Sounds From Our People: Old Crow

This original programme was made for young children. It is one of a six-part television series on the traditions of Indigenous people in Canada created especially for younger children by Alanis Obomsawin to celebrate UNESCO's International Year of the Child (1979).

Old Crow: This 30 minute film is about the village of Old Crow and the people from the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation located on the banks of the Porcupine River 80 miles inside the Arctic Circle. The film shows the lifestyles and spirit of the people of Old Crow, reflected in the writings of Gwich'in Edith Josie and the stories told by Elder Kenneth Nukon. Alanis Obomsawin wanted to document life in the community before the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipe line was to go through. "Everything will be changed -- it will never be the same again".

This is followed by a sequence in which Alanis and a group of children children pay homage to the animal kingdom, telling a story wearing papier mache animal masks and using the animal sounds provided by Gwich'in storyteller Elder Kenneth Nukon who we had met earlier in the film.