Retired senator Lillian Dyck on being the inspiration for new film Café Daughter

Cree playwright Kenneth T. Williams describes Lillian Dyck as a gentle warrior.

The retired senator, neuroscientist and champion of Indigenous women was the inspiration for a coming-of-age story which was recently adapted into a feature film.

"She's someone who fights for others," Williams said of Dyck.

"She's an amazing person and I knew this was a story that had to be told."

Dyck was the first First Nations woman to obtain her PhD in the sciences in Canada. When she was appointed to the Senate in 2005, she became the first female First Nations senator in Canada and the first Canadian-born Chinese senator.

Shelley Niro, a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) filmmaker from Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario, directed Café Daughter which is adapted from Williams's 2013 play of the same name.

"I was really honoured to be asked, and I was really drawn to the project because of Lillian Dick's story. I just found her incredibly strong," Niro told CBC Radio's Unreserved.

"I think with Canadian history the way it is, like we don't hear about the stories like Lillian."

Café Daughter stars Violah Beauvais as Yvette Wong, a young girl of mixed Cree and Chinese Canadian ancestry growing up in small-town Saskatchewan in the 1960s. The cast also includes Star Slade, Tom Lim, Sera-Lys McArthur, Evan Lau, Billy Merasty and Demaris Moon Walker.

It's inspired by Dyck's life. She was born in North Battleford, Sask., and is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant father and Cree mother from George Gordon First Nation. She grew up working in her family's café before shattering glass ceilings in the field of neuroscience, and later becoming a senator and advocate for Indigenous women.

Her mother had attended a residential school where she learned to be ashamed of her Cree identity. She told Dyck and her brother to pretend they were just Chinese, so they would face less racism. 

"One of the main messages I see in the movie is the wisdom and strength of people like my mom and how they got ahead despite the racism," she told Unreserved's Rosanna Deerchild.

"I faced a lot of discrimination as a woman scientist. I can remember saying to myself, if my mother could do what she did in her lifetime under the circumstances…. Well, then I would be damned if I was going to let some man push me out of my job."

Listen to Unreserved's episode on Café Daughter: 

Unreserved54:00Cafe Daughter: The Honourable Dr. Lillian Dyck

Cafè Daughter is a movie inspired by the life of a little girl with a secret that would drive her passion for science, advocacy, and ultimately lead her back home. At 78 years old the Honourable Dr. Lillian Eva Dyck is a former Canadian Senator, a highly respected neuroscientist, and a champion of Indigenous rights. Born in 1945 to a Chinese father and a Cree mother, Lillian grew up in small-town Saskatchewan working at her family's cafè. As a residential school survivor, her mother Eva was taught to be ashamed of her Cree identity and encouraged her children to keep that part of who they were hidden. Lillian’s life inspired first a play, and in October, a feature film called Cafè Daughter. The film is an adaptation of a play of the same name, by Cree playwright Kenneth T. WIlliams. Both Lillian and Kenneth are members of George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan and Kenneth says it was a fateful encounter with the former senator that sparked his creative flame. Mohawk filmmaker and director Shelley Niro was immediately drawn to the story because it reflected much of her own experiences. The same thing happened to Keith Lock, one of the first Chinese-Canadian filmmakers in Canada. He has been involved with Cafè Daughter since its early development as a play.

Keith Lock, executive producer of the film, said it sheds light on the little-known history and experiences of Chinese immigrants in Canada.

"A lot of people don't know this but the Chinese had a lot of restrictions, and one of them was that they couldn't hire white women to work in their businesses," he said.

"This history is not known. It's not known. It's not taught in schools. I think Café Daughter is telling a story that's never been told before."

For Dyck, she hopes the film will bring feelings of self-worth, pride, and confidence to young people who see the film.

"All of that helps you succeed at school," she said. 

"It helps you succeed in the workplace. It helps you to be happier."

Café Daughter premieres in Canada Sept. 22 at the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival.