The Moccasin Game

"I feel the spirit of the people and a connection with mother earth in my heart when I run." These are the thoughts of 16-year-old Veronica Charter, a gold medallist at the North American Indigenous Games. Award-winning filmmaker Annie Frazier Henry follows an elite handful of Aboriginal athletes from British Columbia for two years as they make their way to the 2002 North American Indigenous Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Here over 6,000 young Native sportsmen and women from across Canada and the United States come to compete. It is an exhilarating journey of achievement, dedication and hardship. Spirit of the Game is a tribute to the ones who are rekindling the fire and glory of sport, for whether they win or lose, they all come home heroes.

If you had to summarize Randy Baleski's philosophy, you could probably do it in three words: "Boxing saves kids." A Winnipeg high school teacher and former boxer, Baleski has a unique approach to helping students at risk of not graduating: get them in the ring. Fight profiles two of these young men: Rene Catcheway and Melvin Delorme. Both are Indigenous teens with troubled backgrounds. Melvin remembers his mother drinking and bringing home "random guys"-including one who tried to choke him. Rene lives on his own and is failing most of his courses. Enter the world of boxing. As Melvin and Rene push themselves through one gruelling workout after another (push-ups, skipping, sparring), they slowly come to understand that boxing is more a way of life than a sport. You don't box. You become a boxer-someone whose life is governed by discipline and respect. But boxing alone may not be enough to overcome a lifetime of figurative hard knocks. Melvin is committed to graduating and completing post-secondary studies. Rene is feeling more and more disillusioned with school. With Baleski in their corner, can they make it?

In episode 15, a talking dog comes to Talon in a dream, urging him to go for gold in golf at the Indigenous Games. Uncle Jacob trains him and might help Talon win - but at what cost to his relationship with his son, T-Bear? Wapos Bay is a light-hearted, stopmotion animation series that follows the adventures of a group of three children from a Cree community in northern Saskatchewan.