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Event 02 / September 22

September 22

#skoden
Poster for #skoden: Reclaiming a Meme, Reclaiming a Life, a screening and panel discussion on September 22 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Jenkins Theatre.
September
22
2026 / Tuesday
Event poster / Journey to Indigenization: Truth, Reconciliation & DecolonizationJenkins Theatre
Screening + panel75 min documentary

#skoden — Reclaiming a Meme, Reclaiming a Life

A documentary screening and public conversation about digital culture, memory, documentary ethics, and Indigenous-led reclamation.

DateTuesday, September 22, 2026
Time1:00–3:00 p.m.
PlaceJenkins Theatre · Mount Royal University

Through interviews, archival searching, community testimony, and on-the-ground remembering, #skoden traces the rise of the “skoden” meme while working to recover Pernell Bad Arm’s humanity from the image that circulated in his place.

Director Damien Eagle Bear refrains from reproducing the meme. Instead, the film foregrounds family, friends, community members, and the social worlds that shaped Pernell’s life in Lethbridge, while attending to the structural forces — residential school, poverty, addiction, and housing instability — that rendered him both visible and invisible.

The film asks what changes when a person made into an online symbol is returned to story, relation, grief, and community memory.

Programme / Panel + screening

After the screening

Skoden — Reclaiming a Meme, Reclaiming a Life

Reparative storytelling

Facilitated by Vicki Bouvier, the conversation turns to documentary ethics, digital culture, community-centred filmmaking, and the responsibilities involved in reclaiming a life from a meme.

The panel will discuss the decision not to reproduce the meme, the methods used to recover Pernell Bad Arm’s story, collaboration with family and community, and the film’s effort to shift how Indigenous people are represented online and offline.

Facilitator
Vicki BouvierMRU faculty
Director
Damien Eagle BearKainai filmmaker and director of #skoden
Panellist
Mark Brave RockFriend of Pernell Bad Arm and featured in the film
Panellist
Joe BoysisSociology student
Approximate program sequence

Watch. Talk. Gather.

The organizers supplied the following segment lengths. They are presented as an approximate sequence within the advertised 1–3 p.m. event window, followed by a small reception.

5 minWelcome + land acknowledgment
10 minDirector remarks
75 minScreening of #skoden
25 minPanel conversation
15 minAudience Q&A
AfterSmall reception
Presented during

Journey to Indigenization: Truth, Reconciliation & Decolonization

This screening and discussion is organized by MRU colleagues as part of Journey to Indigenization: Truth, Reconciliation & Decolonization. ERPL is featuring it here as a community event of particular relevance to questions of representation, public memory, Indigenous storytelling, and ethical research practice.

D.A. DirksVicki BouvierMary-Lee Mulholland
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