Genealogies of Film as Social Protest: A Lesson Plan for Exploring Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum in Conversation with Alanis Obomsawin’s Incident at Restigouche and Is the Crown at War with Us?

This lesson plan is focused on providing introductory-level students with both theoretical and practical bases with which to engage texts by Native writers, filmmakers, and artists on their own terms rather than those dictated by Western expectations. This approach asks students to take a “central concept” from a piece of secondary literature by a Native scholar and apply it to a film (which is a “core text” in this lesson plan) produced by a Native writer, filmmaker, or artist. Through this process, students learn to challenge the perspective that such texts are merely anthropological sources intended to inform non-Native audiences about the cultural dimensions of Native experience. Instead, students focus on the craft of these texts to better understand how diverse sources of expertise can be used to explore issues of public concern.

Here, I provide a framework to employ this modular approach in the classroom, focusing specifically on the late Mi’kmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby’s 2019 film Blood Quantum. I offer the following resources to support teachers in creating relevant in-class experiences: an annotated list of texts; rationale and outcomes for the session; an outline for a class session with prompts; and a guideline for adapting this lesson plan to engage with other texts.

Annotated Session Texts

Blood Quantum, directed by Jeff Barnaby (2019)

Incident at Restigouche, directed by Alanis Obomsawin (1984)Is the Crown at War with Us?, directed by Analis Obomsawin (2002)

These are the three core texts for this session. Students should be asked to view them ahead of time and be prepared to discuss them during the in-class session. Blood Quantum is a zombie horror film set on the fictional Mi’kmaq reserve of Red Crow. Dealing with the peculiar reality that Native peoples appear to have immunity to a quick-spreading zombie virus, it follows a number of interrelated interpersonal storylines to explore what we owe to each other during times of crisis. Incident at Restigouche is a real-time participatory documentary closely following two raids of the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation in 1983, when Quebec Provincial Police (QPP) attempted to enforce restrictions on Mi’kmaq salmon fishers. Is the Crown at War with Us? is a full-length documentary focused on another Mi’kmaq band, Esgenoôpetitj (or the Burnt Church First Nation), during conflicts between Mi’kmaq and non-Indigenous lobster fishers from 1999 to 2002. Barnaby’s film is widely available for institutional adoption through Kanopy and for individual access through many streaming services, including Shudder, YouTube, and AMC+. Obomsawin’s films are available for free on the National Film Board of Canada’s website.

Reservation Reelism: Redfacing, Visual Sovereignty, and Representations of Native Americans in Film (Raheja 2011)

In her book-length study of Native film history and theory, Seneca scholar Michelle Raheja develops a “genealogy of Indigenous film theory” (1) through which we can understand the history of filmmaking, including both representations of Native peoples in film history and creative productions by Native filmmakers and collaborators. For this session, I recommend having students read Raheja’s fifth chapter, “Visual Sovereignty, Indigenous Revisions of Ethnography and Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner),” which explains elements of her concept of “visual sovereignty.”

“Jeff Barnaby on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight: Interview,” Jeff Barnaby and George Stroumboulopoulos (2014)

This video interview occurred after Barnaby’s debut film Rhymes for Young Ghouls premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2013 and was widely praised by critics. In the interview, Stroumboulopoulos plays a clip of Incident at Restigouche for Barnaby—who is from the community and was alive during the incidents documented in the film—and asks him to respond. In his response, Barnaby draws a connection between his work and Obomsawin’s through the lens of “film as social protest” (4:20), which becomes a central theme in their conversation.

“Settler Forgetting in Saulnierville: The Sipekne’katik Mi’kmaw Fishery as Reminder,” Mercedes Peters (2020)

This article extends the timeline of the films in this lesson plan (1984, 2002, and 2019) into the contemporary moment by highlighting the ongoing conflict over fishing rights in the region. Written by Mi’kmaq historian Mercedes Peters, this essay focuses on the 2020 dispute over lobster fishing in traditional Sipekne’katik territory. Peters places this conflict within the historical context of the issues portrayed in Obomsawin’s films while also familiarizing students with current events.

“Arsons, Shooting, and Sabotage: Inside Canada’s Fight Over Lobster,” Vjosa Isai (2025)

Like the article above, this piece of long-form journalism from the New York Times continues to document the longstanding fights over fishing rights by tracing that history into the contemporary moment. Exploring lawsuits following the 2020 violence described in Peters’s essay, this article provides background and updates on the ongoing conflict with Sipekne’katik First Nation and across Nova Scotia.

Session Rationale, Outcomes, and Outline

Given the contemporary popularity of horror, Barnaby’s Blood Quantum provides a special opportunity to engage students in conversations about the historical and social contexts of film while emphasizing the ongoing significance of such discussions.1 This provides students with resources and practical skills to explore the genealogical connections between Barnaby’s film, which takes place on a fictional Mi’kmaq reserve, and two earlier documentaries by Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin about conflicts over Mi’kmaq fishing rights. At the same time, it encourages students to use the concept of “visual sovereignty” from Seneca scholar Michelle Raheja (2011) to ground their analysis of the craft elements central to Barnaby’s film.

