by MATTHEW HAYS

Documentary filmmaker Tracey Deer says the old saying about change being a good thing isn’t always true. In Kahnawake, for example—the community in which she grew up—some changes have had serious side effects.

“I’ve watched as native people have moved away from many native traditions,” says Deer. “Less and less people speak native languages, less are doing specific things we think of as part of native life. Our value system has morphed into Western philosophy: make more money so you can buy more stuff.”

Some have counted this as progress, says Deer, but she sees a growing identity crisis occurring within many native communities across Canada. “What this does is prompt a series of questions: what does it mean to be native? What makes me a native, if not language and tradition?”

The loss of many traditions has coincided with growing controversies among Canada’s aboriginal population. There are official lists of native people in Canada, and if you happen to be born of mixed-race parentage (i.e. one native, the other non-native) you can lose your native status. Native communities often have people living in them who are shunned for not technically falling under the native label. This, says Deer, has often led to cruelty within the community and, again, a strained sense of identity.

Deer, whose 2005 documentary Mohawk Girls (an NFB-Rezolution Pictures co-production) drew loud praise on the festival circuit, has responded to these questions around aboriginal identity with Club Native, a film that explores the quandary.

Deer, who says she’s wanted to be a filmmaker from the wee age of 12, credits her beginnings with local film types who gave her a shot. “Catherine Bainbridge of Rezolution Pictures was so open to providing an opportunity. I’ll never forget it.”

Deer is hoping her latest, which will premiere in the summer, will help to illuminate the increasingly complex questions around native identity. “I think we’re really tearing ourselves apart with these attitudes right now,” says Deer. “We’re in a very destructive and painful place.”