Under a sweltering July sky, participants in the sacred Sundance ceremony go four days without food or water. At the end of the gruelling experience they will pierce the flesh of their chests in an offering to the Creator. The Sundance is a ritual long misunderstood, and once banned - but one that is now helping to bring personal and social healing to East Coast Aboriginal communities. With The Sacred Sundance, First Nations director Brian J. Francis journeys into the traditions of North American Aboriginal spirituality. The Sundance is new to the Mi'kmaq people of Eastern Canada, brought to them from the West by elder William Nevin of the Elsipogtog First Nation. This event marks a unique transmission of traditional culture from one First Nation to another.