There are four intended outcomes for this session:

1. To give students the skills necessary to engage the craft of Native writers, filmmakers, and artists rather than seeing their work through an anthropological lens or interpreting them as Native informants.
2. To enable students to place these particular films within the context of film history, especially (but not limited to) the work of Native directors.
3. To familiarize students with a scholarly secondary source and use this source to apply a particular interpretive framework for analysis.
4. To support students in expressing the contemporary relevance of Barnaby’s film as it relates to both the political and artistic legacies of which it is a part.

Though instructors can adjust the timing and structure depending on their needs, this outline assumes two distinct sections: first, an instructor-led discussion of the central concept (visual sovereignty) and historical context for the film’s contemporary relevance (focusing on Sipekne’katik First Nation since 2020). The second section is a group discussion of Blood Quantum that asks students to identify the three core elements of visual sovereignty presented in the film. They will also connect these elements to Obomsawin’s earlier documentaries.

Session Structure

Prior to the session, students should be asked to view the three films. Begin the class meeting by screening the interview between Barnaby and Stroumboulopoulos (2014). Identify both the personal and artistic connections that Barnaby has to Incident at Restigouche, inviting students to begin thinking about how these connections might carry across time (1984 and 2019) and genre (documentary and horror) by asking questions like: Why is Barnaby interested in horror as a genre? How does Barnaby draw a connection between his work and Obomsawin’s in a personal way? In an artistic way? What immediate connections do you see between Barnaby and Obomsawin’s films? What differences are there?

Then, use the next part of the session to provide instructor summaries of Raheja’s (2011) concept of visual sovereignty and to give historical background on the contemporary conflict at Sipekne’katik First Nation, and make links to the primary source materials (the films listed above) available on a learning platform like Canvas or Blackboard before the class session. In the discussion of visual sovereignty, the instructor can use this definition:

“Visual sovereignty is a practice that takes a holistic approach to the process of creating moving images and that locates Indigenous cinema in a particular historical and social context while privileging tribal specificity” (Raheja 2011, 194).

Emphasize these three core elements:

1. The specificity and cohesion of language, people, and location.
2. The relationship(s) between new and old technologies as well as contemporary and traditional stories or storytelling practices within films.
3. The presence and depictions of complex Native characters that don’t fall into typical tropes from the history of Native representation in Western film.2

In the next portion of the session, have students break into small groups to discuss where they see each of these three core elements at work in Blood Quantum, beginning with the opening scene where an elder, Gisigu, goes fishing at dawn and finds that his catch continues to live after being gutted. To open up discussion, use this question: Given the historical context, why might Barnaby have chosen to start his film this way? How does it relate to these aspects of visual sovereignty?

In the conversation that follows, the instructor can act as a facilitator, drawing connections between the central concept of “visual sovereignty” and the text(s). Some particularly useful elements to emphasize might be: Barnaby’s use of Mi’kmaq language throughout; the integration of old stories into the horror genre; how each character represents differing engagements with legacies of violence; the centering of Native actors, including Sámi and Blackfeet filmmaker Elle Máijá-Tailfeathers and Mohawk actor Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (with whom Barnaby also collaborated in his debut film); the intergenerational conversations in the film; the prominence of the landscape in the cinematography; and the significance of establishing shots throughout.3

Finish the session by inviting students to reflect on how the film acts as a form of social protest, drawing on the language that Barnaby uses in the interview to describe the influence of Obomsawin’s artistic practice on his own.

Directions for Future Engagement

The approach provided here is modular, making it widely applicable and adaptable to the study of Native and Indigenous literatures, broadly defined. Its main goal is to encourage instructors to provide students with secondary materials grounded in Native and Indigenous studies (ideally by Native and Indigenous authors) to help interpret creative texts. In this, students are given the tools necessary to move away from the interpretive literary frameworks drawn from Western histories in favor of those that arise from specific tribes and nations. Using this model of introducing a central concept to apply to a core text works across a variety of genres and disciplines. It supports students in developing clear and shared language for discussion, rooted in relevant fields that bridge both academic and popular milieus.

1 For more on the rise of Indigenous horror, see Alicia Elliott’s “The Rise of Indigenous Horror: How a Fiction Genre is Confronting a Monstrous Reality” (2019); for more on the mainstream acceptance of horror, see Megan McCluskey’s “It’s Time for the Oscars to Take Horror Seriously” in Time Magazine (2025).

2 For instance, Barnaby’s debut film inspired Anishinaabe writer Ali Nahdee to develop “The Aila Test,” a tool based on the Bechdel Test and named after the main character of Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) that encourages viewers to assess the complexity of Native women’s representation in film (Vassar 2020).

3 In filmmaking, an establishing shot sets the mood, tone, and/or context of a scene; generally, they foreground significant characters and/or symbols and tend to be longer than average. For this activity, instructors may want to draw students’ attention to the ways land and setting are represented both visually and in the film’s pacing.

Theresa Warburton is an educator and organizer from the East Coast who now lives in Washington State. Her work focuses on the relationships between the shapes of stories and social movements, with a special emphasis on Native and Indigenous literatures from North America and Oceania and their importance in anarchist and abolitionist movements today.