⌚️2024-09-23 19:00:00 –
🏢American Museum of Natural History
For tickets and more information visit: https://bit.ly/3MJMKNC
Join us for an extension of the Margaret Mead Film Festival with the New York premiere of The Wayfinders film series during Climate Week NYC.
This powerful collection of short documentaries brings audiences closer to Indigenous communities worldwide, showcasing their leadership in sustaining our planet during a time of global climate change.
From the lush forests of Borneo to the ancient territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy to the biodiverse Northern Territory in Australia, witness the inspiring stories of Indigenous guardianship and self-governance, as communities work to preserve rich ecosystems, ensure food and water security, and protect cultural diversity for future generations through preservation of language, sacred sites, spirituality and the passing of traditional knowledge.
After the screening, join filmmakers and key players in a moderated talkback.
This program is hosted in collaboration with the Wayfinders Circle.
Films:
Indai Apai Darah (Mother, Father, Blood)
Directed by Kynan Tegar
Dayak Iban, Indonesia | 2024 | 16 min
New York Premiere
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. However, in the Indonesian village of Sungai Utik, elders of the Dayak Iban people have been able to repel these extractive companies and protect the surrounding forests.
This short documentary, written and directed by Sungai Utik filmmaker Kynan Tegar, follows a young girl who makes a magical discovery while out in the woods and learns of the brave deeds of her elders. Indai Apai Darah is a love letter to the trees, rivers, and birds that surround Kynan’s village, as well as to the aging leaders who were able to safeguard their livelihoods. As Sungai Utik elder Apai Janggut says in the film, “The Earth is our mother, the forest is our father, and the river is our blood.”
Indai Apai Darah has premiered at Mountain Film (May 2024), is a finalist for the Jackson Wild Media award, and is screening at Blackstar Film Festival (August 2024).
Niitsitapi (The Real People)
Directed by Bryan Gunnar Cole
USA | 2024 | 14 min
World Premiere
Niitstitapi (The Real People) traces the North American continental divide, marking the beginning of the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, an ancient alliance of Blackfoot people who, along with the buffalo, have always inhabited a vast area of mountains, rivers, lakes, and short grass prairie that stretches from the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains.
Today, the Blackfoot Confederacy is comprised of the Sitsika Nation, Kainai Nation, and Piikani Nation in Canada, and the Blackfeet Nation in the U.S. Despite being forced onto reserves and compelled to assimilate in bleak residential schools during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Niitstitapi from these Blackfoot Confederacy communities all share the same language and culture and cooperate to protect and preserve their land and way of life. Through the eyes of members of each of the four bands, Niitstitapi explores themes of cultural revival and permanence and how those values are practiced in daily life.
Ngarridurndeng Kured (We Going Home Now)
Directed by Emma Masters
Australia | 2024 |18 min
World Premiere
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. Butin the late 18th century, British colonialisation 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. Dean Yibarbuk, Warddeken Land Management’s a First Nation’s owned non-profit and knowledge keeper of Bininj Nawarddeken, lays it plain “Without people, those wildfires took place. It’s a lonely country waiting for people to return.” Ngarridurndeng Kured (We Going Home Now) follows Dean, his family and the Indigenous fire rangers he leads into the heart of Kuwarddewardde. Here ancient rhythms and traditional practices combine with western science to create a unique relationship that guards against devastating wildfires and supports the return of Bininj Nawarddeken to their traditional homelands and ways of living in the bush.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/1898756173924639
