Turning Points: Eric

Eric Wardell has been trying to piece together his own history for many years. He was taken from his parents at just three weeks old, in what is known as the “Sixties Scoop.” Eric also has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder, and has been in and out of jail. His story is an exploration of identity—what it means to discover who you are, and how your past shapes your future.

“I still have trauma in my life, I still have that you know, ‘why did my mother throw me away?’, but today I’m doing so much better.”

Eric wardell

Turning Points is a series of eight short films about alcohol use, addiction, and healing in Yellowknife, directed by the storytellers themselves. An outcome of Peter Klein’s 2016 Wall Solutions project “Turning Points: An Empowerment Connection Project for Indigenous People with Alcohol Dependence”, the video production provided a platform for people from Indigenous communities across the Canadian Arctic to connect, share their experiences and tap into storytelling traditions that have been used to connect and heal people for centuries.