Back to the Fire, is a 6 -part documentary series that takes viewers inside the lives of renowned International Indigenous leaders. Each episode focuses on a single leader, exploring their unique lives, and the traditional teachings and values that propelled them through adversity and onto success.

The series is the brainchild of Chief Gibby Jacob (Squamish), a powerful land-rights negotiator and one of Canada’s most influential First Nations leaders. Gibby was looking for a way to preserve the valuable teachings of his ancestors and share them with today’s Indigenous youth who have been denied the opportunity to learn from their elders. The result is this groundbreaking series in which Gibby and many other prominent leaders take viewers “back to the fire” —to the sacred place where sage wisdom is shared and passed down—to reclaim values and language and repair a traditional teaching cycle broken by colonialism and its attendant atrocities.

In season one, we meet Indigenous leaders on their ancestral lands across Canada and visit the meaningful people and places that shaped their lives. Each episode pairs extraordinary personalities from disciplines as varied as the environment, education, activism, politics, spiritual healing, business and the arts, who share deeply personal stories about life, language, culture, history and the universe. Their extraordinary experiences reveal how ancient values helped guide them through traumatic times and shaped them into successful leaders and inspirations for the next generation.

Like most docs, it is both educational and entertaining, but it transcends the norms of the genre. Back to the Fire is at once an adventure tour, a spiritual journey, a cultural awakening, and a rallying cry.  It is the perfect series for our troubled times—illustrating the benefits of sustainability, culture and language preservation, community building, and, yes, reconciliation. The show seeks to reconcile all people in the broadest sense, bridging differences and celebrating our common humanity. It is shot in the style of the best non-fiction shows—casting an artful lens on fascinating people and majestic landscapes rarely captured on camera.

Designed for a global audience, subsequent seasons/episodes will take us further afield, profiling leaders in Central and South America, New Zealand, Australia, and beyond, demonstrating how the traditional values of First Peoples remain urgently relevant the world over.