"Lost birds"a term for Native children adopted out of their tribal communities. Right after the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 became the law of the land, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter was adopted into a white family and raised with no knowledge of her Native parentage. This beautiful and intimate film follows Kendra on her journey to find her birth mother April, also a Native adoptee, and return to her Lummi homelands in Washington State. With a sensitive yet unflinching lens, director Brooke Swaney (Blackfeet/Salish) documents Kendra and April as they connect with relatives and navigate what it means to be Native, and to belong to a tribe from the outside looking in. Along the way, Kendra uncovers generations of emotional and spiritual beauty and pain and comes to the startling realization that she is a living legacy of U. S. assimilationist policy. By sharing a deeply personal experience of inherited cultural trauma, the film opens the door to broader and more complicated conversations about the erasure of Native culture and questions of identity surrounding adoption.

DAUGHTER OF A LOST BIRD

Kendra, an example of cultural assimilation and a modern representation of the painful phrase, "Kill the Indian, save the man." reconnects with her Lummi identity, as this film explores the ethics surrounding Native American adoption.

Following the film join us here post-film discussion with Utah Foster Care’s Stephanie Benally and Associate Professor at the University of Utah College of Social Work’s Dena Ned, and moderated by Utah Film Center’s Russell Roots. Closed captions available.

Post-Film Discussion

With Stephanie Benally (Utah Foster Care) and Dena Ned (Associate Professor/Lecturer at the University of Utah College of Social Work). Closed Captions are available.

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