Grace Dove embodies half a century of Indigenous history in Bones of Crows
The Secwépemc actor portrays lead character Aline Spears from the ages of 16 to 70 in the new mini-series
When Grace Dove first saw the script for Bones of Crows, she knew it was a project she had to be a part of.
"It's like nothing I've ever read before," she says.
The sprawling story takes place over a century, and follows the life of Aline Spears (played by Dove), a Cree matriarch, residential school survivor, and WW II code talker. First released as a film, Bones of Crows is now coming out as a mini-series, and tells a version of the story that is both longer and deeper. The film and the series were both written and directed by Dené/Métis filmmaker Marie Clements.
"I've known about her work for a long time," says Dove. "She's made a huge impact, not just on the Indigenous community but on the film industry as a whole. To be able to have an opportunity to work with her was very exciting."
Dove says that working on a project that spanned such a massive period of time required a lot of research — something that she was more than happy to do.
"One great thing that acting school taught me was to find fun in that, to find joy in the research," she says. "Because that's where all the work happens. You can't be on set figuring these things out. You need to know what people wear in that time, how they hold themselves. Where are we at as a community, as a country? What are the struggles going on in that decade?"
She put similar thought into portraying Aline's own personal journey — from the trauma of residential school, and later war, to living through the long-tail effects of those things, and then eventually finding healing.
"I had to really know my character because I played her from 16 until [her] 70s," she says. "I've never done character work like that… being so aware of my physicality, of my voice. Am I carrying pain and trauma at that time, or have I released something? Am I lighter?"
While Dove portrays Aline for most of the character's life, Summer Testawich plays a younger version. Dove says that she and Testawich were often on set at the same time, and that she watched the young performer's portrayal of the character and incorporated it into her own work.
"I didn't want to necessarily step on her process," she says. "But I could see her mannerisms and some of the way that she carries herself. So I thought, 'Well, if I can bridge the nine-year-old to the 16-year-old — if I can do that work — then we're doing pretty good…. Then I can grow up once I get to 16 and start moving throughout my life, and whatever choices I make I can make on my own."
The character of Aline Spears is Cree while Dove herself is Secwépemc from the Canim Lake Band in the British Columbia interior. This gave Dove the opportunity to learn about Cree culture, both on set and in her personal life — something she felt fortunate about.
"I think most of my best friends are Cree," she says. "I visited Alberta a lot. And then also, we have the internet. I don't know how actors would have done it in the past, but I can do one quick search and the amount of education and documentaries and information is incredible. And we had a lot of cultural advisors and elders on set, so it was really helpful to be able to ask questions from the other actors and from the elders that we had available to us."
Dove says that ultimately, the most important thing about this role and Bones of Crows as a whole is that it's part of a broader effort to move the conversation forward in terms of reconciliation between Canada and the First Nations.
"[Residential schools are] very close to all of our lives as Indigenous people," she says. "But so much of so-called Canada still has no idea how important these stories are… because we're not going to be able to move forward if we don't start learning more about it and being open to healing as a unit."
"A lot of non-Indigenous folks are [watching the movie and] saying, 'Wow. I had no idea.'" And that's exactly it. I think that there's still so much education that needs to happen — and if that conversation is starting from a TV series or a movie, that's why I'm here."
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