When
Where
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with Native Voices in Film on November 5th from 1-5pm. This afternoon of films, vendors, family friendly activities, and community gathering is sponsored by the Indigenous Resilience Center (IRes) and Societal Impact. Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Loft Cinema's Indigenous Film Committee. All are welcome at this event!
Buy tickets here!
General admission: $5
Tribal Members & Loft Members: $3
Schedule of events for November 5th at The Loft Cinema:
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1:00pm - Blessing and Land Acknowledgement by Miguel Flores Jr., Introduction by the Indigenous Film Committee
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1:10pm - Picture book reading - Finding Home: The Journey of Malachi (produced by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s Office of the Attorney General)
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1:30-2:00pm - Reztones play
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2:30pm - Film Programming Introduction (see film descriptions below)
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2:35pm - Seed Mother: Coming Home (7 minutes)
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2:45pm - Beyond All Boundaries: Our Land, Our Water (35 minutes)
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3:40 pm - Borne of Water (15 minutes)
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4:00pm - SNF (Solar nanofiltration) short film: Community-led water purification units to increase water access in remote areas of the Navajo Nation (9 minutes)
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4:10pm - Panel Discussion (including Madam Chairwoman Flores from the Colorado River Indian Tribes and filmmaker Deidra Peaches of DLP Productions and Paper Rocket Productions.)
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Vendors include:
- Flowing Water Soaps
- Spirit of Cukson
- Sacred Fire Creations
- Body y Sol
- True Descendents (Lucky)
Organizations:
- Indivisible Tohono
- Native Soar
- San Xavier Coop
- Indigenous Intellectual Warriors
About the Films
Seed Mother: Coming Home
Seed Mother: Coming Home is a collaborative short film sharing the powerful essence of the Seed Rematriation movement’s healing work of cross-cultural reconciliation to bring these seeds home to their communities of origin. The Indigenous Seedkeepers Network, a program of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, is assisting communities who are working towards rematriation of their precious seed relatives. We are working cross culturally with many partners, including native farmers, gardens, culture bearers, and alongside representatives from tribal communities, institutions and organizations who have such native seed collections, and also other people who can help facilitate and lay out the needed framework to assist in these seeds finding their way home. We are working towards establishing the protocols and guidelines in this complex and healing work of seed reconciliation.
There are deeply embedded cultural and spiritual aspects of the seed rematriation path, as well as legal and political aspects that directly address Indigenous seed justice. The seeds are coming home to us. They are helping us to heal.
Across Turtle Island, there is a growing intergenerational movement of Indigenous people proud to carry the message of the grand rematriation of seeds and foods back into our Indigenous communities. Some have been missing from our communities for centuries; carried on long journeys in smokey buckskin pouches, upon the necks of peoples who were forced to relocate from the land of their births, their ancestral grounds; some who made their way into new lands in the hands of non-Natives and are longing to return.
Generations later, these seeds are now coming back home; from the vaults of public institutions, seed banks, universities, seedkeeper collections and some laying upon dusty pantry shelves of foresighted elders, seeds patiently sleeping and dreaming. Seeds waiting for loving hands to patiently place them into welcoming soil once more so that they can continue to fulfill their original agreement to help feed the people.
Beyond All Boundaries
Beyond All Boundaries (2016) was commissioned by the Colorado River Indian Tribes to examine two big challenges for CRIT in the present day: the effort to assert its rights to Colorado River water, and the effort to assert its rights over its ancestral lands when large-scale public utilities move onto them.
The Colorado River is an essential source of life for CRIT, which has senior rights to the use of Colorado River water. In a time of drought, water has become more and more valuable in the western United States, so CRIT’s rights have become even more important to uphold. Fears that a fight may be coming over the Tribes’ ownership of Colorado River water have reminded CRIT’s leaders of a history of attempts to subjugate native peoples, and the film shows the tribes gearing up to assert its water rights in new ways.
The film also looks at how a series of new federal solar energy projects have uncovered indigenous remains and artifacts, and how they have been warehoused rather than returned to the Tribes. There have been continuing legal efforts as well as new programs which allow the Tribes to get artifacts back and rebury them in accordance with tribal customs in ways that honor the original cremation processes.
In both cases, CRIT’s current leaders speak in the film of upholding its tradition of working with outside entities, and challenging them where appropriate. The film shows the Tribes’ fight to maintain its footprint in the present day and sets current events into a historical context.
Borne of Water
Borne of Water illustrates the journey of water, from mountain snow to flowing rivers. Inspired by a historical Hopi event, the film shows how climate change is impacting water and rivers today. Reduced snowpack and shrinking flows impact all who live along the river.
Tiyo, a Hopi boy, grows curious about where the water goes once it passes through his village on the Colorado River. To quench his curiosity, he traverses the Colorado River in hopes of saving his village from drought. Through Tiyo’s journey and lessons about what changes and what remains, we find deeper meaning in how water connects us to past, present, and future.
Community-led water purification units to increase water access in remote areas of the Navajo Nation (SNF Short Film)
The University of Arizona and Sixth World Solutions collaborated on piloting off grid water filtration systems on the Navajo Nation. They are bridging science with communities’ priorities to address how to get clean water now. For those living off grid, the nano filtration system removes contaminants in the water and is an alternative to water hauling. There are currently four nano filtration systems that are being piloted on Navajo Nation. The goal of this project is to take knowledge back into their communities to address food, energy, and water security. Collaborators on this project share their work including (in order of appearance), Dr. Andrew Curley, Janene Yazzie, Kern Collymore, Dr. Vicky Karanikola, Dr. Karletta Chief, Dr. Tommy Rock, Dr. Bob Arnold, Parvannah Lee, Ryannen Ahasteen, Nikki Tulley, Wilda Salt, and Eugenia Newton Charles.