Untold Boarding School Stories Uncovered | Tanya Talaga
Written by Tokala Tatum on June 10, 2025
Acclaimed journalist Tanya Talaga searches for her long-lost matriarch Annie, solving an 80-year-old family mystery through her evocative storytelling on screen, involving the history of boarding schools.
Check out BOTH the full video interview and Q&A that took place during Daybreak Star Radio’s first Winter Film Showcase down below‼️👇
Family History to Profession
Tanya Talaga hails from the Anishinaabe from Fort William First Nation, Tanya grew up over 2,000 kilometers from her mother’s community. Although, this story shows that culture and more importantly pain lingers on much farther than geography can. Tanya’s calling comes from a lineage of pain down her matriarchal line.
Tanya Talaga found a passion for storytelling through journalism and chased that passion through her time in university. She comes from the Bear clan and wears the name ‘Little Bird with Big Wings who carries a Big Burden’, and that name couldn’t have become more true. Through her passion, Tanya’s mother encouraged her continuously to find her great, great grandmother, Annie.
Tanya began to do just that learning about her family’s past and uncovering the tragic history of boarding schools. Tanya was contacted by a nearby tribe right before the finding of Annie happened, inviting her to write the story. As she took this opportunity she realized that it needed to transcend journalism and be told on a much larger scale.
From Book to Documentary
”If you’re telling the story and you don’t capture it in that moment, you lost it.” – Tanya Talaga
Tanya got the idea for a book while writing the journalism story, stating that she was surrounded by survivors of the boarding schools. With all of these survivors around, they had information that the public didn’t know and they called it “The Knowing”. So, Tanya got to work and started brewing the idea for the book, although the story would only continue to blossom.
Tanya Talaga states that she paired photography with journalism at first and it instantly opened her eye to the visual medium. While writing the book she went back to the community with a film crew and began to document the atrocity. Emphasizing that it had to be captured instantly because there was only one chance.
This led Tanya Talaga to having a world premiere of this documentary at the 2024 annual Toronto International Film Festival. Hoping to share the truth of what happened and the violent history that sits on this land. After that ‘The Knowing’ got the chance to share this film at the Daybreak Star Cultural Center during the first Winter Film Showcase hosted by the Daybreak Star Radio.
Understanding How to Heal
With all of that being said, we have to understand that unfortunately too many stories exist just like this one. Any person of indigenous heritage can trace back to a moment that impacted their lineage for generations far beyond their reach. More importantly, we are in an age where we have more tools to heal and self-express than ever before.
These stories are obviously worth telling but they are allowed to be told in a multitude of mediums and in a variety of different ways. There’s been this notion as Native Americans gain more and more opportunity that we should stop telling “sob-stories” and continue to make people laugh. I disagree, there’s room for both and not only that, the faster we try to move on, the more we just continue to sweep these problems under the rug to be dealt with by the next generation.
Story is story, regardless if it’s a comedy, drama, horror, and anything in between, these mediums are used to elevate our stories to a larger platform because they deserve to be told. These stories offer something to the world and allow people to connect in a multitude of ways. So, let’s follow and congratulate Tanya Talaga on her huge accomplishment. Check out the full video interview and Q&A that took place at the Daybreak Star Radio’s first Winter Film Showcase down below‼️👇
