Looks like B.C.'s commercial-free public educational broadcaster Knowledge (formerly Knowledge Network) is boosting its First Nations content with a year-long programming initiative in addition to documentary commissions.

Knowledge announced today that they will be commissioning Vancouver's Bliss Productions to create documentaries about B.C.'s First Nations languages.

First Nations filmmakers will include:
Ӣ Anishinaabe director Lisa Jackson ( Reservation Soldiers );
Ӣ Heiltsuk/Mohawk director Zoe Leigh Hopkins ( One-Eyed Dogs Are Free );
Ӣ Swampy Cree director Kevin Lee Burton ( Nikamowin/Song );
Ӣ Tsilhqot'in director Helen Haig-Brown ( Su Naa ).

They'll be working with executive producer Sharon Bliss ( Urban Goddess—Jane Jacobs Reconsidered ), coproducer Marilyn Thomas of Saulteaux First Nation ( Ayaa: A Hero's Journey ), and coproducer Catrina Longmuir of the National Film Board's Our World, which helps First Nations youth create digital shorts.

13 languages and communities will be showcased (there are 32 First Nations languages in B.C.) The documentaries will be broadcast in the spring of 2010.

Before that, this fall marks the launch of a programming focus on aboriginal people.

It'll commence with the Canadian premiere of First Australians (on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. from September 15). The aborigine-made, seven-part series delineates 200 years of history between British colonists and the indigenous populations of Australia, from first contact in 1788 to a landmark court case in 1993.

The majority of the programming focuses on Canadian material. Highlights include:
Ӣ Chiefs , a six-part series about North American First Nations leaders (Fridays at 7 p.m. from September 18);
Ӣ I'tusto: To Rise Again (September 16), which documents the Namgis First Nation's reconstruction of their Big House, which an arsonist destroyed, in Alert Bay, B.C. ;
Ӣ T'lina: The Rendering of Wealth (September 23), a look at how the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation's traditional harvest of euclachon (a small fish which produces t'lina, an oil used in their culture and economy) is threatened by the species being depleted by habitat destruction, logging, and shrimp nets;
Ӣ The Lynching of Louie Sam (October 7), an examination of an incident in 1884 when 100 Americans crossed the border into B.C. and hung a 14-year-old Sto:lo boy for a crime he didn't commit, and how two B.C. provincial police officers endeavoured to bring about justice.

For a full list of shows, visit the Knowledge Web site.