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SMNTY Interviews: Katsitsionni Fox · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane
0:07
Speaker 1: ever told your production of iHeart Radio, and today we
0:19
Speaker 1: are so excited to be joined by filmmaker, activist, creator teacher.
0:26
Speaker 1: Got youa Juny Fox. I got really nervous here and
0:30
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Welcome to the show. Good morning. I'm
0:34
Speaker 1: happy to be here with you guys visiting this morning,
0:36
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna lie. I am so excited that
0:39
Speaker 1: you're on the show. I kind of already have uh
0:41
Speaker 1: fan girls a little bit, a little bit too much,
0:44
Speaker 1: I know, um at the beginning, but uh, yeah, we
0:47
Speaker 1: are so excited because just after watching your short film,
0:52
Speaker 1: which was what we're going to talk about in just
0:54
Speaker 1: a minute, it just it was amazing, like some of
0:57
Speaker 1: the things that impact and really opened the reality of
1:01
Speaker 1: our history or the history of the US, and really
1:04
Speaker 1: having a moment to talk about the truth when it
1:08
Speaker 1: comes to whitewashing of of what even was what we
1:12
Speaker 1: would consider something to celebrate. Um. And yes, I'm already
1:15
Speaker 1: getting way too deep into this. And honestly, as we
1:19
Speaker 1: were looking at having this conversation and watching your short film,
1:24
Speaker 1: it honestly was one of those why have when we
1:26
Speaker 1: had you on the show sooner. You've been doing this work,
1:29
Speaker 1: and you've been doing some amazing things with your company,
1:32
Speaker 1: with your production company, and I'm like, holy crap, Annie,
1:35
Speaker 1: why hasn't she been on this show? So first and foremost,
1:40
Speaker 1: I'm so sad that we haven't, but I'm so glad
1:42
Speaker 1: to be a part to have you on this show.
1:45
Speaker 1: So again, as I'm fan girling and I do this
1:47
Speaker 1: a lot, thank you so much for coming on. And
1:50
Speaker 1: I'm done. I'm gonna stop because I'm blushing now because
1:53
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I know I'm not gonna stop you, right,
1:56
Speaker 1: But before we get into all of that, would you
1:59
Speaker 1: mind introducing yourself to our audience and our listeners and
2:02
Speaker 1: tell a little bit about yourself and your work? Sure, so,
2:04
Speaker 1: sego Hello. My name is g Junr, which means I
2:07
Speaker 1: make flowers. I am from the community of Aquasna, which
2:12
Speaker 1: is Mohawk Nation Territory um on the St. Lawrence River
2:17
Speaker 1: US Canada border. Kind of crossed through our territories a
2:21
Speaker 1: while back, and I am a filmmaker. I am also
2:24
Speaker 1: a visual artist and uh was an educator for over
2:28
Speaker 1: twenty years and just recently left that to just pursue filmmaking,
2:33
Speaker 1: and that's why I can sit with here here this morning,
2:35
Speaker 1: I'm not teaching, and we're so glad. Um. Could you
2:42
Speaker 1: tell us how how did you get into filmmaking? What
2:45
Speaker 1: what made you pursue that path. I think, as a
2:48
Speaker 1: visual artist, I like to try everything, so that was
2:51
Speaker 1: one of the things that you know, I was just
2:53
Speaker 1: experimenting with. And really I got into it as a teacher.
2:57
Speaker 1: So I was teaching at at one time the Aquasusin
3:00
Speaker 1: and Freedom School, which is uh Mohawk immersion school where
3:04
Speaker 1: my own children went here in our community of Aquasuna.
3:08
Speaker 1: So there they teach everything in in our language and
3:10
Speaker 1: the Mohawk language. And I was teaching some media classes there,
3:14
Speaker 1: so we were doing like clay animations and you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: making little little short films and stuff like that. And
3:19
Speaker 1: then I started teaching at our local high school here
3:22
Speaker 1: at Salmon River, and I taught a film class there
3:24
Speaker 1: for many years and just doing a lot of like
3:27
Speaker 1: little film projects just in our community. And then I
3:31
Speaker 1: got into making documentaries and my first documentary came out
3:34
Speaker 1: in two thousand and sixteen, which was Hillo Logo Under
3:37
Speaker 1: the Husk. Following um my daughter and her best friend
3:42
Speaker 1: going through their their fourth year of their rights of passage,
3:46
Speaker 1: and it was something that we had we were able
3:49
Speaker 1: to recover and bring back to our community that had
3:51
Speaker 1: been um dormant for many generations. So I thought it
3:55
Speaker 1: was really important to document that. So that's kind of
3:59
Speaker 1: been my path as a filmmaker. Yeah, and um, something
4:02
Speaker 1: you talked about in some of your interviews, and obviously
4:04
Speaker 1: the themes of your documentary is just empowering women and
4:08
Speaker 1: empowering young girls, especially at the Native community, and really
4:12
Speaker 1: understanding who they are. And that seems to be a
4:15
Speaker 1: big part of your Native community as well, which I
4:19
Speaker 1: find so amazing and empowering just from sitting here. Well,
4:22
Speaker 1: how do you think messages like that are so important?
4:25
Speaker 1: I think it's important to do this kind of work
4:27
Speaker 1: because Indigenous people are very invisible in the media. You see,
4:34
Speaker 1: you see black people, you see white people, you see
4:37
Speaker 1: Asian people, but you rarely see Indigenous people on media,
4:41
Speaker 1: in any kind of media. And then to take that
4:44
Speaker 1: even further, as a teacher for so many years taught
4:47
Speaker 1: Native studies, and I taught Native film, and I also
4:50
Speaker 1: taught language and arts, it was hard to find um
4:53
Speaker 1: resources that we were in and then even when we
4:57
Speaker 1: found resources, a lot of times they were accurate because
5:00
Speaker 1: they weren't told from our perspective. That's why I think
5:03
Speaker 1: it's so important for that we have Indigenous storytellers, we
5:07
Speaker 1: have Indigenous filmmakers that are sharing things from our own perspective,
5:11
Speaker 1: like like doing the inside job of telling a story
5:15
Speaker 1: and understanding, you know, really understanding the nuances and understanding um,
5:20
Speaker 1: the culture and the community. And you know, those are
5:24
Speaker 1: the kind of stories I like to tell. I like
5:25
Speaker 1: to tell it from the inside right as it should be.
