Case Study

A documentary profile capturing the unprecedented design partnership between Cowichan Tribes and Cowichan Valley School District—a collaboration that redefined what Indigenous-led education spaces can be.

The Challenge

The Cowichan Valley School District's Indigenous Education Department needed to document a historic milestone: the first BC school designed in true partnership with Indigenous Elders and community members. The stakes were significant—this collaboration represented tangible reconciliation work that could model a path forward for districts across the province.

The complexity? The initial design process began during COVID under a previous district leadership team. With some additional technological hurdles, we had to reconstruct a multi-year story with gaps in the record, multiple audiences ranging from community insiders to the general public, and a narrow window before key personnel—including the outgoing principal—left their roles. The challenge wasn't just making a video; it was preserving institutional knowledge of a process that couldn't be lost.

The Approach

The solution started with relationships, not cameras. I reconnected with the previous communications director and scheduled interviews with the departing principal during his final week—capturing perspectives that would have vanished otherwise. To fill archival gaps, we sourced historical imagery and designed interview questions that reconstructed the timeline through lived memory rather than documentation.

The narrative structure emerged through collaboration with Indigenous Education staff, Cowichan Tribes members, and district Elders—ensuring the story reflected their priorities, not mine. Questions focused on concrete process and timeline, making the significance accessible whether viewers were intimately familiar with the project or encountering it for the first time.

Visually, I shot handheld with strategic gimbal movement to honor the architectural details—the salmon pathways, gathering place poles, river-facing orientation—treating each design element as a character in the story. Interviews took place in the S'amuna' Gathering Place itself, following cultural protocol: full attention, clear intention, and questions formulated directly with a district Elder to ensure appropriateness and depth.

The Outcome

This project succeeded where the circumstances suggested it might fail: a complete, culturally grounded documentation of a groundbreaking partnership, captured despite missing archives, and personnel transitions. The two films—one profiling Quw'utsun Secondary School's design, the other exploring S'amuna' Gathering Place—will be distributed by the Cowichan Valley School District across their platforms in spring 2026.

The work has already earned positive internal feedback, with formal community and departmental screenings planned. More significantly, we preserved the voices and process details of a collaboration that can now serve as a reference point for future collaborative school designs across BC.

PROJECT DETAILS

• Client: Cowichan Valley School District, Indigenous Education Department

• Format: Documentary profile (two separate films)

• My Role: Full production (directing, shooting, editing, interviewing)

• Producer: Hannah Morales

• Timeline: Summer 2025 – February 2026

• Deliverables: Two complete documentary profiles

• Key Subjects: District Elders, Cowichan Tribes Elders, school administrators, Indigenous Education staff

CREATIVE INSIGHT

The critical decision was prioritizing people over process. Rather than scrambling to recreate lost documentation, we identified the right voices—those who lived the collaboration—and worked with Indigenous staff to craft questions that would surface the story authentically. The result feels less like a corporate case study and more like oral history: rooted, layered, and told by those who made it happen.