Rez Dog Team documentary aims to spark interest in dog sledding

Most days you'll find Phoebe Sutherland gliding along the Moose River in northern Ontario with her team of sled dogs.

"The sound of their paws, the breath, the sound of the skis on the snow. It's very powerful," she says.

Just a few years ago, Sutherland didn't have dogs or a sled. Instead, she was struggling to deal with the realities of working at the local high school on Moose Cree First Nation.

"OneFriday, you'd say 'Have a good weekend,' to a student. And the following week you'd be burying them. It was really a tough time," she said.

Morning North8:13Reclaiming indigenous culture through dog sledding

It all began when a stray husky followed Phoebe Sutherland home from work. Now, the Moose Factory woman is rescuing dogs and training them to sled. She's making a film about it called "Rez Dog Team". Phoebe was our guest and told us more about her story.

Within three years, nine of Sutherland's former students committed suicide. She was deeply affected by the deaths and developed insomnia.

But things changed in May 2012 when a small husky puppy followed Sutherland to work.

"He was very persistent. He was hungry, he was dirty, he was neglected. So I decided to take him home."

She named the puppy Nemo.

Sutherland said the dog awakened something in her. Soon she adopted another.

"I was living between my uncle's place and in my sister's basement. I didn't really have a stable place to live at the time," she said. "And I was adopting these dogs."

"In taking care of them, in turn, I was taking care of myself."

The dogs also helped Sutherland tackle her insomnia. When she couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, she would take them for walks.

She decided to quit her job and began helping to rescue other dogs on the reserve.

The '60s scoop'of dogs

There are many unwanted dogs living on First Nation reserves, according to Sutherland.

"When the dog has a litter, the [people] only have so many resources to provide food and shelter, so the dogs are left to their own devices," she said.

That means many dogs are wandering around, malnourished and left to fend for themselves.

Sutherland said many Indigenous people are struggling to take care of themselves, and therefore have forgotten the importance of caring for their dogs.

"Part of the legacy of residential schools means people don't know how to take care of their animals anymore," she said.

Sutherland started helping an animal rescue in southern Ontario. It was her job to rescue the dogs on the reserve and put them on the train south.

"Well meaning people from down south want to provide animals with care and homes, and that's good," she said.

"But it felt like the '60's Scoop' of dogs," she said, referring to a period in the 60's and 70's when thousands of First Nations children were taken by the government from the reserve and fostered into non-Indigenous families.

Sutherland wanted to show that First Nations could take care of their own dogs, so she began rescuing the canines herself.

Dog sledding

Now with two full grown huskies, Sutherland found herself with two animals bursting with energy. She started by having her dogs pull tires. Then she had them pull her on her skis. That's when she decided to get a sled.

Dogsledding clicked right away with Sutherland. The traditionhad long been part of her family: both of her grandfathers had sled dog teams and some of her earliest memories were of feeding her grandfather's dogs.

"After [my grandfather] left residential school he delivered mail up and down the coast with his dad and a dog sled team, up as far as Fort Severn."

Sutherland still takes her dogs sledding almost every day. She said people in the community will watch for her and take photos.

"They call me the 'crazy dog lady!'" she laughed.

Passing on a tradition

Sutherland said she wants to make the connection again between her people and their dogs.

She's decided to make a documentary film about her journey.

She plans to talk to elders about their memories of dogsledding and pull archival footage.

"Our community elders have vivid memories of being on dog sleds, and when children went off to residential schools, those skills weren't passed on."

Sutherland wants to make sure the tradition of dog sledding doesn't disappear. She's now teaching youth in the community how to sled, including her 15-year-old niece.

"They absolutely love it," she said. "It was something that they never thought they could do."

Phoebe Sutherland has just been accepted into an Aboriginal filmmaker fellowship at the Whistler Film Festival in December, where she will receive mentorship on her film "Rez Dog Team" which she is currently filming.