5:29
Speaker 1: And you know, I think it's beautifully said because you
5:33
Speaker 1: talk a lot about in your films about having a voice,
5:37
Speaker 1: uh and making sure that the voice was represented, and
5:39
Speaker 1: I think you did such an amazing job with this
5:42
Speaker 1: film without a whisper um, can you talk a little
5:45
Speaker 1: bit about this film? Sure? So so this film I
5:50
Speaker 1: started um thinking about it right after I had finished
5:52
Speaker 1: making Under the Hospital. Was actually at a film festival
5:55
Speaker 1: and somebody asked, what's your next project, and I was like, well,
5:57
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to do this film to tell the
6:00
Speaker 1: story of how the Hudden shown you women influenced the
6:02
Speaker 1: women's rights movement because I think for me, it was
6:06
Speaker 1: something that even our own people didn't really know about.
6:09
Speaker 1: You know, I had learned about it at a at
6:12
Speaker 1: a history conference probably about fifteen years ago. Sally Roche Wagner,
6:17
Speaker 1: who was in the film, came to present to the
6:19
Speaker 1: history teachers at this conference, and I was like, what
6:24
Speaker 1: are women influenced the women's rights movement? I mean I
6:26
Speaker 1: had never even h haven't hadn't heard about it, and
6:30
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, our people should know that, and
6:31
Speaker 1: it's something that the world should know. So I started
6:34
Speaker 1: to pursue that, and I had the perfect people to
6:37
Speaker 1: tell that story. I had Sally Roche Wagner, and then
6:40
Speaker 1: I had our clan mother from our community, Louise Hearn,
6:44
Speaker 1: who are who are already good friends. So you know,
6:46
Speaker 1: it made sense to kind of reflect that history and
6:48
Speaker 1: their friendship and to tell that story through them. You know,
6:51
Speaker 1: it was so beautiful. I loved every moment of them
6:54
Speaker 1: just loving each other and praising each other's work. I
6:57
Speaker 1: really had a moment of like, Yeah, they understand each other.
7:01
Speaker 1: This is what friendship and ally ship really looks like that,
7:04
Speaker 1: Like there's no pomp or you know, any of the
7:07
Speaker 1: circumstances like trying to one up each other or trying
7:10
Speaker 1: to outdo each other. It was really elevating each other's voices.
7:13
Speaker 1: It was so beautiful to see. And I love how
7:15
Speaker 1: you were able to capture all those intimate friendship moments. Yeah,
7:19
Speaker 1: I think it's it's for me. They're both really good
7:22
Speaker 1: friends of mine, so a lot of times they don't
7:25
Speaker 1: pay attention to us in the room they're doing things,
7:28
Speaker 1: and yeah, I think that's a good thing. And they're pretty.
7:31
Speaker 1: They're both especially Louise, you never know what's going to
7:35
Speaker 1: come out of her mouth. She's a powerhouse. I will say. Yeah.
7:44
Speaker 1: Can you talk about just the process of filming this
7:49
Speaker 1: this movie? Well, I followed them around for I think
7:52
Speaker 1: two years filming this, and I kind of had an
7:56
Speaker 1: idea of some of the things that I wanted to
7:59
Speaker 1: the messages I wanted to come out in the film.
8:01
Speaker 1: Of course, the story of you know, the relationship of
8:04
Speaker 1: the indigenous women and the suffragettes that were you know,
8:08
Speaker 1: living in Huddanashoni territory and seeing you know, our women
8:13
Speaker 1: and you know, the status that we had in our communities.
8:18
Speaker 1: Um so I really wanted to share that story and
8:21
Speaker 1: how how much Huddon is shown people have really influenced
8:24
Speaker 1: not just the women's rights movement, but also you know,
8:27
Speaker 1: the whole government system of the United States is built
8:30
Speaker 1: on our system. So democracy comes from Huddonishoni people and
8:35
Speaker 1: it was adopted by the founding fathers. And and that's
8:38
Speaker 1: another hidden history that not everybody knows that. So always,
8:43
Speaker 1: as a filmmaker, I'm always trying to while I'm telling
8:47
Speaker 1: the story, I also I feel like I have to
8:49
Speaker 1: educate people because they've only been told a one sided story.
8:53
Speaker 1: They've only been told, you know, one perspective of history.
