Sacred Gift
Canada
ISN Community Film Event: Best Film Award
The ISN Community Film Event provides a powerful platform to showcase compelling stories about those affected by kidney diseases. The films help raise awareness of preventative health measures and the need for equitable access to kidney care services, helping to improve patient outcomes worldwide. Selected films reach a global audience at the WCN.
This year’s winner is the film SACRED GIFT, based upon the true story of First Nations brothers Kevin and Craig Settee. In Canada, and globally, there is limited discussions by Indigenous peoples about organ donation and transplantation, including discussions about living donation. However, high rates of kidney disease and end-stage kidney failure exist in many Indigenous populations, including Canada. Despite these elevated rates of kidney disease, many Indigenous people who require a kidney transplant know nothing about living kidney donation.
The animated film was created in 2023-2024 and is about bringing awareness about living donation through Indigenous story telling. The creative team worked collectively to tell this story in a way that will spark conversation across their Indigenous nations and globally. The film will be translated into Indigenous languages in Canada, and it will be shared across Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations in Canada and globally. The team also wanted to raise awareness about the struggles that all children, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, face when living with chronic illness and to the promise of living kidney donation as a “sacred gift” that gives life. This work is part of their larger work promoting Indigenous patient-oriented research and knowledge translation that is grounded in the lived experience of Indigenous patients, families, and communities. Unfortunately, Indigenous populations globally do not receive much attention at international forums, specifically in the area of organ donation and transplantation.
The film was submitted by:
Caroline Tait (Metis), Indigenous Platform Lead, Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Canada; Sean Muir (First Nations), Indigenous Story Studio, Canada; Kevin Settee (First Nations), Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, Canada; Craig Settee (First Nations), Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, Canada
The film will be shown on February 7, 2025, in the ISN Community Film Event session from 1-1:30 p.m. in the Amphitheatre (ISN Agora).