Miles Morrisseau
ICT
The award-winning documentary film, “Ceremony,” is a tale of resilience not just of Indigenous people but of a fish known as an ooligan.
The film, directed by Indigenous filmmaker Banchi Hanuse, details the loss of the ooligan, a small, smelt-like fish that was central to the daily and spiritual life of the Nuxalk people in Bella Coola, British Columbia.
The local Indigenous radio station, Nuxalk Radio, plays a central role in the community — and in the documentary — as a medium to activate and educate to keep the language and the history alive.
A movie poster illustrates the documentary film, “Ceremony,” which tells the impact on a community by the disappearance and return of the oolichan fish.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Qwaxw Siwallace is co-founder of the station and the technical director who also serves as an on-air host. The film’s director, Hanuse, is also a co-founder of Nuxalk Radio.
“It’s an important story for the world to hear,” Qwaxw told ICT about the documentary. “It’s not a unique story in a sense. You know, it’s unique to us where we are here, but the similar effects all up and down the coast, around the world even, you know, how Indigenous people have been treated over the years.”
But there is hope, Qwaxw said.
“I feel like there is a time of change now where the world is starting to see that answers need to be found that the world doesn’t quite have yet,” Qwaxw said, “and a lot of the solutions are located in the old ancient stories, the old protocols, the laws of how to interact with nature and the land and each other.”
The film combines interviews, historical images, home video along with gorgeous hand-drawn animation to tell an epic story of the people, the impacts of colonization and the loss of traditional life and ancestral land. It won the audience award at the recent South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
One elder describes the loss of the ooligan as “the loss of the buffalo to the Indigenous people of the Plains.” It is a story of survival, spirituality and the resilience of a people who have held on to their language, ceremonies and belief that one day the ooligan will return.
And it does.
Reclaiming ancestral lands
The story of loss begins in 1862 with the intended introduction of smallpox into the Nuxalk territory that almost wiped out the entire population.
“That all ties into the genocide of 1862 and their plans for our territory and our resources and our lands and how they divided all up amongst themselves when our numbers were reduced to less than 1 percent,” Qwaxw said.
This still shot is from the documentary film, “Ceremony,” which tells the story of the disappearance and return of the ooligan fish and its impact on a local community. The film, directed by Indigenous filmmaker Banchi Hanuse, won the South By Southwest Documentary Spotlight Audience Award on March 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. Credit: Courtesy photo
“And our population has been on the rebound, it’s growing,” Qwaxw said. “We’ve run out of space on this little square they put us on called the reservation. And our people are looking to live in our territory, which is our right, which is our territory. We have that authority and jurisdiction in our lands. We’ve never ceded that right to anyone. And our people are now starting to take that step off of the reserves and into the territories.”
The film documents a family building homestead on ancestral lands who are then served an eviction notice for unlawfully building on what the government calls “crown land,” which is what the government calls all lands not owned privately and references Canada’s beginnings as a British colony.
Looking ahead
The film ends with an understanding that there is still much story left to tell, in particular the efforts to reclaim and rebuild on traditional territory. Yet, there is so much joy and hope shown as the oligaan is seen returning to the river and the people are overwhelmed with gratitude.
The radio continues to share the language, giving space for the current speakers and sharing recordings of speakers who have passed on. The conclusion is a victory for the people and the natural world and it is easy to see how the documentary received so much love from the audience at South by Southwest.
“The world needs to learn these things and understand that we are still here,” Qwaxw said. “We still have this long-rooted connection to these teachings through our stories that have been passed down for thousands of years.”
“Ceremony” will continue its run on the film festival circuit, and will next be seen at Canada’s premiere festival for documentaries, Hot Docs, April 23–May 3 in Toronto.
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