8:58
Speaker 1: So I always have to be mindful of that as
9:00
Speaker 1: I'm creating. Right. Um, Honestly, again, when we were talking
9:05
Speaker 1: about your work and researching and wanting to have you
9:07
Speaker 1: on this show, I honestly had this duh moment of like,
9:12
Speaker 1: of course, of course the women's rights movement. Of course,
9:15
Speaker 1: the foundation of where we stand in our right as
9:17
Speaker 1: well as our government, was influenced, if not stolen, honestly
9:24
Speaker 1: from the indigenous people who were here before. And not
9:26
Speaker 1: only that, Indigenous women who knew have to lead and
9:30
Speaker 1: to care for their family was it was almost like
9:33
Speaker 1: why it should have been assumed you know, like when
9:36
Speaker 1: you actually said that, like this makes perfect sense, and
9:39
Speaker 1: why haven't we been talking about it more? Yeah, well,
9:44
Speaker 1: I think there's reasons why we don't talk about it,
9:47
Speaker 1: you know, right, I mean, and that's part of the
9:50
Speaker 1: problem because even today, as we go through so much
9:54
Speaker 1: conversation and again like this was such a bright light
9:58
Speaker 1: to what feels like so much darkness and u s
10:00
Speaker 1: history right now, especially when it comes to women's rights,
10:03
Speaker 1: especially when it comes in digenous rights. The I c
10:06
Speaker 1: w A that's coming in uh in front of the
10:08
Speaker 1: Supreme Court, And that's a whole other conversation we've been
10:11
Speaker 1: having um outside of that, but we see how when
10:16
Speaker 1: we ignore history slash, when we actually try to um
10:20
Speaker 1: rewrite history and whitewash history, these types of complete downfalls
10:25
Speaker 1: and decimation of people and the community happens. And it's
10:30
Speaker 1: such an odd timing. I don't know, maybe it's always
10:34
Speaker 1: this way. I'm getting too deep, I know, but it
10:36
Speaker 1: just feels like we're watching as you have done such
10:40
Speaker 1: an amazing job in bringing to light some history that
10:43
Speaker 1: should have been talked about from the beginning, to watching
10:47
Speaker 1: people try to cover up history once again, and how
10:50
Speaker 1: important it is that we have people from the communities,
10:54
Speaker 1: the native people to be able to actually get credit
10:57
Speaker 1: for their work, not just shoting, to be able to
11:00
Speaker 1: be the ones to say, yeah, we did this, You're welcome.
11:04
Speaker 1: And why are you trying to hide it again? Yeah,
11:07
Speaker 1: it's like trying to invisibilize the whole people. And it's
11:11
Speaker 1: like it's ironic clearly when you think about it, because
11:14
Speaker 1: Indigenous people are the first people of this of Turtle Island,
11:18
Speaker 1: right and and and their stories are always being hidden
11:22
Speaker 1: like like there was nobody here. Is is kind of
11:25
Speaker 1: you know, the message that that children are getting in
11:28
Speaker 1: schools these days. You know, this is America and you
11:31
Speaker 1: know every everybody's you know, they hide all the history
11:34
Speaker 1: of the indigenous people. And and going back to what
11:37
Speaker 1: you were talking about before about you know, democracy and
11:41
Speaker 1: the governmental system was something that was adopted by the
11:45
Speaker 1: Founding fathers, you know when they were when they were
11:47
Speaker 1: creating the United States Constitution and the government system. And
11:51
Speaker 1: the one thing that they really left out in that
11:55
Speaker 1: was the women. Right, So they have like they picked
11:58
Speaker 1: up the balance of power. You know, how things work,
12:01
Speaker 1: you know, when we're when we passed our laws is
12:03
Speaker 1: similar to how it works. And you know, the United
12:05
Speaker 1: States Senate in Congress and the president they have the
12:08
Speaker 1: checks and balances, but they totally left all the women.
12:12
Speaker 1: They couldn't handle it, you know, because their perception of
12:15
Speaker 1: of women that they were bringing over from from Europe
12:19
Speaker 1: was totally different than you know the perception of the
12:22
Speaker 1: indigenous people here on Turtle Island because the women are
12:25
Speaker 1: essential to everything, right well, as the Gland mother said
12:28
Speaker 1: at the beginning, women are the law. And I love
12:31
Speaker 1: that statement. That's right, maybe go yeah, damn right yeah,
12:38
Speaker 1: And and for me it's more about like for the women,
12:40
Speaker 1: are are women? You could say the word power, the
12:43
Speaker 1: women had power, but really it was that women had responsibility.
12:47
Speaker 1: So our women were the ones that were raising all
12:50
Speaker 1: these leaders. So that's why it was the women that
12:53
Speaker 1: were choosing the chiefs because they were watching those young
12:56
Speaker 1: ones as they were growing up and they were seeing,
12:59
Speaker 1: you know, the quality these that they had. You know,
13:01
Speaker 1: are they generous? You know? Are they are they thinking
13:04
Speaker 1: for the people? Are they thinking for themselves? You know?
13:07
Speaker 1: Do they have foresight for the future generations? You know
13:10
Speaker 1: all of those things. They're watching those young people as
13:13
Speaker 1: they were raising them themselves. So it made sense that
13:16
Speaker 1: it was the clan mothers that that chose the chiefs
13:19
Speaker 1: because they were the ones that raised them, and they
13:21
Speaker 1: were the ones that you know, understood the qualities that
13:24
Speaker 1: they had because our leadership when they are raised up
13:29
Speaker 1: as chiefs, they're they're in there for life. So my
13:32
Speaker 1: own father, um is A, is a condult chief and
13:37
Speaker 1: it's it's something you know, they've seen those qualities in
13:40
Speaker 1: him and he was you know, raised up as a
13:43
Speaker 1: chief And it's not a paid position like the president
13:45
Speaker 1: or like the tribal chiefs are elective system. It's something
13:49
Speaker 1: that they do for the love of the people because
13:52
Speaker 1: it's very hard work to do that. Those are all
13:54
Speaker 1: big responsibilities. It's not a popularity contest, you know. It's
13:59
Speaker 1: not you know, or not invested in other people's interests.
14:03
Speaker 1: They're invested in the interest of our you know, the
14:05
Speaker 1: people today in the future generations. And it would be
14:08
Speaker 1: great if we had more leaders like that right that
14:11
Speaker 1: actually represented the people. That would be lovely to see.
14:29
Speaker 1: As we talked about all of the things within the
14:32
Speaker 1: film and the fact that yes, they came together, it
14:35
Speaker 1: was an interesting history. Especially as they were talking, you
14:38
Speaker 1: are showing um I always begot I'm talking to you
14:41
Speaker 1: like you. Yes, I don't have to re explain. Sorry again,
14:47
Speaker 1: Fan growing Um. But the animation you had of talking
14:51
Speaker 1: about the creation of man Um, the pictures that you
14:55
Speaker 1: put in to show the historical context of what what
14:58
Speaker 1: the conversations were are about, it was really amazing to see.
