Snowboarder Liam Gill explores his N.W.T. roots in documentary now online
A short film about Olympic snowboarder Liam Gill and his return to his family's homeland of Fort Simpson, N.W.T., is now streaming online.
Footage for the 17-minute documentary film Gill Crescent was collected after Gill competed in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and it shows his first visit to Fort Simpson since he was two years old.
His grandmother is from Fort Simpson and Gill is a member of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation. He was born and raised in Calgary.
Since that first return visit to Fort Simpson in 2022, Gill has been back to the N.W.T. multiple times.
"Right after the first trip, I knew I was coming back," he said.
Gill Crescent was crafted from hours of footage gathered during Gill's 2022 visit and his later trips. It shows him working at snowboarding clinics with youth in Fort Simpson as well as in Yellowknife and Fort Smith.
Gill calls the film "beautiful."
"I've gone up there four years now and every time I meet some sort of new family — and it really does just feel like a second home," he said.
Gill said he has seen the youth he's worked with improve each time he's visited and he's also learned a lot from being in the N.W.T.
"Growing up in Calgary is, you know, created a big disconnect with my culture," he said.
"And over the past couple years, being, you know, taught from the youth or the elders, I've actually taken it to like, world cups and contests — you know, I'll do like my own little tobacco feeding ceremony."
The documentary film was produced by Alberta snowboarder Finn Westbury.
"The North is unlike anywhere else. It's incredibly special," Westbury said.
Westbury said it was also special watching Gill develop a relationship with the youth he worked with.
"There's this kind of like, mutual respect from both ways," Westbury said.
"It's incredibly inspiring for me. You know, you can see firsthand that somebody's the role model, and that's a very cool thing to be able to witness."
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