From God to Man, Gath &amp; K'iyh: Listen to Heal, Mother Father Blood, Tahnaanooku', We Going Home Now short films

On the day Lansana Mansaray was born, a tree was planted in his name in his father’s Limba village. Now an Emmy and Peabody nominated filmmaker, Mansaray returns to the same village to better understand the essential relationship that Limbas share with the trees that define every aspect of community life.

From God to Man

Trees define every aspect of the village community life.

Kuwarddewardde – the rock country – is home to the Bininj Nawarddeken, people who have always inhabited a remote corner of what is known today as Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. For millennia, they looked after the rock country, taking care of it for their ancestors and their children. Fire was one of their main tools and Bininj Nawarddeken actively burned areas of the savanna grasslands woodlands and rainforests to protect them from large, devastating wildfires. But in the late 18th century, British colonialization disrupted the Bininj Nawarddeken’s connection to the land and their traditional use of fire. The result was the spread of massive wildfires that decimated pristine ecosystems.

We Going Home Now

British colonialization disrupted the Bininj Nawarddeken’s connection to the land and their traditional use of fire

A grandmother. A source of existence. A portal to other worlds. For thousands of years, the Indigenous Peoples of what is now known as North and South Dakota co-existed reciprocally with the Missouri River, its waters offering life while also inspiring legends and languages. In Tahnaanooku’, filmmaker Justin Deegan takes an experimental approach to the severing of this relationship between his community — the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara — and the river, the result of over 80 years of US government efforts to control the Missouri, including via the Garrison Dam. Seen through the eyes of Deegan’s mother, Darline, Tahnaanooku’ intertwines past, present, and future, land and language, dreams and reality. The staunching of the Missouri contrasts with a fluid streak of horses, the diminished river currents interweave with the light of the aurora borealis. In dreams, Darline — a designer, activist, mother, and grandmother — receives messages from the original Mother, Earth itself. Meanwhile, the stark visual backdrop of the Garrison Dam offers an immovable reminder of the ruinous history of the Pick-Sloan Plan, deemed by legendary historian Vine Deloria Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux) to be ”the single most destructive act ever perpetrated on any tribe by the United States.” Glimpsed in ceremony, Darline (one of the last speakers of the critically endangered ancient Arikara language) offers care to a fellow grandmother and shares hope for the generations to come.

Tahnaanooku'

Tahnaanooku’ takes an experimental approach to the severing of the relationship between a community and their river.

Throughout the island of Borneo, an explosion of palm oil plantations has led to mass deforestation and forced many Indigenous Peoples to allow logging of their sacred forests in exchange for immediate profits.

Mother Father Blood

A youth from Borneo receives the gift of story – how her community halted logging and deforestation.

Gath and K’iyh: Listen to Heal is a poetic exploration of a community-led creative arts project aimed at understanding and restoring our relationship with gath (king salmon) and k’iyh (birch) relatives as we navigate our feelings around climate change in Alaska. Guided by the wisdom of Ahtna Elder Fred John, it invites viewers to pause, listen, sing and dream together and ask how we might be in better relationship to the natural world around us.

Gath & K'iyh: Listen to Heal

Pause, listen, sing and dream together and ask how we might be in better relationship to the natural world around us.

Indigenous Voices - a shorts program

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