15:03
Speaker 1: It really pulled out a lot of background information. Do
15:06
Speaker 1: you think interweaving styles like that to documentary is important.
15:12
Speaker 1: I think I had to do it because I kind
15:16
Speaker 1: of had to reimagine what it was like for my
15:19
Speaker 1: ancestors when we're still living in longhouses and villages and
15:23
Speaker 1: you know, there's no documentation of that, so I had
15:26
Speaker 1: to reimagine that. And I was fortunate to work with
15:30
Speaker 1: Marion Dellrond from Gnawaga, who was another Mohawk creative and
15:36
Speaker 1: she's an animator from there, and Alex Boya, so the
15:38
Speaker 1: two of them work together to create all of the
15:40
Speaker 1: animations that were in the film. And I thought it
15:44
Speaker 1: was very important to include creation because I think that's
15:49
Speaker 1: where all of that comes from. So for us, you know,
15:53
Speaker 1: we came from our story starts with a woman, so
15:57
Speaker 1: it was skywoman that came here and created at the
16:01
Speaker 1: Turtle island and and then had twins and they created
16:04
Speaker 1: you know, the different things on the earth. So everything
16:07
Speaker 1: kind of center as around the women, but from from
16:10
Speaker 1: a Christian point of view, and I show that in
16:12
Speaker 1: the animation. It starts with Adam and then the woman
16:15
Speaker 1: is created from his rib She's kind of a secondary character,
16:19
Speaker 1: and then she does something terrible, she does something sinful,
16:23
Speaker 1: and then has to suffer forever because of that, and
16:26
Speaker 1: then you know, it's it's just totally different. And I
16:29
Speaker 1: wanted to show that that that's where those concepts come from,
16:32
Speaker 1: you know, those ideas about women. And it was such
16:35
Speaker 1: an amazing integral part to the story and the history
16:38
Speaker 1: of why women are important parts of the community, which
16:43
Speaker 1: is so often us and the U centric ideas left out. Um,
16:47
Speaker 1: which is sad in itself. Um, don't mind me, I'm
16:51
Speaker 1: a little jaded. Yeah, I think the whole idea of
16:55
Speaker 1: women as secondary characters is ridiculous. You know when you
17:00
Speaker 1: think about you know, the the gifts that women have
17:04
Speaker 1: to be able to bring life is so important. It's
17:06
Speaker 1: not a secondary thing to be able to do that, right,
17:11
Speaker 1: literally carrying a child like I think it's such an
17:14
Speaker 1: amazing conversation and that the story uh within your community
17:18
Speaker 1: talking about the woman being here and creating life. And
17:21
Speaker 1: it's just such a beautiful opening to why the matriarch
17:25
Speaker 1: is so important and why it should be respected and
17:29
Speaker 1: as seen as wisdom along the lines of a community.
17:33
Speaker 1: And I think as we were talking about some of
17:36
Speaker 1: the themes of the documentary, because there's tons of themes,
17:39
Speaker 1: as we had already talked about voices and empowerment of women,
17:43
Speaker 1: um and the allyship and friendship, but the fact that
17:46
Speaker 1: they are able to have this conversation about the breakdown
17:50
Speaker 1: of how again the Eurocentric ideas really try to cover
17:56
Speaker 1: all of that up. And I know it was just
17:58
Speaker 1: a blip because this whole film celebrates the culture and
18:02
Speaker 1: I love that, but you can't ignore the fact that, yes,
18:05
Speaker 1: the Whitewashington really decimated the history and try to hide
18:09
Speaker 1: and or erase all of this from being told to
18:13
Speaker 1: begin with. And why it is so important that we
18:16
Speaker 1: keep bringing up And you said you waited, you had
18:18
Speaker 1: a whole plan and how you're going to release this film,
18:21
Speaker 1: Why do you think that timing was important? Well, I
18:23
Speaker 1: wanted to release it in because that's a Hunter Theory
18:27
Speaker 1: anniversary of women's suffrage. Um, so we timed it to
18:30
Speaker 1: come out at that time. And and also Sally was
18:33
Speaker 1: doing a lot of work and still is doing a
18:34
Speaker 1: lot of work on covering this story. And she's been
18:37
Speaker 1: talking to you know, the Washington Post, and you know,
18:41
Speaker 1: she has a lot of media attention on that. And
18:44
Speaker 1: my hope with this with this film is it be
18:46
Speaker 1: part of a movement to really change the narrative on
18:51
Speaker 1: this story for the future generations, so that this story
18:55
Speaker 1: is included in that history. I think that's so important,
18:59
Speaker 1: you know, sleep for our young people in our community
19:02
Speaker 1: to know, you know, their own history and their own
19:05
Speaker 1: contributions to the world, and they're not celebrated enough. And
19:10
Speaker 1: you know, they take history classes here and and they
19:13
Speaker 1: you know, tiny tiny bit of information that they'll get
19:17
Speaker 1: about us when they're telling history of this continent, right right. Yeah.
