A documentary titled Silent Cries/Kiayunik tuhanak was the result of a series of fortunate coincidences, which all began with a dark chapter of Canada’s history.
Numerous horrific revelations from former residential school students have come forward over the years, including from Navailk Tologanak.
Tologanak went to residential school in Inuvik, along with many schoolmates from the Kitikmeot.
"Sent away to Inuvik and Yellowknife for 12 years," reads the film's promotion, "[Tologanak] lost traditional skills and her language. She fought hard to relearn Inuinnaqtun and graduated from the Indigenous Languages Program from the University of Victoria in 2019 at the age of 65. She began her journalism career in 1995, writing for [Northern News Services]. She’s been photographing and documenting events in her community in Inuinnaqtun for 29 years. She would like to continue telling those stories using digital media to make a series of short films."
Visual representations of the experiences of many Inuit like Tologanak have been compiled in a book that co-producer and editor Kelly Saxberg brought with her when consulting Tologanak.
"Just before we were to meet Navalik in Iqaluit on our way to Pond Inlet, we received a PDF of Susan Ross sketches she had donated to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery," explains Saxberg. "We printed and bound copies of those sketches which contain sketches from northern Ontario and across the Arctic. When we met Navalik in Iqaluit, she opened up that book first and was surprised to see so many sketches from her neighbouring community of Kugluktuk. Susan [Ross] spent at least six summers there in the 1970s after visiting Pond Inlet in 1970 and '71. We also showed Navalik the Pond Inlet sketchbook, [and] she says, ‘There’s my cousin, there’s my friend... we were just amazed. She asked her friend in Iqaluit to make the sealskin cover.
“Our dream was to do a film about bringing all this material together,” says Saxberg, co-founder of Shebandowan Films, or Shebafilms, which produced Silent Cries/Kiayunik tuhanak. "The idea was to put together the footage, and books and sketches with an Inuk co-director for the project. I just contacted Navalik, who said, ‘Well that’s not my dialect, but I’m down for it.’ Thank God. So then we planned this whole thing."
“They were so well done. It’s so real,” said Tologanak, commenting on her impressions of the sketches. “Some were like a real photograph. You could recognize people, that’s how good the artist was.”
The documentary shows Tologanak leafing through the pages and images identifying individuals, including her relatives. The first half of the film details her personal recollections of residential school, from the age of three until she left formal education.
“So this project was really cool... we had an amazing shoot. My son Adrian and I and Navalik, we were the whole crew,” says Saxberg. “It was amazing — the whole connection with the people of Pond Inlet, with the sketches. After that, I got to go and visit Cambridge Bay,” which is Tologanak's hometown.
Filming of the original version of Silent Cries/Kiayunik tuhanak wrapped up in June 2022. A month later, Saxberg visited Tologanak in Cambridge Bay. Around that time, Pope Francis announced his visit to Canada, including Nunavut, in time for Saxberg to accompany Tologanak and a group of other Elders who had applied for a Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated-sponsored flight to meet the Pope in Iqaluit and hear his apology.
“And then you see what unfolds in the film,” Saxberg says. The latter half of the documentary is the journey of these Elders, who share their experiences and stories with the Pope and with each other.
“That was the most incredible experience,” she adds.
“I really needed to go,” says Tologanak, “because I’m a survivor. I went to the residential schools, and I wanted to be with my elder tribesmen from Nunavut. It meant the whole world to me to be there with them on this special occasion... I’m really grateful that I was there. It was part of my healing, and accepting the past, and moving on, and healing.”
For others, the outcome was different.
“Some other Inuit didn’t really acknowledge [the Pope's] apology because of so many hurts and bad memories or what happened to their family members or themselves... but they were there," she says. "It felt good to be there.”
Toward the end of the 16-minute film, which Tologanak directed and co-produced, she speaks about the movement towards reconciliation in her and her children’s lifetime. She calls the Pope's apology and the Canadian government's steps toward reconciliation “a good start.”
“What I was able to witness, and to help bear witness,” says Saxberg, “was a coming together and the support to each other. The Pope didn’t really matter. What was so remarkable was the meaningfulness of everyone getting together. All those generations... trying to do something to move healing. The other really amazing thing for me is being able to accompany Navalik.”
Silent Cries/Kiayunik tuhanak also shows the dedication of a monument and a new building in Winnipeg that will store the records of residential school survivors.
“It's going to be a special place [for] us survivors and Elders and Indigenous groups," says Tologanak. "It gives Canada a place [that] the rest of the world can learn from.”
Silent Cries/Kiayunik tuhanak has been selected as a winner of the 20th seasonal IMDb qualifying competition of the Toronto Women Film Festival.