Embracing Mortality
Profiles of the subjects of our documentary ‘Embracing Mortaility’ for Telus ORIGINALS pitch.
Logline
When a 25 year old First Nations cancer survivor, agrees to share stories with a 78 year old white man with stage 4 cancer, the story takes unexpected turns as the two do a deep dive into the concept that “death always teaches us”.
Synopsis
Candid interviews bring the differences between First Nations traditions and Western ways of dealing with death to the surface. Young Sterling helps Jim get back to ‘touching his soul’ through conversations and ’deep nature’ experiences around the ‘Memento mori’ concept that is foundational to many First Nations traditions. In this often humorous and enlightening journey the objective is to help us see how each of us can come to terms with our own death.
iniipoka Sterling Peterson - main subject
Sterling, a 25 year old Blackfoot Indian is 6’2, muscular with high cheekbones and long dark hair. With strong opinions he can be quite stubborn. One of his greatest passions is learning the nsyilxcən language.
iniipoka ‘buffalo child’ is a central character to ‘Embracing Mortality’. As an activist he feels “It’s getting a little too weird out there.” His solution is we need to reconnect with the natural world and our spirituality.
Sterling’s Stəmtima (grandma) aka Mad Blanket, was one of the few elder language keepers and was also conversant with the Syilx Okanagan traditional ways. She felt Sterling was chosen to be the knowledge keeper to carry on after she died and had shared a good deal with him.
Sterling, who fought aggressive lymphoblastic lymphoma, agrees to meet with Jim to offer the benefit of his experience. Sterling, is no stranger to adversity - his brother shot himself, his father died when Sterling was young and his mother raised four kids singlehandedly in poverty. The remarkable strength forged within him helps him advise Jim and they work together so that he can learn how to ‘get in touch with his soul’.
When iniipoka feels disconnected he goes up to the mountains and sleeps rough for four days, without food. The fasts help him to reconnect.
Sterling still young at 25, has one foot in one world and the other in the Western world of travel, parties and entertainment. With a strong sense of responsibility to elders in his community, he is sometimes torn between letting loose or being responsible and working towards being the medicine man his grandmother always felt he would be.
James Miller - main subject
Jim is a fit 6’ tall white man in his 70’s with strong features and bright eyes. He is intense under his animated exterior. His hair has recently migrated from blonde to white. Jim is a ‘squirrel’ kind of guy… easily distracted by fast moving objects and it is sometimes hard to get his attention…
Jim Miller has done many Ironmans well, showing little fear. Even with his cancer diagnosis two years ago, his response was, “let’s mobilize and do what’s necessary to kick this.” Jim is a fighter having been raised in Quebec where he and the neighbouring First Nations kids battled it out on the hockey rink.
As a neurobiologist, inventor and Parkinson’s specialist, Jim is a go-getter immersed in many things. But there was one area where he had skirted around the edges. He had never had a lot of ‘me-time’ with his essence, his soul. And he doesn’t talk about his cancer with friends for fear of boring them with something they can’t relate to. Mostly they talk bikes and training.
In Jim’s journey two summers ago he allowed himself to be coerced into taking a course titled The Art of Spiritual Guidance on Cortes Island. He developed an affinity with instructor Autum O’Kane who became Jim’s spiritual guide. It was at this point that Jim first learned how to “touch his soul”. The experience captivated him. Ironically Autum died and Jim was left to deal with this newfound knowledge and his disease on his own.
Enter Sterling in the winter of 2025. Despite vast differences in age and background the two had the cancer experience in common. Through comparing notes and talking about mortality, they began to form a bond.
After their second meeting Sterling asked Jim if he would like to “go into the forest” to help him find his way back to his spirituality, through nature. Jim was fascinated by the idea but it scared him as it would mean having to meet himself there. He admitted avoiding that over the years with career busy-ness and training.
Will he go into the forest? Will he allow himself to re-align with spirit through nature? Stay tuned.
Jim's goal in agreeing to be part of ‘Embracing Mortality’ was to give others the opportunity to witness what it’s like to face death, for a medical man and to see things through a comparison of Western and First Nations medicine. Overall it’s about coming to terms with one’s mortality.
Heather MacLellan Miller - support
Heather, who stands at 5’3” is trim, neatly put together with never a hair out of place. She’s fastidious about most things in her life, especially her daily routine, art classes, yoga sessions and other means of self improvement. Both wise and responsible, Heather has been on a lifelong journey to improve herself through studying Buddhism or achievements such as walking the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain, on her own. She and Jim have been married for 55 years and have two children.
For a small woman Heather Miller is a powerhouse – she’s very strong minded. She and Jim often have passionate discussions where Heather’s is the last word.
She is also supportive of Jim and she organizes things around his daily life to ensure things run smoothly. Her background as a Palliative Care nurse as well as being one of the few female Chaplains in Canada have been critical in supporting Jim both spiritually and medically.