19:22
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the things that really
19:24
Speaker 1: stuck out to me was I loved seeing all these
19:26
Speaker 1: generations of women. First of all, that was amazing, but
19:30
Speaker 1: also just this like this richness of history that has
19:34
Speaker 1: been lost are purposefully left out, And there's distinction in
19:39
Speaker 1: in the documentary of like between who's telling the story
19:44
Speaker 1: versus what actually happened in the reality. Um and I know,
19:48
Speaker 1: and and one of your interviews you said, like this
19:50
Speaker 1: should be in every classroom, like every age, and I
19:52
Speaker 1: totally agree because it was so powerful and it was
19:56
Speaker 1: so it was one of those things and we talked
19:57
Speaker 1: about this a lot on this show where it's so
20:00
Speaker 1: frustrating that it's like so late in the game, like
20:03
Speaker 1: even you, so late in the game you learn about this,
20:05
Speaker 1: and it's such like a powerful history and it's where
20:10
Speaker 1: as you make the point like suffer Jetts were looking
20:13
Speaker 1: at Indigenous women and like they had to get that
20:15
Speaker 1: idea from somewhere. And so I'm just it's like one
20:19
Speaker 1: of those things where I'm like so frustrated that it's
20:21
Speaker 1: like this late that we're having this conversation. I'm so
20:23
Speaker 1: glad that we're having it and that I mean, the
20:26
Speaker 1: documentary is so moving and powerful and beautiful, and I'm
20:29
Speaker 1: so glad that you made it. Thank you. Yeah. I
20:32
Speaker 1: think people really take that for granted today. You know,
20:35
Speaker 1: we're in two and everybody thinks, so women have all
20:37
Speaker 1: the rights they want whatever, But just like a hundred
20:40
Speaker 1: years ago, women had no rights. Right, Well, I should
20:44
Speaker 1: say I should say European women had no rights, or
20:47
Speaker 1: people that came from other countries coming here had no
20:50
Speaker 1: rights because they brought that with them when they came here,
20:53
Speaker 1: all of those their world views and their culture and
20:57
Speaker 1: the way they did things where they came from. And
21:00
Speaker 1: so the women that came here, um, you know, had
21:04
Speaker 1: no rights. Politically, absolutely, nobody was running for office women
21:09
Speaker 1: back then or had any votes or anything like that.
21:13
Speaker 1: They had no rights financially if they got married there,
21:16
Speaker 1: the man controlled the purse strings and they basically became
21:20
Speaker 1: property of the man, you know, as it says in
21:22
Speaker 1: the in the film. So so when you think about that,
21:26
Speaker 1: it makes total sense. You know that they had to
21:28
Speaker 1: get those ideas from somewhere, and they're living around indigenous
21:33
Speaker 1: women on Turtle Island who come from cultures where women
21:36
Speaker 1: are highly revered and are on equal footing with the
21:40
Speaker 1: men politically, socially, economically, you know, they're in control of
21:45
Speaker 1: their bodies, they're in control of their property. Um, they
21:49
Speaker 1: have status with their clan and and actually the clans
21:53
Speaker 1: in our culture, in the hut Nashoni culture were matrilineal
21:57
Speaker 1: and the you know, the identity comes through the women
22:00
Speaker 1: through the clan. Well, that's passed around through the women's line,
22:03
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of European culture, where everything is
22:07
Speaker 1: going through the men, including property right. So usually you
22:11
Speaker 1: give you give property to the men, and for us,
22:13
Speaker 1: it's the women that are the ones that are caretaking
22:17
Speaker 1: for the land and deciding on land. I loved like
22:21
Speaker 1: the conversation about how forward, like how future forward the
22:27
Speaker 1: community was at that point in time, and that they
22:29
Speaker 1: were successful, they were peaceful, there was rarely domestic violence,
22:32
Speaker 1: which I'm like, oh, what was that likely when you
22:35
Speaker 1: come into what we know now today and the violence
22:38
Speaker 1: that we see against women as it's happened. And it
22:41
Speaker 1: wasn't until literally colonization that the community was set back
22:45
Speaker 1: essentially because of the influence of Eurocentric colonization, which is
22:51
Speaker 1: such a sad thing. That it was such a peaceful
22:55
Speaker 1: time that could have been an amazing example had been
23:00
Speaker 1: followed through fully instead of partially to the power of
23:03
Speaker 1: white men. Yeah, I found it. I found it devastating
23:07
Speaker 1: to think about that because I was, you know, telling
23:10
Speaker 1: the story. We're talking about how indigenous women empowered the
23:13
Speaker 1: white women to fight from their rights and at the
23:16
Speaker 1: same time, you know, our rights were being chipped away
23:20
Speaker 1: as women, Indigenous women, and I think that it was
23:23
Speaker 1: very purposeful. Oh yeah. You know, if you look in
23:27
Speaker 1: some of the history and some of the things I
23:28
Speaker 1: even talked about in the film, Um, you know, Christianization
23:33
Speaker 1: and you know the worldview is being imposed on our people,
23:36
Speaker 1: and boarding schools and what happened in boarding schools, you know,
23:40
Speaker 1: taking taking children away from their mothers and and trying
23:44
Speaker 1: to really get rid of who we are is what
23:48
Speaker 1: you know, the purpose of those schools were all of
23:50
Speaker 1: that was happening at the same time. So one's one's
23:54
Speaker 1: going on the incline and the other one's going at
23:56
Speaker 1: the decline at the same time, which is pretty ironic
23:58
Speaker 1: when you think about it. I mean, that's the level
24:00
Speaker 1: of white supremaus depression that we have to have a
24:03
Speaker 1: conversation about that. How this has been a beginning conversation,
24:07
Speaker 1: and this has been a thing We've never been able
24:10
Speaker 1: to take the time to get get the pattern because
24:12
Speaker 1: of the continued whitewashing and a racing of true history,
24:16
Speaker 1: which is more beautiful then we know. That's the other
24:19
Speaker 1: part of that is that there's so many amazing stories
24:21
Speaker 1: that we missed out on because of that, because of
24:24
Speaker 1: all of these uh outside influences which was about power
24:28
Speaker 1: and white supremacy and patriarchal uh nonsense. I'm gonna say that, okay, um,
24:34
Speaker 1: but that level that it raised something so beautiful and
24:38
Speaker 1: pure that could have done so much. It has done
24:42
Speaker 1: for like it continues to do, thank goodness through your
24:45
Speaker 1: community because you're still upholding it and finding that um
24:49
Speaker 1: strength to remember those traditions, which is a beautiful thing.
