Little Bird, a limited series about a girl taken from her indigenous home in Saskatchewan and adopted into a Jewish family in Montreal, starts on PBS October 12. Darla Contois plays Bezhig Little Bird, who departs Long Pine Reserve in 1968 at age 5 and becomes Esther Rosenblum in Montreal. Her sister and brother too were separated from their mother, and eventually adopted.
There are six episodes.
In her 20s in the series, Bezhig searches for her family in the Canadian prairie. “As she begins to track down her siblings, she unravels the mystery behind her adoption and discovers that her apprehension was connected to a racist government policy, now known as the Sixties Scoop. Bezhig's sense of identity shatters, and she is forced to reckon with who she is and who she wants to become,” PBS shares.
Jennifer Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch created the series.
Lisa Edelstein portrays the mother who adopts Bezhig. She played Dr. Cuddy on hospital drama House.
After the first episode airs October 12, PBS will run the documentary Little Bird: Wanna Icipus Kupi (Coming Home).
Little Bird episodes debut Thursdays, with the finale on November 12.
Sylvia Bugg, PBS chief programming executive and general manager, told B+C that detailing the indigenous experience in America and beyond is a theme in PBS’s new programming.
