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WDSE, PBS Duluth, MN Documentary Series

 

Nick Hockings, cultural advisor: James Fortier, Director of Photography: Lorraine Norrgard, Producer/Director confer during a break in the shooting.

 

Birchbark canoes at "Wa-swa-goning" Photo by James Fortier
Turtle Island Productions recently provided Director of Photography services for a award winning filmmaker Lorraine Norrgard's PBS documentary series "Seasons of Change," which is being produced for PBS stations in Duluth and Minneapolis, MN, Madison, WI, and Detroit, MI. The documentary is a six hour, six part, comprehensive series focusing on the Ojibway (Chippewa) people of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The production also includes an educational component with accompanying curriculum, a future web site, and a companion book. According to Lorraine Norrgard it is the first time anyone one in the Great Lakes region has attempted such a large scale project about the Ojibway people. Each of the six parts will focus on contemporary issues facing the Ojibwa people (and all Native people as well), such as Education, Health, Treaty Rights, and Governence, etc. Each installment will examine the issues in an historical perspective, from pre-European contact to the present day.
Ojibway mother and daughter preparing a meal. Photo by James Fortier
In order to acurately visualize the world of the Ojibway peole prior to European contact, the production team spent two days in October shooting at Wa-swa-goning, ("place where they spear fish with torches") an authentic, recreated, pre-contact, Ojibway village on the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Reservation in Northern Wisconsin. Wa-swa-goning was built on 80 acres of land by Lac du Flambeau Tribal member and cultural consultant Nick Hockings. These production stills depict just a small part of the Ojibway experiece before French and other European fur traders and "Voyaguers" began to move into the Great Lakes region searching for beaver and other furs.

 

Ojibway man and son starting a fire. Photo by James Fortier
Community members from the Fond du Lac Ojibway Tribe near Duluth, MN, and from the Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Tribe wore custom-made, pre-contact, Ojibway garments made primarly of buckskin by Nick Hockings and his wife Charlotte Hockings. Every detail of pre-contact Ojibway life was painstakingly recreated in order to ensure authenticity and accuracy. For example, the two men at left are starting a fire without matches, flint, or paper. Below are additional photos taken during the production. For more information about "Seasons of Change," please contact Lorraine Norrgard at WDSE, PBS, Duluth, MN.

 

 

Photos taken by James Fortier

 

Wa-swa-goning- "Place where they spear fish with torches" Traditional Ojibway Village.

Wa-swa-goning Dance Theater- "Dance...the spirit of a Nation" Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Reservation, WIS

"Seasons of Change" PBS documentary series, shooting on location at Lac du Flambeau Chippewa Reservation

Homecoming- 1998 Pic River Ojibway First Nation Pow wow welcomes Metis-Ojibway filmmaker James M. Fortier.

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