Maple Syrup Massacre is a monthly series where Joe Lipsett dissects the themes, conventions and contributions of new and classic Canadian horror films. Spoilers follow…
Last year in October 2022, Indigenous filmmaker Jeff Barnaby passed away from cancer. Although he had only written and directed two feature films, Barnaby was a key figure in Canadian genre cinema, notably his advocacy for better and more varied forms of Indigenous representation in front of and behind the camera.
While 2019’s Blood Quantum is arguably Barnaby’s most popular film (I reviewed it for Bloody out of TIFF), his 2013 feature debut Rhymes for Young Ghouls remains an underseen gem. Both films are incredibly political and confrontational; while their genre elements help make them accessible for audiences, each film is a passionate defense of Indigenous rights and, more importantly, a call to arms against white (Canadian) settlers.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls is a period film, a coming-of-age YA story, a heist movie, and a revenge story centered around a young Miꞌkmaq teen named Aila Whiskeyjack (Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, who is doing great work on FX’s Reservation Dogs). The film opens in 1969 on the fictional Red Crow Indian Reservation with an incredibly difficult seven minute prologue wherein Aila’s mother Anna (Roseanne Supernault) accidentally kills her young son Tyler (Louis Beauvais) in a drunk driving incident. Afterwards Aila’s father Joseph (Glen Gould) takes the fall, turning himself in to the law, and Anna dies by suicide shortly thereafter.
The narrative then jumps ahead to 1976. Aila is technically being parented by her uncle Burner (Brandon Oakes), but the reality is that she’s looking after herself while running his pot empire (he rationalizes that as a minor, if she’s caught, the punishment will be less severe). When Joseph is released from prison, the family must negotiate the change in dynamics, all while dodging the attention of crooked Indian Agent Popper (Mark Anthony Krupa), who will use any excuse to send Aila to the nearby residential school.
Despite the fact that residential schools and Indian Agents are detailed in both the opening text and the narrative, however, the real life legacy of Canada’s dark genocidal history and the specificity of the film’s dates are less commonly known.
The Indian Act was passed in 1876 and served to define Indigenous people in political and financial terms; residential schools began three years later in 1879 and continued through the mid-1990s. In that time an estimated 150,000 children ranging from ages 4 -16 were forcibly removed from their families and sent to schools run by the Christian Church. It was part of a deliberate effort to “get rid of the Indian problem” (a direct quote from Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott in 1920). This was accomplished by restricting language, dress and customs; it was a deliberate effort to assimilate Indigenous children into settler colonial life by Christian priests, nuns and members of the Crown.
All of these elements are on display in Rhymes for Young Ghouls. When the film opens, Alia is collecting bribe money to pay Popper in order to stay out of the residential school, which sits at the top of the hill and quite literally looms over the reservation. An early scene shows Popper walking down a line of beds like a drill sergeant, yelling at a row of pre-teen boys that they are only allowed to speak English.
When her bribe money is stolen, Aila plans a risky heist to steal from the Indian Agent, using the common knowledge that Popper always takes a shower at a specific time: after he molests the boys in his care. Barnaby is unwilling to pull punches about how terrible everything about the situation is, though the film never ventures into true exploitation territory.
Later, in the film’s most harrowing scene, Aila is apprehended and taken to the school where her long braids are cut. She is then stripped naked, washed by nuns and forced to wear a nightgown rather than her own clothes. It’s a demeaning, horrifying and dehumanizing sequence.
So why is Rhymes for Young Ghoul’s time frame (1969 – 1976) so important? In 1969 most of the adults living on Red Crow, including Aila’s parents, use drugs and alcohol (“the art of forgetfulness”) to cope with the trauma from their experiences within the residential school. In real life, 1969 is when the NIB (National Indian Brotherhood, the predecessors of the Assembly of First Nations) and the infamous “Red Paper,” a response to the government’s assimilationist “White Paper,” were gaining traction, advocating for Indigenous autonomy in political and legal circles.
Throughout the 70s, the NIB sought to regain control of education for Indigenous communities, which included amendments to the Indian Act. Residential schools also began to close in the late 70s and into the 80s, which is why the end of Rhymes for Young Ghouls offers a surprisingly optimistic reading for Aila and her friends.
The film ends with a climactic showdown in which Popper is killed; it’s a cleansing and righteous act of violence, but, more importantly, the film doesn’t introduce his replacement before the credits roll. This suggests that Aila could retain the heist money, stay with a stable surrogate parent who doesn’t encourage her to deal drugs, and, most importantly, that the residential school may close soon.
In reality, the last residential school didn’t close until 1996. That same year a public investigation into violence and abuses at the schools resulted in a $350 million endowment to survivors, as well as a formal apology from the Canadian government. The stories of survivors, and the subsequent generational trauma, were captured in the historic 2007 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), though work on pressing issues, such as land back, remains an ongoing issue.
White Canadian settlers prefer to pretend that residential schools are a historical issue from the past, but as recently as the summer of 2021, the discovery of mass graves filled with approximately 1,300 children’s bodies provided a stark reminder of how unaware (or ignorant) settlers are of our history.
We would do well to listen to Indigenous storytellers like Jeff Barnaby. The tragedy is that he’s no longer available to share his tales of empowerment, resistance, and, yes, violence against colonial oppression. You only need to look at Rhymes for Young Ghouls for proof of that.
The post ‘Rhymes for Young Ghouls’ – Jeff Barnaby’s Film Is a Stark Reminder of Canada’s Genocide appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.