From a media release:
Indigenous-owned production company Acimow Media has optioned the award-winning book On Savage Shores (Knopf) by the UK author and historian Caroline Dodds Pennock (pictured above right).
In On Savage Shores, Pennock brings to light the stories of countless Indigenous people from the Americas—Aztec, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit, Iroquois, and others—who were taken to Europe against their will as slaves, household servants, performers, translators, and religious converts following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 and continuing until the early 20th century. Many of the abducted Indigenous people died in Europe, while some survived but were permanently removed from their families, communities, and cultural traditions. In some rare cases, Indigenous abductees would marry in Europe and become powerful members of their new communities.
Acimow Media is developing Pennock’s book into a three-part docu-drama series called On Distant Shores, which will focus on the stories of three explorers and the Indigenous people they abducted: Christopher Columbus and Diego; Jacque Cartier and Taignoagny and Domagaya; and Sir Walter Raleigh and Wanchese and Manteo. Each episode of the series will focus on the histories that took place in these European countries—Spain, France, and England.
“I am thrilled to be working with Barbara Hager to bring these important and often overlooked Indigenous histories to a wider audience,” said Pennock. “The lives of Native travellers—diplomats, explorers, ‘curiosities’, enslaved people and many others—so rarely form part of the popular imagination. Acimow Media, an Indigenous-owned and focused production company, is the perfect partner to change that, and to communicate how and why these histories matter.”
In addition to her writing career, Pennock is also a senior lecturer in international history at the University of Sheffield. She has appeared on history series for the BBC, Netflix, and the Science Channel, and has written for BBC History Magazine, History Today, and Scientific American.
“When I first read Caroline Dodds Pennock’s book that recounts dozens of real-life stories of Indigenous people who were taken to Europe after 1492, I knew I wanted to make a documentary series about this important post-contact history,” said Hager (pictured above left). “Dr. Pennock’s brilliant book brings to life the harrowing and heartbreaking experiences of Indigenous people from every part of the Americas who were taken from their families and communities, against their will, by such celebrated explorers as Christopher Columbus, Walter Raliegh, Jacques Cartier, and others.”
Métis/Cree producer Barbara Todd Hager is a Canadian filmmaker who has directed four documentary series and five one-off documentaries to her credit, including the award-winning docu-drama series, 1491: The Untold Story of the Americas Before Columbus (APTN, ZDFE) based on the best-selling book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.
