When Lorne Olson was a young boy, growing up on the Broken Head Reserve in Manitoba, a teacher told him that “Indians are like apples – they may be red on the outside but on the inside they are white, just like the rest of us.”

He may not have thought much about it at the time, but these words, the same ones heard by so many others, marked the beginning of journey for Lorne to seep through the prejudices of colonial society and come to terms with himself… as an Indigenous Native American Aboriginal First Nation Indian!?

In 2006 Lorne produced a short film about his journey, which he titled, Apples and Indians.

“My subtle message in the film is that we have to ultimately decide who we are. It’s not in a book somewhere, it’s not an agency, it’s not the government. You have to come to terms with that at some point,” says Lorne, who hopes to a create a full-length documentary to expand on the issue.

“Your identity should come from your own inner search and your own inner origins.”

As for Lorne… he’s not Indigenous, Native American, Aboriginal, First Nation, or Indian. He’s Anishinabe.