Nations at War
Sept. 6, 10 p.m.| APTN
While researching the controversial figure Edward Cornwallis for a Nova Scotia website, Tim Johnson soon found himself knee-deep in stories he wanted to tell.
“As I learnt more about Cornwallis and the Indigenous people I kind of ended up going down a rabbit hole,” said Johnson, referring to the British military officer’s mistreatment of Indigenous people.
Johnson started thinking long and hard about these stories as he began to realize that aside from some French textbooks he saw during his time in French immersion that the history of the First Nations he learned in school wasn’t complete.
From that 2008 rabbit hole of information Johnson pulled out the early idea for the new APTN-TV series Nations at War that premieres Sept. 6.
Actor David Lyle hosts the new APTN show Nations at War. The 13-part series takes at look at the battles First Nations people fought against each other and the waves of Europeans that came to Canada. It premieres Sept. 6.
“I ended up looking up similar situations across Canada,” said Johnson, who is also head writer and story producer on the show. “When I went to school, anytime you talked about Europeans or Asians it was like: ‘Empire and class of civilizations,’ it was this very grandiose inspiring terms behind them and anytime we talked about the First Nations it was very patronizing.
“Once you add this other perspective of the First Nations being of equal weight and equal importance and equal players you see how completely different the story of Canada is,” added Johnson.
One of those “different” stories is the First Nations people that were first encountered by the Europeans.
“I think that the big thing is that when people think of people coming over from Europe, the settlers they always think of native people as these unorganized not very self-sufficient people. But the native nations were actually very good business people,” said Johnson. “They had trade networks. They were very organized and the cool thing about this series is you slowly start to see that a lot of these settlers and coming over start to adapt and use a lot of the methods that the native people did.”
Another notable “different” story is the sheer might and the extensive guerrilla-warfare skills the First Nations displayed.
“This was a military superpower in the heart of North America that terrified the French and the English and the Dutch alike,” said Johnson about early contact. “They were organized. They knew the land, they had thousands of warriors.”
A scene from the new APTN series Nations at War. The 13-part series, that premieres Sept. 6, focuses on how First Nations fought each other and Europeans.
That, of course, all changed later on thanks to disease, war fatalities and the constant increase of European settlers.
The series begins on the West Coast with a look at how the Haida, with its fierce navy, ruled the area. Other episodes include a look at Louis Riel’s rebel movement and what happened with the Vikings.
“Some people accuse us of glorifying violence, but it is antiwar. For a show called Nations at War it shows you that the violence more often than not was a failure of every other solution to the problem,” said Johnson. “Everyone was capable of bloodshed. Everyone was capable of peace and everyone was capable of civility and everyone was capable of diplomacy, and you get honour and courage on both sides.”
Hosted by David H. Lyle (Arrow, Arctic Air) the full series budget was only $1 million and had limited visual archival resources to work with.
TV needs more than talking heads and old paintings, and this series manages to pull that off thanks to computer-generated images and re-enactments.
“It wasn’t about resources, it was about being resourceful,” said co-producer Jason Friesen, a Metis who also directed some episodes and appears on camera as a Metis warrior.
An example of resourcefulness was finding an Indigenous bison rancher in Chase and using his two herds and him in the film.
“It was childish enthusiasm all the time,” said Johnson about story and planning meetings. “It was, ‘Oh, did you know about this? Did you know about that? We have to put it in the show.’ ”
With this subject matter at this time in this country it’s easy to see Nations at War as a political statement, but Johnson doesn’t agree with that. His desire is educate and to see the likes of Tecumseh and Pitikwahanapiwiyin, a.k.a. Poundmaker, become bigger parts of the discussion and become bigger names to schoolkids across the country.
“Being proud of Canada comes with acknowledging the horrible things that have been done and the promises that have been broken, whether you are political or not,” said Johnson. “I didn’t do this for any political reasons. I just thought these were cool stories that I wanted to tell. But it made me understand my own country so much better.
“Canada as a civilization is thousands of years old, not 150,” added Johnson. “That is amazing to me that I am part of the continuity of the country. You have to respect the true history of Canada period.”
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