24:53
Speaker 1: I say this as an adopted person who can't figure
24:55
Speaker 1: out my heritage to save my life. And we'll talk
24:59
Speaker 1: about white watching. That's exactly what happened. And it's such
25:03
Speaker 1: a tragic thing to see that that is what happened.
25:06
Speaker 1: And that's what we've missed out out of my forty
25:08
Speaker 1: something in the years of life, not knowing this true history,
25:11
Speaker 1: which we could have been celebrating because it is an
25:13
Speaker 1: amazing history that we still don't know that much of.
25:17
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Yeah, it's true, and we need this in
25:21
Speaker 1: so many other areas. I mean, this is just one story, right,
25:25
Speaker 1: but that's the things like this one story, it was huge.
25:28
Speaker 1: It's it's like this minute detail. I'm having a moment.
25:32
Speaker 1: I've really had like a moment of crisis discovering your
25:35
Speaker 1: documentary that it was like, this is such a like
25:39
Speaker 1: not a minute, it's not my nute, but it's a
25:41
Speaker 1: big detail to a big, obviously life changing thing for
25:46
Speaker 1: so many of us that was left out purposefully so
25:49
Speaker 1: that it couldn't be given credit to where it was due,
25:51
Speaker 1: because we don't want to have anyone get credit outside
25:54
Speaker 1: of those in power. We know this, But the fact
25:57
Speaker 1: that we have missed out for so long on these
25:59
Speaker 1: amazing using stories, it just it's offensive and it's still
26:03
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to mourn that, even though
26:05
Speaker 1: I'm I'm also celebrating because we were able to watch
26:08
Speaker 1: it and you have been able to bring it to
26:10
Speaker 1: light to us, and thank you again, Fan Girling. Still, um,
26:13
Speaker 1: but all of that is such a big part of
26:16
Speaker 1: the conversation that we're missing out on, and knowing that
26:20
Speaker 1: in comparison to the other positive history that we're missing
26:23
Speaker 1: we don't I don't know that I'm missing out on.
26:25
Speaker 1: I'm sure I have. That's so frustrating. Look, there's so
26:30
Speaker 1: much more that we are missing out on. Yeah, because
26:34
Speaker 1: of the continued whitewashing of these conversations. Yeah, we need
26:37
Speaker 1: to rewrite history books altogether. I mean they still they
26:42
Speaker 1: still look pretty much the same as when I was
26:44
Speaker 1: in school. Well, we know the new laws that are
26:47
Speaker 1: trying to pass, especially down here. So Annie and are
26:50
Speaker 1: are in Georgia, so we're down here in the South,
26:53
Speaker 1: and it's an uphill battle to get accurate, accurate history.
26:56
Speaker 1: You know, I grew up in a setting that literally
26:59
Speaker 1: told us that the Civil War was fought about state rights,
27:04
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wait, what what happened? So you know,
27:08
Speaker 1: when we talk about white Washington, history is still a thing.
27:11
Speaker 1: And again just talking about how the boarding schools, it
27:14
Speaker 1: really decimated the culture that tried it. I mean, the
27:18
Speaker 1: purpose of it was to try to kill off a
27:20
Speaker 1: culture that was of the Native first people of the
27:24
Speaker 1: America's and we know that. But today again, and I
27:28
Speaker 1: keep harping back on it because I think it's so
27:29
Speaker 1: important that we talked about it, not necessarily here, but
27:31
Speaker 1: in general, the you know, Indian Child Welfare Act was
27:35
Speaker 1: in place to preserve that because the United States at
27:38
Speaker 1: one point I be like, oh, yeah, that was bad.
27:41
Speaker 1: We literally was doing a genocide for all intent purposes,
27:46
Speaker 1: and maybe we should correct that. And now we're back
27:48
Speaker 1: here again questioning it because that white supremacist power and
27:52
Speaker 1: ideal is rising back up, is now seemingly maybe not rising,
27:57
Speaker 1: maybe it just seems like it's me, but it's seemingly
27:59
Speaker 1: coming back in to Hey, let's try that again. That
28:02
Speaker 1: didn't work so well last time, we'll try it again.
28:04
Speaker 1: I think there isn't a family Indigenous family that hasn't
28:07
Speaker 1: been affected by boarding schools. I mean when I was
28:10
Speaker 1: teaching in high school and I would talk about that
28:13
Speaker 1: in class and we'd you know, talk about the boarding
28:15
Speaker 1: schools and the history of that, and everybody in their
28:18
Speaker 1: family had somebody that had been affected by boarding school
28:23
Speaker 1: And it's not just that generation that's affected it. It's
28:26
Speaker 1: intergenerational trauma. So it's something that's passed on. And something
28:30
Speaker 1: that was really common um in my grandmother's time is
28:35
Speaker 1: they were all fluent speakers at that time, everybody was
28:38
Speaker 1: a fluent speaker here, and it was and they would
28:41
Speaker 1: probably they were prophesizing that there was going to come
28:43
Speaker 1: a time when there's not going to be a lot
28:44
Speaker 1: of language speakers. And at that time and when my
28:47
Speaker 1: grandmother was alive, they seemed silly like they couldn't think
28:53
Speaker 1: of it, you know that that that would happen because
28:55
Speaker 1: there were so many speakers at that time. And that's
28:58
Speaker 1: what's going on now because my grandmother's generation, um stop
29:03
Speaker 1: speaking the language to their children because they didn't want
29:07
Speaker 1: them to be punished when they went to school, and
29:10
Speaker 1: you know, so so they stopped speaking the language to them.
29:13
Speaker 1: And so we feel that now. You know, like in
29:15
Speaker 1: my own family, my grandmother was a fluent speaker. She
29:19
Speaker 1: didn't speak to my mom. My mom didn't speak the language.
