First Nations: Canada's Worst Neighbourhood

by Barry ORegan | May 18, 2008 at 04:45 am

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Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor
Moccasin Flats, a Canadian First Nations made TV Series centred on the coming and goings of a small Regina, Saskatchewan First Nations community. Hard hitting reality, with bright highlights mixed amongst tragic circumstances which is First Nations living conditions in a nutshell. Though not all First Nations community are as dark and foreboding as Moccasin Flats, many in First Nations communities can identify some of their concerns as their own.

I grew up in a small Huron Community North of Quebec, an exception to the rule, where tourists would flock for authentic Huron made souvenirs. I left and joined the military, as most of us did for careers. My Uncle Chub a Algonquin Elder, like many First Nations populace moved off reserve for employment opportunities.

I left and joined the Military, like many of us from small villages, who dreamed of seeking adventure and a career. My first move out West brought me to a small First Nations community of TitQ'eT, as their Head of Technical Ops, liasion with Tribal Police, Indian Affairs, Community Housing, Schools and Health. This is where my young son spent a better part of his youth as I did among the First Nations Community, experiencing a contrast of living in a White Society and First Nations Society. We had good times, and not so good. All in all Tit QeT are family to me still and where I plan to retire amongst family, though not born into their community, being of a Huron community, they make me feel as family as one of their community, and after all, isn't community what you make of it?

Canadian made TV has always been more reality than it's US counterparts, such as Trailer Park Boys, versus the USA's My Name is Earl, both showcasing Trailer Park life, though Canada's Trailer Park Boys is really as close to reality as you can get.

Beachcombers, a British Columbia made series about a remote logging and fishing community came close to reality as well and ran for decades with no USA equal in a TV series.

We have Canada's Degrassi High, versus USA Beverly Hills 90210, certainly a big contrast of high school life.

Corner Gas, another Canadian small town TV series, and reality of a small Saskatchewan town life of it's residents.

The only show in which Canadian made "ludicrously pointless crap" would be "Little Mosque on the Prairie", about a small rural town with a mix of Canadians and a small group of Muslim Canadians, certainly a "Lets Only Show the Good Side and No Bad Side of fitting into Canadian Society", resulting in "Driveling Stupidity" in a Politically Correct move by some Unclear on the Concept of Reality.

Canadian TV has prided itself on Reality, with all it's wholesome goodness and scabs, scabs to be picked open in order for Canadians to see the true reflection of Moccasin Flats as a First Nations Community Life, where Political Band Aid solutions do not stop the bleeding, in what is First Nations Community and it's youth's quest to fit in.

Canada's worst neighbourhood

By Amber Dowling 2008-05-16
'Moccasin Flats' returns: the issues you need to watch
Most Canadians are aware Aboriginals face continuous struggles in our nation; poverty, crime and prostitution are always issues we read about in the dailies. But what most citizens aren’t aware of is how real and brutal these daily struggles are, and the stereotypes that can’t simply be cast off as preconceived notions.

In 2003 that perception began to change with the incarnation of Moccasin Flats — a dramatic series focusing on life in an actual urban Native ghetto of Regina — which aired for three seasons on APTN and Showcase.

The series was a critic’s darling, winning awards and nominations and catapulting young aboriginals who had never been on camera into the national spotlight. It was also the first show to boast a team of workers who were all of Aboriginal descent.

Unfortunately, The Flats as a real community continued to struggle and was recently dubbed "Canada’s Worst Neighbourhood" in a Maclean’s article. The series was completed without renewal by Showcase after three seasons.

This weekend Moccasin Flats returns with APTN’s movie of the week Redemption, a two-hour continuation of the series and what MF co-creator, producer and co-writer Laura Milliken says people are “calling the final chapter.”

But Milliken prefers to view the film as a platform for new beginnings, which is how she wrote it. “We introduced some new characters, and we left some of the storylines from the series a little bit vague because we hoped that one day we would be able to revisit them. It’s not the final chapter in my mind.”