“We’re here as guests, and we’re here to be as careful and as responsible as we can be.”
– Thomas Belt, from “ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught)” by Brit Hensel and Keli Gonzales (Cherokee Nation)
When people lighten our footprints on the planet, the Earth heals itself. This therapeutic occurs extra readily once we adhere to a apply of reciprocity with the land, by which we are inclined to the land whereas solely taking from it what we want—versus the extractive practices of settler tradition. When residing in reciprocity with the lands we reside on, water and air turn out to be clearer, animals reclaim territory and the land turns into more healthy.
The easy but profound worth of reciprocity conjures up a questioning that is still pressing: How can every of us study from Indigenous methods of being in relationship with the land and understanding extra about our cultures?
This is the inspiration for Reciprocity Project, a collaborative effort between Nia Tero, a world nonprofit uplifting Indigenous land sovereignty via coverage and storytelling, and Upstander Project, which uplifts silenced narratives via movie and training, in affiliation with REI Co-op Studios. Reciprocity Project is a collection of quick movies made by Indigenous filmmaking groups in several communities, every exploring the query: What does reciprocity imply to you?
The challenge is rooted within the data that Indigenous peoples and communities have been in good relationship with—and talking the language of—this land because the starting of time. Diverse Indigenous worth methods supply a path ahead.
Starting this Indigenous Peoples Day, all seven quick movies within the first season of the Reciprocity Project can be found to view on the REI Co-op YouTube Channel.
“It was like something that was lost, something that was stolen, was gifted back to me, and it felt like it just belonged there.”
– Brianna Smith, from “Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet to Come)” by Geo Neptune and Brianna Smith (Passamaquoddy)
One of our objectives with Reciprocity Project is to repeatedly construct on and assess our personal accountability practices with group, and to attempt to remove extractive or exploitative practices. The documentary movie business has an ongoing colonial legacy of profiting from group members as “consultants,” bringing them in towards the tip of a challenge with the intention to legitimize it, fairly than partaking them early on within the creation and manufacturing course of. In an try to restore a few of that historical past, we sought to create movies with and for Indigenous communities. From the beginning, every Reciprocity Project filmmaker labored with somebody inside their very own group—not as a “consultant,” however as a substantive and important companion, grounding the movie in authenticity, communal data and mutual respect.
Additionally, the Indigenous communities documented in these homeland-centered tales have been additionally their first viewers: Only after sharing the movies with the communities did we transfer ahead in in search of broader distribution and recognition. This, too, is a type of reciprocity.
“If you learn well, then you will teach the children.”
– Reverend Trimble Gilbert, from “Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of Our Ancestors)” by Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Alisha Carlson (Gwich’in)
Reciprocity Project isn’t merely a set of quick movies: It is a component of a bigger paradigm shift. In addition to the movies, Reciprocity Project features a wealthy media ecosystem of studying supplies, dialogue questions, filmmaker roundtable movies, photographs, podcasts and extra, out there at Reciprocity.org. This is a part of an ongoing training for these with whom these vibrant, medicinal tales resonate—individuals who will not be Indigenous, however who care deeply concerning the setting and search to contribute to its therapeutic. Reciprocity Project is for all of us.
“One thing I really want to change through ‘Ma’s House’ is to actually transform the public perception of Shinnecock, where we are a modern place, where we have history being celebrated.”
– Jeremy Dennis, from “Ma’s House” by Jeremy Dennis (Shinnecock)
These movies share an pressing message: The time to behave to heal the planet is now.
Listening to our elders, appreciating and incorporating their data, and serving to to spark studying among the many younger individuals in our communities are methods to open house for recent concepts and methods ahead. The Reciprocity Project movies may additionally encourage you to pay attention—actually pay attention—to the land, air, water and animals round you. Educate your self and others about the historical past of the land you might be on, the house you occupy and the Indigenous People who’re on that land immediately. What is your land telling you? How is it caring for you and the way can you take care of it? And as we hearken to and study from the work of those Indigenous creators, might all of us ask ourselves the query: What sort of ancestor do I wish to be?
“Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of Our Ancestors)” was created on Lower Tanana Dene lands by Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Alisha Carlson. It is the primary documentary spoken totally within the Gwich’in language and follows an elder instructing his granddaughter how the Gwich’in individuals deal with caribou (and vice versa).
In “ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught),” filmed by Brit Hensel and Keli Gonzales on the Cherokee Nation and Qualla Boundary, an elder shares tales that uplift custom, language, land and a dedication to sustaining stability.
Mother-and-son group David Hernandez Palmar and Flor Palmar (Wayuu Iipuana) made “SŪKŪJULA TEI (Stories of My Mother)” within the Wayuu Community of Majali, Wounmainkat, Abya Yala, telling the story of a sensible Wayuu lady instructing her sister’s grandchildren the significance of reciprocity inside their tradition.
Geo Neptune and Brianna Smith (Passamaquoddy) made “Weckuwapasihtit (Those Yet to Come)” on the lands of the Passamaquoddy Nations of Sipayik and Motahkomikuk: Unceded Passamaquoddy Territory. Their movie options Peskotomuhkati youth main an intergenerational strategy of therapeutic via athasikuwi-pisun, or “tattoo medicine.”
“Weckuwapok (The Approaching Dawn)” was created by a filmmaker collective comprising Jacob Bearchum, Taylor Hensel, Adam Mazo, Chris Newell, Roger Paul, Kavita Pillay, Tracy Rector and Lauren Stevens. It celebrates how the Waponahkik (the individuals of the daybreak land) convey gratitude to the rising solar via tales and ceremony, joined on one particular morning at Moneskatik (Schoodic Point, Maine) by Yo-Yo Ma and different mates and guests.
Jeremy Dennis’s “Ma’s House” was filmed on the Shinnecock Nation and serves because the filmmaker’s documentation of how he restored his household residence by hand to create a communal gathering place for a brand new technology of artists.
Filmed on the Occupied Kingdom of Hawai’i, “Pili Ka Moʻo” by Justyn Ah Chong and Malia Akutagawa (Kanaka Maoli) shines a lightweight on a Kanaka Maoli taro farming household on a quest to protect their ancestral land and burial grounds from settler encroachment.
We are grateful to the peoples who welcomed these productions into their properties, communities, and lives.