29:23
Speaker 1: I learned some language when I was you know, in
29:26
Speaker 1: the local schools. I had a blank language class for
29:28
Speaker 1: like forty minutes and I'm still learning the language, so
29:32
Speaker 1: I can speak somewhat. But my kids went to the
29:36
Speaker 1: Acquisite and Freedom School and they three of the four
29:39
Speaker 1: are fluent. And my my youngest daughter is teaching adult
29:43
Speaker 1: immersion and is a fluent speaker. She can speak with
29:47
Speaker 1: the elders here, and you know, really proud of her
29:49
Speaker 1: and all of my kids for their work that they've
29:51
Speaker 1: done and keeping the language going. And that's an ongoing
29:56
Speaker 1: um struggle for us to do that. And that's a
30:00
Speaker 1: direct result of boarding schools. And you know, a lot
30:03
Speaker 1: of the genocidal practices that have been going on in
30:06
Speaker 1: this country. And it's not just in our community. It's
30:09
Speaker 1: like that all over Turtle Island and somewhere in much
30:11
Speaker 1: worse shape than we are. Some of them don't have
30:14
Speaker 1: any speakers, right. I think we've talked about that before,
30:17
Speaker 1: Like a lot of the language is completely died off
30:20
Speaker 1: because of this and because of the colonization and constant
30:24
Speaker 1: fear of being called out. Yeah, so it's cool. In
30:28
Speaker 1: our community, we do have a lot of language revitalization
30:31
Speaker 1: going on, and you know, it's really important work that
30:36
Speaker 1: we we keep the language alive for the future generations. Yeah,
30:39
Speaker 1: And that was one of the things that Smith and
30:42
Speaker 1: I both loved about this documentary that I kind of
30:45
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, was that we saw that we kind of
30:47
Speaker 1: saw these like multiple generations of women and kind of
30:51
Speaker 1: this dealing with intergenerational trauma and healing. But um, seeing
30:58
Speaker 1: seeing that and singing younger folks in kind of trying
31:00
Speaker 1: to reclaim traditions and history and culture are trying to
31:05
Speaker 1: just learn more about it and and seeing that that
31:07
Speaker 1: was really really beautiful. Yeah. I think it's important that
31:11
Speaker 1: people see how we are like today because you know,
31:15
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of stereotypes and people's heads of
31:19
Speaker 1: who Indigenous people are, you know, like we're Hollywood Indians
31:22
Speaker 1: still for a lot of people, or we're not here.
31:25
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people think that, you know,
31:27
Speaker 1: we disappeared, but you know, we're still here. That I
31:29
Speaker 1: wanted to I wanted to show that, you know, take
31:32
Speaker 1: you into our community for a little bit and see,
31:35
Speaker 1: you know, what our youth are like, or you know
31:36
Speaker 1: what what our community is like today. Yeah, and and
31:42
Speaker 1: I think that this was such a great moving way
31:44
Speaker 1: to to show that. And I know you're you're a
31:50
Speaker 1: big You're you're a leader in the film community. So
31:55
Speaker 1: do you have anything on the horizon, any other projects
31:58
Speaker 1: you've got planned that you you talk about. Yeah, I'm
32:01
Speaker 1: actually in production for two films right now. I left
32:04
Speaker 1: teaching back in June last year, so it's been a
32:08
Speaker 1: year now and I still see all my my you know,
32:12
Speaker 1: I'm from the community, so I still see a lot
32:14
Speaker 1: of the youth that I used to teach, and I'm
32:16
Speaker 1: still involved in teaching in different ways. But the films
32:20
Speaker 1: that I'm working on now, one of them is a
32:23
Speaker 1: short documentary that will be on PBS, probably it's called ghana,
32:30
Speaker 1: which means original seeds, And it's following um indigenous women's
32:35
Speaker 1: seed savers that are protecting and rematre eating a lot
32:39
Speaker 1: of our heirloom seeds. And really the story is like
32:43
Speaker 1: a metaphor for our people. So the same things that
32:47
Speaker 1: these heirloom seeds have gone through, our people have gone
32:50
Speaker 1: through the same things like kind of going underground for
32:54
Speaker 1: a while, and then a lot of these varieties are
32:56
Speaker 1: starting to come back up and be revitalized again. Um.
33:00
Speaker 1: Some of the seeds have you gotten disconnected from their people,
33:05
Speaker 1: they've had to relocate, and so it's it's following the
33:09
Speaker 1: work of these women and the work that they're doing.
33:12
Speaker 1: One of them is Angie Ferguson. She's from Onondaga and
33:15
Speaker 1: she's been caretaking for a large collection of indigenous heirloom seeds.
33:21
Speaker 1: So she she she was given this collection to to
33:24
Speaker 1: care for and she's been actively planting these seeds and
33:28
Speaker 1: giving them out to indigenous um farmers to to really
33:33
Speaker 1: keep these seeds going so that they're here for future generations.
33:36
Speaker 1: And and she will be rematriating a large collection in
33:40
Speaker 1: the spring back to the Denay people, oh in the Southwest.
33:45
Speaker 1: So that will be also part of the thing. I'll
33:47
Speaker 1: be doscile documenting that and and like I'm just imagining
33:51
Speaker 1: what that's going to be like for them to be
33:53
Speaker 1: able to to get those seed relatives back that they
33:57
Speaker 1: haven't seen for a long time and to you know,
34:00
Speaker 1: start planting those again and bringing those back because you know,
34:03
Speaker 1: with foods, we're so used to, you know, just going
34:06
Speaker 1: to the grocery store. I know, we have the same
34:08
Speaker 1: kind of tomatoes, and you know, every everything is you know,
34:10
Speaker 1: there's only a few varieties of things that you see
34:13
Speaker 1: in the grocery store. But there is such diversity and
34:15
Speaker 1: beauty in the in the seeds, and I've been I've
34:19
Speaker 1: been witnessing that as I've been documenting these ladies. Another
34:23
Speaker 1: one of the ladies is on Becky Webster. She's from Oneida, Wisconsin.
