In this inspiring story of cultural resilience and family bonds, Aisha, an Indigenous girl living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, navigates the pressures of conforming to a colonial education systems. Her personal desires and cultural heritage compel her to learn outside of imposed state structures.
Clever, creative and fierce, the Kwakwaka’wakw girl pulls no punches as she critiques the colonial institutions that seek to fit her into a box she finds un-relatable and unjust at the core. Supported by her community leader and residential school survivor mother Gunargie, Aisha has ambitions to explore other alternative modes of learning while asserting her Indigenous sense of identity and knowledge.
Another Word For Learning is at once a thoughtful portrayal of a compellingly outspoken young protagonist and her relationship to her mother, and also a film that offers a nuanced, yet critical view of one of Canada’s principle colonial institutions, where so many learn precisely what it means to be “Canadian”.