The Mountain of SGaana

The animated film featured in Orcas: Our Shared Future, The Mountain of SG _aana, spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the underwater world and the woman who rescues him. Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter’s dreamlike gem brilliantly entwines traditional animation with formal elements of Haida art. Curator of art and images India Young took a moment to speak with Christopher about the film.

Kuuga Kuns preparing to visit the Underwater World. Film still courtesy of the National Film Board.

By Dr. India Young Curator of Art and Images

An Interview with Director Christopher Auchter

India Young: How did the film come about?

Christopher Auchter: A new executive producer at the National Film Board, Shirley Vercruysse, was interested in bringing animation back to Vancouver [after a long absence]. It was good timing.

I was interested in telling a Haida story; I'm just very interested in our history and I was able to read different stories of ours. I grew up commercial fishing with my grandfather. I spent a lot of time on the water, and this [story] has to do with the supernatural underwater world. The conventional story is of Naa-Naa-Simgat’s love being taken away by a Killer Whale, and he has to try to get her back. My story is the other way around. Naa-NaaSimgat gets taken by the orca, and his love, Kuuga Kuns, goes on the adventure to try to bring him back from the supernatural world.

India Young: I really appreciated that you switched the normal roles of that story.

Christopher Auchter: It's a bit of the way I grew up. We grew up around my aunts and my grandma and my mom. They're all really strong, strong people. When I went to Haida Gwaii to show the film to my Haida community, I didn't know how people would take that. But I told them, you know, I just don't think a Haida woman would be sitting around waiting for a man to come and rescue her, and they all laughed. I think it was okay.

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Fisherman sees Mouse Woman. Film still courtesy of the National Film Board.

India Young: How did you choose just one song in an otherwise non-verbal film?

Christopher Auchter: It started out as a talking film, but in preproduction I changed that plan and shifted to, for lack of a better term, a silent film. Language won't be a barrier. A person from any language, any culture, can take it in. Another reason is that our Haida language is kind of going away. If we're not careful we're going to lose it altogether. That lack of language is almost a statement of the lack of our own cultural language for reasons that are complex.

People in our community, the elders particularly, are working hard to keep it alive and bring it back and make sure that it's here, and younger ones are starting to pick it up. [When] I was talking to [Haida artist and language learner] Jaalen Edenshaw, he said, “Well, you know, SG _

aana, it means both ‘supernatural’ and ‘Killer Whale.’” I was like, “Oh, that's perfect.” It was a chance for myself to be able to learn that story and to shine a light on that part of our history.

The song was composed for a fellow who had been saved from drowning, to say thank you to that person who saved him. It essentially means, we're here having a good time because of you. Kuuga Kuns thinks of that song because X _ agu [the Halibut] saves her from drowning and brings her to the place where she wanted to be— the supernatural world. India Young: I was very interested in how you morphed time through the film.

Christopher Auchter: Time moves differently when you're in the supernatural world. When Naa-Naa-Simgat comes out of the supernatural world, their village has gone. Even though it didn't feel like they were in there that long, all of this time had zipped by. It speaks to [how] smallpox [affected the Haida] and the fact that there's all these villages that needed to be abandoned when everybody moved into Skidegate and Masset.

Also, I played with time even further. The fisherman is being distracted by modern day and new technology, not really paying attention to his environment. Mouse Woman snaps him to attention. And this is really a metaphor for a modern person, in this particular case, a Haida person connecting with our culture. The fisherman literally throws the rope to Kuuga Kuns and pulls them in. It’s like he's pulling his culture closer to him, pulling the story closer to him. That's why Mouse Woman is telling him this story.

To see the film in its entirety, come visit Orcas: Our Shared Future. Keep a keen eye out for other renditions of Naa-Naa-Simgat, Kuuga Kuns and SG _

aana.