A self portrait by Michael “Cy” Cywink. Image courtesy of EagleEyes Media Productions
By Galen Simmons
For filmmaker Cory Bilyea, bringing the story of her longtime friend and mentor, the late Anishinaabe artist Michael “Cy” Cywink, to Stratford represents a full-circle journey decades in the making.
Bilyea’s documentary, The Creation Story of Michael ‘Cy’ Cywink, will be screened at the Falstaff Family Centre, 35 Waterloo St. N., on Sept. 12 at 2 p.m. Presented by Bilyea’s EagleEyes Media Productions and the Falstaff Family Centre, the two-hour film chronicles Cywink’s life, travels, art and decades spent sharing Anishinaabe culture and mentoring young people.
Bilyea first met Cywink in Toronto in the 1980s when she was a young Indigenous person who had been raised in a non-Indigenous home as part of the Sixties Scoop.
“I ended up meeting other Native people while I was there. Mike was one of them, and he started me on my learning journey, I guess is the best way to put it, about what being Indigenous means,” Bilyea said. “He’s been my best friend since I met him.”
The two eventually reconnected after Cywink spent years travelling and studying, and remained in touch despite living hours apart.
Around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cywink told Bilyea he wanted someone to make a documentary about his life. Bilyea, who had recently studied media production but had never made a documentary, volunteered.
“It was just grassroots. It was me, my camera and my tripod and the light,” she said. “I literally put the camera down, pushed record and just went, ‘Go.’ And he started to talk. It’s just amazing, the stories this guy has.”
Those stories span what Cywink called his “earth walk,” including the beginnings of his artistic career, his travels, his work mentoring Indigenous youth in Toronto and his time in the United States. The film also features three art demonstrations Cywink performed specifically for Bilyea’s camera.
An internationally celebrated artist and Indigenous teacher, Cywink painted hundreds of murals throughout his roughly 40-year career, including more than 50 in schools. Through those projects, Bilyea said he worked with Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, sharing the Seven Grandfather Teachings and demonstrating how art could be used for healing and learning.
“He was in his element when he was with the youth,” she said. “He just absolutely loved the next generation.”
Cywink died at 71 just two weeks before the documentary premiered at the Blyth Festival, transforming what had been a collaboration between two longtime friends into a tribute to his life and legacy.
Bringing that tribute to Stratford is especially meaningful for Bilyea. As a young person in the child-welfare system, she once lived in a group home directly across the street from what is now the Falstaff Family Centre.
“Returning to this exact physical space decades later, not as a child in the system, but as an Indigenous filmmaker bringing Cy’s healing and teachings to the community, feels incredibly destined,” Bilyea said. “It represents the exact kind of resilience, reclamation and full-circle healing that Cy championed throughout his life.”
With Truth and Reconciliation events continuing to grow locally, Bilyea said she hopes the screening gives Stratford-area residents a deeper understanding of Indigenous culture and the importance of preserving Indigenous stories through Indigenous voices.
“For too long, Indigenous stories have been told through an outside lens, which often leads to misrepresentation or lost nuances,” she said. “Control over the narrative ensures that our traditions, our humour and our history are portrayed accurately, respectfully and on our own terms.”
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