Talaga’s latest film has world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival

By Sam Laskaris

TORONTO – An idea spawned from her podcast led Fort William First Nation member Tanya Talaga to a world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising had its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto festival on Sept. 10.

Talaga, an award-winning journalist and author, co-wrote the feature documentary with Métis filmmaker Shane Belcourt.

The film is about the 1974 land-back protest First Nations people held at Anicinabe Park in Kenora, Ont. The protest eventually spread to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ont., where police violently moved in to quell a peaceful demonstration.

Talaga had first talked about the Anicinabe Park during a podcast she hosted.

“It’s called Seven Truths and it’s based on the Anishinaabe Seven Grandfather Teachings,” she said of her podcast, available on Audible. “This was one of the teachings, one of the episodes.”

Talaga knew she wanted to expand upon that particular podcast.

“I found out about Anicinabe Park when I was writing my second book, All Our Relations,” she said. “I did the story as part of my podcast series. And I knew that I wanted to do something a lot bigger with it. It had to be a documentary, and so that’s where the idea for doing the doc came from.”

She joined forces with Belcourt, who wrote and directed Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising.

“I had heard of Shane and obviously I’ve seen his films,” she said, of the well-known filmmaker, adding she was introduced to him seven years ago. “I’ve known about his work and thought it was fantastic and that he would have that look and style that we really needed to tell the story.”

Talaga is rather surprised that many others are not aware of the protest, staged more than five decades ago in Northern Ontario.

“I can’t believe that more people don’t know about Anicinabe Park, that it’s not in history books, that when it happened, it wasn’t known,” she said. “This is a story that our people need to know about and all First Nations people, all Canadians need to know about the story…We have heroes. We have people that need to be celebrated. And I wanted to show our youth this story. I wanted to sort of scream it from the rooftops about this incredible group of young adults and youth who came together to try and change things.”

Despite those efforts, Talaga said that now, in 2025, similar battles are being waged.

“The kicker of the story is that it’s been 50 years and not too much has changed,” she said. “We still continue fighting. We are fighting for our rights and for our land.”

Talaga added that there is an ongoing lawsuit involving three First Nations in the Kenora area who are keen to get the property rights to the park back.

“That shows you that the story has not gone away,” she said. “I should say the story hasn’t died. I mean that we’re still fighting for the same issues and I really hope that one day we’re going to get to a place in Canada where we don’t have to do this.”

Talaga questions this hope, especially with the recent provincial Bill-5, Protect Ontario by Unleashing the Economy Act, 2025, legislation involving major projects.

“We can’t have a Canada where we ask our people after the legislation is crafted and done,” she said. “That’s not how this country should be working.”

Following its TIFF premiere, film organizers are working on other future screenings. That includes a showing of the film in Kenora.

Talaga is hoping it’s a film that is widely seen.

“It’s a film I made to make our people proud,” she said.