking at a symbol, the ancient Greek Ouroboros.
12:27And our professor said, this represents the never-ending cycle of destruction and rebirth.
12:34And I said, well, what if the artist just thought it'd be funny to see a snake eating its own butt?
12:43We had a lot of conversations to figure out how we can keep these spaces protected because they are so delicate and historical.
12:50A couple of years ago, one of our most accessible pictograph sites was vandalized.
12:57Taylor told me about an incident in 2020 where a local pictograph was spray-painted.
13:03It was defaced with racist graffiti.
13:06It hit me like grief.
13:07Like, it felt like losing a loved one and, like, losing that connection to our ancestors.
13:13And she said it was like losing a loved one.
13:15She said the band looked into the possibility of laser-removing this graffiti.
13:21We were very lucky to be able to get access to one of two lasers in the world.
13:26They were able to microscopically laser off the spray paint without damaging the ochre pigment left behind.
13:32No way.
13:33Mm-hmm.
13:33And I found this very intriguing because I got a tattoo.
13:37I had a dolphin on my ankle.
13:39I had a dolphin on my ankle, but then I didn't like it, and so I got it covered up with a dragon.
13:43But now I don't like that.
13:45And I spoke to one place they could laser off the whole thing, but I kind of want to go back to the dolphin.
13:50LAUGHTER
13:51But the ancient pictographs were painted with red ochre, and Taylor showed me how to make ochre paint.
13:59This is ochre, the way it's found naturally out on the land.
14:03So in our language, this is called toulamine.
14:06Toulamine.
14:06You grind it into a fine powder, and then you mix a binding agent, and that could be bear grease or fish oil or berry juice, or if you don't have any of that...
14:17You can use spit to make the paint, so you're going to fill that with spit.
14:21For real?
14:22No.
14:23I'm not going to fill this with spit.
14:24You wouldn't fill the whole thing, but you can use a little bit.
14:27Listen, I'm an artist, too.
14:29I know what it's like to put your blood, spit, and tears into your work.
14:34And so I spit into this cup, and then she mixed some bottled water in with it, and she poured it into the ochre, and 50 minutes later, sure enough, turns out I had COVID.
14:49Yeah, look at that texture.
14:50And so it's very staining.
14:52Like, this will wash off, don't worry.
14:54But you can see how it leaves behind its trace on the rocks for hundreds of years.
15:00But another interesting thing about Taylor's work is that they're inspired by the pictographs, but she does sculptures.
15:08She showed me one piece she did.
15:10It's of two eagles.
15:11So you've got an eagle and then, like, an upside-down eagle, and their talons are locked.
15:15I started bending it in different ways to figure out how to illustrate the mating dance that eagles do.
15:21So the sculpture will actually spiral.
15:24Yeah.
15:24It's almost like another dimension.
15:26It's like movement becomes part of that.
15:28Yeah.
15:28So it's like the two eagles are actually acting out the mating dance, which I thought was brilliant.
15:33And then I realized that she is a great ochre artist, but I will only ever be a mediocre artist.
16:10And then I tried to fit in, and I asked them if the fire party was going to be totally slay.
16:17Turns out they were talking about Fire Fridays.
16:21So I went over to Senpak Chin School, and I met up with Leah Powder and Levi Bent.
16:31Fire Friday is our chance to get outdoors.
16:33But being outdoors, it's an indigenous model, because our ancestors were outdoors every day, all day.
16:38And the kids are so into it.
16:41They're so excited.
16:42I imagine for my generation, it would be almost like, do you remember when your teacher would wheel in the cart with the TV, VCR on it?
16:50Yeah, it's best, right?
16:53You guys know the sumac plant?
16:55Yeah.
16:55If you use those berries and grind them up, it has a lemony flavor.
16:59They want to teach the kids the traditional ways of living off the lane that were almost lost.
17:05I'm first generation, non-residential school, so I didn't learn those skills.
17:10Right.
17:10I'm learning it now.
17:11We're learning it as we go.
17:12Through things like Fire Friday, it's slowly coming back.
17:16You can walk over here, and you can get squina, no problem.
17:19But they got these little pokies.
17:21And a big part of Fire Friday is trying traditional foods.
17:25And while I was there, we roasted some prickly pear cactus.
17:29Did you want to try and roast one?
17:31Yeah, I'll give it a go.
17:32Now, when I was told we were going to roast cactus, I guess because I'm in the comedy world, I misunderstood.
17:38I thought we were, like, making fun of cactus, and I wrote some mean jokes about cactus.
17:45They're not even that good.
17:46It's mostly like, uh, oh, check out these pricks.
17:54No, cactus, you're not fat.
17:55You're just retaining water.
17:59Not even very good.
18:00Um, myself, I'm not a fan.
18:05See, though, those strands, like, it's mucus-y.
18:07Like, just oyster-like.
18:10She said the texture is something like mucus and oysters.
18:15I was like, okay, so snot.
18:21Way to go.
18:22Yeah.
18:23I do like it.
18:24He likes it, yeah.
18:26It's weird texture, for sure, but I think I need to have another one.
18:30I thought it would be, like, snot, but it's not.
18:32It's not.
18:33And maybe that's how you could market it.
18:35Like, I can't believe it's not snot.
18:36What a way I got to see some of the country that you have here.
18:49I went on the horseback ride for Jane's 95th birthday.
18:5795 years old, and she's out there riding a horse.
19:01My nan made it to 95, but she wasn't riding any horses, although she could rip through a
19:06pack of camels.
19:07There were dozens of us, and we're all on painted horses, and Aaron was leading the way.
19:15Every now and then, we would stop, and Jane would tell people about the old ways of the
19:20Okanagan people.
19:21We're going right, right by the pit houses.
19:24They're way underground.
19:26They lived underground.
19:28And I'm thinking, like, way back in the day, Jane, she was the one who said the Osuja's
19:34band should build their own vineyard.
19:36And now, here she is 50 years later, the community is thriving, and she's given history lessons
19:44on horseback.
19:45And I think it's just more proof that behind every great band is a great woman.
20:03This is my last day, but if my heart had any say, it would sing a song about how wild horses
20:10couldn't drag me away.
20:11About ancient art and growing grapes, about thriving in the heat, maybe the drummers from
20:18Fire Fridays could come lay down a beat.
20:21About Canada's only desert, and how anyone who never knew this should come see the place,
20:28meet the people.
20:29I swear, you'll fall a little bit in love with Osuja's.
20:32Thanks for coming out, everybody.
20:34You've been great.
20:37We'll definitely see you again.
20:38Take care, guys.
20:40Johnny, you're way more than mediocre.
20:43That is a glare.
20:45If looks could kill.
20:47They say shake, rattle, and mole, but why don't they say snake, rattle, and mole?
20:52Lim-lim, Johnny.
20:53Talik-has-tash-shkul.
20:55Talik-wa-hach-stamaman.
20:56Lim-lim.
20:57I said, he's a funny person.
20:59I'm grateful for that.
21:01We'll have to get rid of this horse.
21:07Rattle, you're a big block, and they might follow you.
21:10Well, they all are.
21:11That's wonderful.
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