By Natalie Riley
Films and other digital portrayals of how the Catholic Church took Indigenous children from their families and relocated them to residential schools, are crucial to ensure that the past is not forgotten, says UC Santa Cruz Indigenous Studies professor Caitlin Keliia.
“These were places that were supposedly schools, but often instituted labor with Native children, and were places where death and disease were very normal,” said Keliia, a guest speaker at UC Santa Barbara.
Poster for the National Geographic documentary Sugarcane about the disappearance of children from the Sugarcane Reservation in Williams Lake, British Columbia. The film was discussed at a UCSB Carsey-Wolf Center screening with UC Santa Cruz Indigenous Studies professor Caitlin Keliia.
Keliia is the author of Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program. Her book delves into the lives of young Native women working as domestic workers in white households in the Bay Area during the early 20th century.
Keliia spoke at UCSB following a screening of the film Sugarcane, hosted by the Carsey-Wolf Center, which exposes via a digital medium the violence, sexual abuse, and institutionalized labor inflicted upon these communities. She was joined by Alex Liburn, a Ph.D. candidate in Film and Media Studies at UCSB.
The two discussed the National Geographic documentary, which investigates the disappearance of children from the Sugarcane Reservation in Williams Lake, British Columbia who attended St. Joseph’s Residential School.
Following Indigenous Canadians who were part of these “outing” programs, the film embarks on a broader investigation into the lasting impact on survivors and their descendants—how trauma from sexual abuse, physical violence, and family separation continues to manifest in their communities.
The film had a profound, intense, and impactful effect on its audience. “Sobering but beautiful,” said Keliia. When it ended, a deafening silence presided over the auditorium as members of the audience sat frozen, witness to a violent history where children were separated, beaten, and forced into labor. The documentary recounts stories of girls as young as 10 who were victims of rape by those who were entrusted to protect them, and who saw their infants sent to be disposed of— burned alive by incinerators.
In the post-screening discussion, Lilburn asked Keliia about relocation and outing programs. “Children were literally taken thousands of miles away from families,” she said. Even though programs like St. Joseph's Reservation School were supposed to be places of learning and education, they instead fostered free labor through the enslavement of Native children.
UC Santa Cruz Indigenous Studies professor Caitlin Keliia and UCSB Film and Media Studies Ph.D. candidate Alex Liburn discuss the documentary Sugarcane. The film and following discussion, presented by the Carsey-Wolf Center, investigated how the Catholic Church took Indigenous children from their families and relocated them to residential schools.
In her book, she exposes how many outing programs in the 1920s-1940s would train Native girls to be servants who would fulfill domestic roles in the future. In discussing the film, she said that children would attend Reservation schools beginning in early September— enduring tremendous amounts of abuse and sexual violence, and then throughout the summer would be contracted out as farmers or domestic workers, many never returning home to see their families.
Keliia said that Sugarcane screening and the post-screening discussion served as a reminder that we cannot undo the past, but we must remember it, keeping it close to our hearts. By bearing witness to these histories—through film, research, and open dialogue—communities move one step closer to truth, accountability, and collective healing, she said.
Natalie Riley is a third-year English student at UC Santa Barbara. She covered this event for her Digital Journalism class in the Writing Program.