Documenting nature

RHONDA SPIVAK

Forty-six-year-old Winnipegger and member of the Jewish community Noah Erenberg has directed and also written substantial parts of the new documentary series One With Nature, airing this month on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) in North America and on Viasat in Europe.

“The series examines the use of traditional knowledge in the modern world. Each episode features a particular First Nation in Canada and explores how band members incorporate age-old wisdom that’s been utilized in their community for thousands of years in order to confront the present-day challenges they are facing,” Erenberg explained.

One With Nature is a co-production between two Winnipeg-based production companies, Les Productions Rivard (LPR) and Media RendezVous (MRV).

“My company, Flat Out Pictures Inc., has been subcontracted by LPR and MRV to write, direct and supervise direct,” Erenberg said. “There are 12 episodes featuring First Nations from across Canada. I wrote and direct[ed] seven of the episodes and was the supervising director for all 12.” The team started pre-production in the spring of 2009.

According to Erenberg, the original idea for the show was in response to APTN’s requests for an environmental series, and Charles Clement of MRV came up with the series after speaking to several contacts, including people at the Winnipeg-based Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources.

One of the episodes, “Paradise in Peril,” explores how the Gitga’at Nation of Hartley Bay, B.C., continues to thrive as they have for centuries by harvesting the abundance of their coastal paradise in the Great Bear Rainforest.

“This way of life, as well as the existence of the rare, white Spirit Bear that lives only in this tiny corner of the world, is threatened by a leaking, sunken B.C. ferry, as well as by the transport of oil in large container ships along the fragile coastline,” said Erenberg, who has also made documentaries for CBC TV.

Another episode, “Food Gatherers Paradise,” examines the concept of a meal in Haida Gwaii, Canada’s most western point, located 300 kilometres off the Pacific coast. There, the subject, who we see dining among friends and family, “tells the story of the food gatherers of an island paradise,” one so abundant that it enabled a sophisticated civilization to flourish for centuries.

“This meal also tells the story of an ancient way of life that is interconnected within the island ecosystem and how the gatherers almost lost it all after the arrival of European explorers just over 200 years ago,” Erenberg explained.

Another episode focuses on Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq community of L’sitkuk (Bear River), which emphasizes the community collective as opposed to a profit-driven approach to life. It’s a philosophy embodied in the Mi’kmaq tradition of netukulimk, a concept that encourages sustainable community building.

“Inherent in this belief is the fundamental principle of respect, whereby you don’t take any more than you need, while making sure you have enough for your people today and for the next seven generations. This communal approach to the harvesting and managing of their natural resources is what sets Bear River First Nation apart from other communities,” Erenberg said.

Practising netukulimk hasn’t been easy for Bear River First Nation, particularly over the past two decades. It was during this time when Mi’kmaq communities fought and won an historic battle that now has given them the right to fish commercially. The agreement gave Mi’kmaq nations money to buy into large-scale, multinational commercial fisheries, which 34 communities eventually did.

“Bear River, however, did not,” said Erenberg. “It refused to participate in the commercialization of any harvesting or in what they see as an approach that is driven by greed and is, therefore, dangerously depleting the resource.”

Another episode of One With Nature explores how the Innu Nation of Labrador has managed to gain unprecedented control over environmental management and monitoring of any development on their vast territory. The Innu homeland is a vast expanse of northeastern Canada and one of the largest, untouched indigenous territories in the world.

“The Innu have done this by creating their own environmental protection agency in the form of the Innu Environment Office, from where environmental watchdogs are deployed to act as guardians enforcing environmental laws across the Innu homeland,” Erenberg explained.

Erenberg, who teaches workshops in video storytelling and editing at various Winnipeg schools, is currently writing, directing and producing a documentary on the advent of alternative fuels that will air on Manitoba TV in the fall of 2011. In the meantime, he is in the midst of completing his series for APTN and is just now finishing the final episode for One With Nature.

“Food Gatherers Paradise” will air in British Columbia on Jan. 26, 8 p.m., Jan. 27, 11:30 a.m., and Jan. 29, 5:30 p.m. “Paradise in Peril” will air Feb. 2, 8 p.m., Feb. 3, 11:30 a.m., and Feb. 5, 5:30 p.m. The dates and times for other episodes can be found at aptn.ca.

Rhonda Spivak is a freelance writer and editor of the Winnipeg Jewish Review.

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