What We Carry

n 1963, a restless Jennifer Notley spots an ad in a teacher’s magazine for a position in Northern Alberta. She leaves her life in England and arrives by bush plane to Wabasca-Desmarais—a isolated place with bad roads, no electricity, limited services, and a residential school. Jennifer taught 5 years at Desmarais Indian Residential School as it transitioned from a residential school to a day school. In 2022, her daughter Katrinka and granddaughter Bracken return to this beautiful northern lakeside community in the heart of Treaty 8 territory (one of the largest Treaty Nations in Canada) with questions, carrying a trunk full of history.
Kat McDermott and Willow Auger, both members of the Bigstone Cree nation, introduce Bracken and Katrinka to the community. Together, they open the trunk and open the doors to discovery. In the feature documentary What We Carry, the team searches for truth: who was the Jennifer Notley the students knew, did she help or harm? Along the way, the real teachings arise: we all carry the effects of residential schools, we all lose when a culture is lost.
What We Carry is a message of healing and the first steps on the path to reconciliation. We are all connected, sometimes in unexpected ways.