Duane Hicks
First Nations’ actor Adam Beach has had a traumatic life—but he’s never let it hold him back.
Beach related his success story—and his connection to traditional values—to a full tent Monday morning during the Fort Frances Tribal Area Health Services Inc. Behavioural Health Services’ conference, which is running Sept. 15-18 at the Nanicost grounds.
The 41-year-old Canadian Salteaux actor, who now lives in Ottawa, was born in Ashern, Man. He lived his early childhood with his family on Dog Creek First Nation Reserve at Lake Manitoba.
But when he was eight years old, his mother, who was eight months’ pregnant at the time, was killed by a drunk driver.
She died in a ditch in front of their house.
Two months later, his father was found drowned. He had been drinking and on medication for depression.
“That tragedy took away compassion, took away someone to look up to, the teachings that a mother and father have,” said Beach, noting he envied his friends who may have had bad parents but at least they were alive and they could talk to them.
Beach and his two brothers then went to live with their grandmother, and later uncle and aunt in Winnipeg, where he took drama classes and began acting in local theatre.
Since 1990, he’s had more than 60 roles in TV and film, ranging from “Dance Me Outside,” “Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale” and “North of 60” to “Windtalkers,” “Joe Dirt,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
He mostly recently starred in “Arctic Air” on CBC, which was cancelled earlier this year.
Beach said although he carries his trauma with him because it is part of who is, he is a “happy guy” because he has traditional ways to guide him.
The teachings started when he was 16. At that time, he was thinking suicidal thoughts and didn’t want to be around anyone.
But then he went to a group called “Flying on Your Own,” where one of the teachers gave him a “grandfather” stone into which he could put his emotions.
“One night, I went to test the stone,” Beach recalled. “I went out, I cried, I yelled, I was angry, I laughed—everything.
“And then I felt good because I knew there was a grandfather, a teacher.
“I didn’t understand how it worked but I could feel it absorb, I could feel it want to talk,” he noted.
“Whether it was myself talking to myself or something, that was my journey at 16 to figure who I am and what this is about.”
The teachings have continued from there. Beach now brings his drum, rattle, medicine bundle, and “grandfather” stone with him when he makes appearances, and is proud to smoke a pipe, pray, or sing in public.
When he feels bad, he goes to sweat lodges.
“Learning our ways, learning our traditional values, it’s a timeline that hasn’t changed,” Beach remarked.
“It’s still there.
“A lot of us have lost our way but there’s a lot of traditionalists out there that really have those teachings, and I choose to walk with those teachings because it’s who I am, it’s what I am, and I won’t walk away from it,” he stressed.
“Because when I wake up in the morning at 6 a.m. and I take a picture of the beautiful sunrise from the hotel, and I tweet it, and I say, ‘Waking up to possibilities,’ that’s the way I look at things,” Beach added.
“When I wake up, I always ask, ‘What are the possibilities?’”
Beach said that because he openly carries his teachings with him, he is very respected in Hollywood.
“I’m known as ‘The Indian.’ It’s pretty cool, man,” he smiled.
“I get a lot of respect because there is a lot of romanticism about who we are,” he explained. “When people feel that sun and the water, and see deer and bear—that’s who we are.”
Beach recalled he was working on “Law & Order: SVU” when Ice-T told him, “‘You’re really lucky, Adam, because everywhere you walk, this is your land. This is who you are.’
“‘Me, if I want to connect with my people, I have to go back to Africa.’”
Beach admitted he never saw it that way.
“We think that people look at us as problematic, in the way, angry Indians,” he noted. “But my friends, they look up to us, they see our spirit, they see that romanticism.
“And I choose to live in that romanticism.
“I live on the bright side—every time there’s bad, there’s good; every time there’s good, there’s bad,” Beach reasoned.
“I just choose not to acknowledge any of that friction. I choose to live my life in a good way.”
Beach said adults must be patient with their children and grandchildren, especially since new technology has created a gap between generations.
He also feels residential school survivors should talk about their experiences, as not only will it help them heal but the younger generation wants to know about.
“Every difficulty you can overcome. Every pain and anguish goes away,” he stressed.
“There’s somebody that hurts more than you, and if you can acknowledge that, you’ll find that way to get through.”
Indigenous
filmmaking
Beach, meanwhile, is interested in unifying First Nations and creating an indigenous film fund to finance films because the Hollywood studio system doesn’t work for them.
He has gotten into movie distribution, and has a plan where he would like reservations to own their own mobile movie theatres.
Beach will provide them with new movies at the same time as they premiere everywhere in North America.
He held a screening at a reserve using such a movie theatre, where federal Canadian Heritage minister Shelly Glover helped out.
At that time, she said she wanted one in every community and she’d help.
“So we made a deal that the government’s going to pay for half of the cost to own all the equipment for a movie theatre,” noted Beach, adding all of the sales from popcorn and drinks will go back to the community the theatre is located in.
Beach said if 300 of Canada’s 600 reservations got movie theatres, and each month 200 people in each of those communities each paid $10 to see one movie, that would create $600,000 a month, or $7.2 million a year, in support of a native film industry.
The community would reap the benefit of the snacks.
“If we have our own movie theatres, we can do our own movies,” reasoned Beach, who met with Chief Sara Mainville about such a theatre for Couchiching.
Beach also is interested in getting young people—aboriginal and otherwise—involved in the movie industry.
He is developing a film school where youth can work on future movies he’ll be shooting.
Beach noted that aboriginals, under treaty, should be able to make movies in the U.S. using the tax credits of Canada and using a Canadian workforce.
The theme of this week’s Behavioural Health Services’ conference is “Wii Kwan De Taa,” which translates to “bringing people together for a sacred purpose.”
Its conference is to celebrate cultural resiliency while promoting healing from the effects of family violence with teachings and ceremonies provided by community elders.
It is open to elders, service providers, helpers, and families.
Workshops have covered the gamut from traditional parenting, the importance of names and clans, healing and co-dependency, and building and sustaining long-term traditional marriages to drum, jingle dress, and fasting teachings.