Heather is compelled to organize family events as to her, family is of the utmost importance. She’s the glue that keeps it all together and their home is often stuffed with family from Kelowna and Vancouver.
With the help of her own medical background, Heather has avidly researched Jim's cancer condition. Together they have worked to find the most effective treatment for Jim, with the goal to see his cancer go into remission. Heather fully backs Sterling in his goal of helping Jim in his spiritual quest.
Memegwaans Johnson-Owl - support
Memegwaans is a 25 year old beautiful and gentle soul who is the epitome of the expression “still waters run deep”. She is a member of Sagamok Anishinawbek First Nation, who grew up in Saskatchewan. She has a strong sense of right and wrong and has worked hard to become a lawyer in order to help in the building of sustainable economic enterprises for Indigenous communities. She is a loving partner to Sterling, a good gardener and is enjoying living the country life after moving from Vancouver to be with him. Mem is also a model with Vancouver’s all Indigenous SuperNaturals Agency.
Mem was faced with the loss of her father in 2022 and as a result, learned about coping with grief through a similar philosophy to her partner Sterling’s, about mortality. This has given the pair much in common and they share stories while filming, about how grief has affected them, both in good and bad ways. Mem shares her stories about her own pain especially in relation to her father who was a well known writer and was a man she looked up to in every way.
Dixon Terbasket - support
A loveable, humourous, angry, interesting, intimate, open, character and activist, Dixon is the former Cultural Resource Coordinator for the Okanagan Nation Alliance in Kelowna. Dixon has long traditional braids which he wears as part of his Indianism. Dixon is a confident and unique character known to many in the South Okanagan.
Dixon smudged two of the main characters who are central to our film. Neither had had the experience before and it was evident that they were both affected profoundly by the experience. Dixon is a great support character in our film. He took on the mammoth task of creating a community garden, which is essential point for bringing people together all over the South Okanagan film talking about getting back to the earth, which he believes we all need to do in order to get in touch with what's important.
For Dixon, like many First Nations people, there has been much personal tragedy in the family. Dixon had a son die in his arms, he lost his father, brothers, best friends and a number of other people close to him. His outlook on death is nothing short of freeing and he was instrumental in helping the filmmaker’s mother on her way to the ’spirit world’. He was also instrumental in a new awareness on death in the filmmaker herself.
Whitney Cardenas - support
Whitney is a horse wrangler, firefighter, and the FireSmart Coordinator for the Penticton Indian Band. She's also an in-demand singer in the local region. Cardenas, whose heritage includes Mexican DNA, is a Penticton Indian Band member, self-described as an “Indigenous creature, with a lil bit of spice”.
Whitney is in a much better place now than she was two years ago, having stopped drinking and learned to deal with the tragedy of losing her brother as well as her beloved horse within a month of each other.
Whitney has a unique approach to mortality and has shared her perspective and the practise of rituals one can undertake to make the newly departed have an easy journey going to the spiritworld.
The voice-over in our documentary is provided by Cardenas.
Chief Clarence Louie - support character
Chief Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band is about 5’10” with jet black hair and dark eyes. As a member of the Okanagan Valley people he is stocky and strong. He likes to wear leather Indian MC jackets and normally wears black MC boots and dark jeans.
Known as a tough guy who doesn’t take fools lightly. Impatient. Disarming honesty and non PC.
He famously has no time for ‘Indian time’ and says native people need to get off their asses and work, telling them to take responsibility for their lives: “If your life sucks, it’s because you suck.”
Death is a familiar topic to Chief Louie and he has learned in his own way to deal with it. We will be interviewing Chief Louie on his thoughts around the subject.
Len Supernault - writer + support character
FANCY DANCER, WRITER, SINGER
Len was a product of a family with intergenerational trauma caused by residential school. As a result, Lin was abused as a child and spent years trying to overcome addiction problems that were his escape from the reality of his life. Lin got into judo as a form of discipline to help him deal with the past has become very good at it beyond that he became a fancy dancer and makes his own regalia and is now very proud of us Indian heritage and the Williams Lake Indian band, which is where he comes from originally.
Len has written a story that we have acquired the rights to for our film. It's called ‘Embracing Mortality’ and is about a small boy who suffers a concussion and is taken on a journey to go back to his roots through a sweat lodge ceremony.
Angeliki Yiassemides - support
Angelikis a certified Jungian analyst with theInternational Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP), and a member of the Malta Developing Group. She is also a certified Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapist with the Mind Foundation (Berlin).
Dr Yiassemides is a Developmental Psychologist (MA, MPhil, Columbia University) and holds a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies with a focus on Analytical Psychology (Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex).
Angeliki had a long-lasting career in the field of education. She is a graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University (New York City) with more than a decade of experience in the field of early childhood and primary education in the United States. She founded and directed the non-profit Morningside Montessori Elementary (2017-2022) in Nicosia, Cyprus and is currently an educational consultant.
Dr. Yiassemides is a published Jungian scholar and has a private practice, and lives in Cyprus.