Theresa McGraw is gone, but her voice is finally being heard.

The young Ojibwa girl was one of  thousands of Aboriginal kids during the 20th century the government snatched  from their homes and forcibly placed in residential schools in a grotesque effort to assimilate Natives into Euro-Canadian society. The house-of-horrors terror experienced by these children—from culture shock, profound sexual and  physical abuse, hunger, humiliation and homesickness—seems incredulous. But the tragedy is that it wasn’t.

It was real, it was prevalent, and the fallout of what happened sears Canadian Aboriginal communities to this day. The legacy that remains, says Nadia McLaren, is “the restlessness of an ancient sadness.”

It is these words that frame this first-time Ojibwa filmmaker‘s documentary, Muffins for Granny,  an homage to McLaren’s grandmother whose inner pain was never fully understood. Until now.  A softly piercing chronicle retold by those who lived it, seven survivors plaintively share what happened to them at the hands of the religious and government-run institutions—tales of racist taunts, sexual predators in darkened rooms, of children who were murdered and buried in anonymous graves on the infamous grounds.

Aside from the hazy knowledge she had of her granny ’s experience, what McLaren learned shocked her.

“I had this intellectual idea of what residential schools were. I tried to prepare myself and my crew. But, honestly, you can’t prepare for the reality of somebody sitting down in front of you and going back to those places and sharing that. It makes it emotional and spiritual and it’s there—happening right in front of you.”

Educated at the Ontario College of Art & Design, McLaren’s foray into filmmaking started shortly after Theresa died four years ago and she decided to create a series of paintings honoring both of her grandparents.

“That whole summer I was grieving, and I can’t really paint if I’m not clear. So instead I wrote. A lot.  It led to this project where I was going to document the people and places from home and what I get from home; a series of portraits and paintings. So I started interviewing the elders to gain more insight into my grandmother and grandfather.”

Along with her sister Melanie and film crew, McLaren headed back north to her home community of Sioux Lookout, Ontario and began interviewing more than 50 Ojibwa elders.

“After the third interview it hit me very, very, very hard. Like a wall. These stories don’t belong in a gallery,” she says, “they need an audience; a world audience. These elders deserve to have their stories heard.”

Surprisingly, the elders who appear in the film don’t speak in bitterness or anger. Damaged, yes, but not defeated. And in the end each and every one of the seven is shown to have prevailed and succeeded as activists, artists, teachers and healers. The gut-punch of the stories is allowed to soar with McLaren’s effective use of tranquil nature scenes, a family baking (more on that in a minute) and home movies contrasted with the edgy illustrations by Nick Marinkovich. The film is unblinking as we hear the chilling memories of former students, such as Delaney Sharpe's tearful retelling of a friend's death at the hands of a system that treated Indian kids as disposable. 

“The elders come into the theatre afraid,” admits McLaren. “What are you going to put us through by bringing this all up? By the end, though, they are really thankful. It takes the burden off that somebody has told their stories and it helps people, especially young people, understand what their parents and grandparents went through. Finally.”

It’s that raw, and the legacy that powerful, which is why Muffins for Granny  is significant. Through this film, the “restlessness of an ancient sadness” bearing down on Canadian Aboriginals has been exposed to the light after decades of murky darkness for a younger generation of Native and non-Native audiences. McLaren, ever the artist, creates a visual and lyrical patina that never affronts but nonetheless commands; not an easy task in any documentary, especially one tackling such a difficult topic.

At long last, the little Native schoolgirl who was reduced to eating paper baking cups tossed to the ground by well-fed white kids gets what she never did 60 years ago. Muffins, lovingly baked and shared with the world by her granddaughter. 

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Muffins for Granny  was awarded the Best Documentary Film at the 2006 Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival and earned an Honorable Mention at the 7th ImagineNATIVE Film+Media Arts Festival. It continues to screen at venues in Canada with plans for an upcoming US premiere.

“Muffins for Granny” Audio Clip