Ragged Company

“We moved from a world of bush and rock and river to one of brick and fences and fields. There we were made to speak English, to forget the sacred ways of our people, and to learn to kneel before a cross we were told would save us. It didn’t.”

Amelia recounts how her siblings and her were sent to missionary schools after their parents’ deaths. In depicting this part of Amelia’s history, Wagamese draws from his personal experience as well as the reality in Canada during the Sixties Scoop (a government program that placed Indigenous orphans with foster families). Wagamese’s work regularly draws attention to issues faced by Indigenous communities in Canada, including the erasure of culture and tradition.

“You live on concrete long enough, you pick up the nature of it: cold, hard, and predictable. It’s called survival and every rounder knows it. Me, I’m a rounder.”

Digger describes his life as a “rounder” and how he came to be one. This passage accurately pinpoints Digger’s character as well as his motivations for being the way he is—his barriers are up, and he doesn’t succumb to emotion and feeling, as it’s a question of his survival on the streets. Part of his story is his learning to adapt and let go of this mentality when he’s thrust into a different kind of life, where the “rounder” rules don’t apply.

“Guess that movie made me wonder if other people know stuff. Like where you been. What you done. What you was feelin’ sometimes.”

Dick describes to Digger how he feels after watching Cinema Paradiso. Dick’s simplistic summation reveals why movies affect him and the rest of the group as deeply as they do: They tell stories, and most people can relate at some level to stories about human experience and emotion.