34:28
Speaker 1: And you know, as you know, Oneidas are part of
34:30
Speaker 1: the Haddani Shone and used to live right next to
34:32
Speaker 1: the Mohawks. There's still some that are there, but a
34:34
Speaker 1: lot of them got relocated to Wisconsin. And then there's
34:38
Speaker 1: more that I went out to London, Ontario, and so
34:41
Speaker 1: it's also documenting the history of what happened to our
34:44
Speaker 1: people along with the seeds, so that will come out, um,
34:48
Speaker 1: I think. And then I'm also part of a project
34:52
Speaker 1: through nia Tero UM doing a project for Reciprocity. It's
34:58
Speaker 1: UM and a group of filmmakers from around the world
35:01
Speaker 1: that are creating short films and I think there's eight
35:05
Speaker 1: of us that are in in there making the film.
35:07
Speaker 1: So I'm doing a film here in my community following
35:10
Speaker 1: a very dynamic woman. Her name's Jessica Shenandoah, and she's
35:15
Speaker 1: been bringing back a lot of our land based knowledge,
35:18
Speaker 1: like things that we haven't done for a long time,
35:20
Speaker 1: like uh, making fish leather or um making Matt's out
35:26
Speaker 1: of bulrush, or things that we stopped doing because they
35:29
Speaker 1: take a lot of time and people, you know, kind
35:31
Speaker 1: of got disconnected. So she's like bringing a lot of
35:33
Speaker 1: that that knowledge back to the community. So I've been
35:36
Speaker 1: documenting her and having a good time doing it too.
35:39
Speaker 1: I just I'm always amazed by these women. There's so
35:55
Speaker 1: much history and information, like we were talking about that
35:58
Speaker 1: that's missing. How do you do doled down what you're
36:01
Speaker 1: gonna do, because it seems like there's a like a
36:02
Speaker 1: vast amount of things like that food stuff that's fascinating,
36:07
Speaker 1: I know. And she's actually on another podcast called Savor
36:10
Speaker 1: and they do history of food essentially, so nice. And
36:13
Speaker 1: he's probably like, because he's talked to me, I'm putting
36:16
Speaker 1: ogr mouth. I'm so sorry about the origination of food,
36:19
Speaker 1: like talking about how the fact that has changed so much,
36:22
Speaker 1: nothing is as it was, so getting to that part
36:25
Speaker 1: that's amazing. Yeah, maybe she can have me to talk
36:28
Speaker 1: about that film when it comes out. Yes, there's a
36:31
Speaker 1: lot of history that is not known about that as
36:33
Speaker 1: well that you don't learn in schools, Like over sixty
36:36
Speaker 1: of the world's foods came from North and South America
36:39
Speaker 1: from our people, you know, and you know, corn and
36:42
Speaker 1: a lot of the foods that are influenced the whole
36:46
Speaker 1: world have come from indigenous people. You know, people think
36:49
Speaker 1: potatoes are Irish, while they're not. They came from here.
36:54
Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of very important foods have
36:57
Speaker 1: come from indigenous people and and we're trying to you know,
37:00
Speaker 1: save those so that we have those for future generations.
37:04
Speaker 1: You know, every every community has a relationship with their foods,
37:10
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of foods that are sacred to
37:13
Speaker 1: indigenous people that we need to protect. Yeah, I would
37:16
Speaker 1: love to have you all to talk about that. But
37:18
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just so much history. I think sometimes
37:20
Speaker 1: a lot of us, like you said, just go to
37:22
Speaker 1: the grocery shore and I'm like, I want this, and
37:23
Speaker 1: you don't think about how it got to you, and
37:25
Speaker 1: you should. You absolutely should, because it's so important. There's
37:28
Speaker 1: so much history behind it. And I think a lot
37:32
Speaker 1: of the kind of americanization of food became much more
37:36
Speaker 1: like how can we breed whatever X, y Z to
37:40
Speaker 1: be fast and quick, and then so much was lost
37:43
Speaker 1: that way, like so much taste was lost that way,
37:46
Speaker 1: so much of the tradition and the kind of disrespect
37:50
Speaker 1: for food itself, like how it comes to be and
37:54
Speaker 1: who makes it. And so I just think that's incredibly important.
37:58
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the main points, is that
38:01
Speaker 1: the world that we live in is is always pushing
38:04
Speaker 1: us to be fast and quick and and with our
38:08
Speaker 1: you know, with our foods. Like even today in our community,
38:12
Speaker 1: we have a strong relationship for our foods and we
38:16
Speaker 1: have ceremonies for our food. So in the springtime, you know,
38:19
Speaker 1: when the leaves are really small, well, we'll have the
38:22
Speaker 1: leaves are just starting to come out. We have ceremony
38:24
Speaker 1: for our seeds, and we sing to our seeds that
38:27
Speaker 1: we're gonna plant. So we were letting them know that
38:30
Speaker 1: it's time, you know, that it's time. We're going to
38:32
Speaker 1: plant them and they're going to grow and if they're
38:34
Speaker 1: going to help sustain the people. And so we have
38:36
Speaker 1: ceremony for these seeds. So we take that time to
38:40
Speaker 1: to give them that respect and to honor them in
38:43
Speaker 1: that way. And that's so different than than just going
38:46
Speaker 1: to the store and picking something up and you know,
38:50
Speaker 1: not really kind of being mindless about, you know, what
38:53
Speaker 1: what you're consuming, and you know, we really don't think about,
38:56
Speaker 1: you know, if you're not growing it yourself, where does
38:59
Speaker 1: it come from? What's on it? We are people putting
39:04
Speaker 1: love into this food that there that you're putting in
39:07
Speaker 1: your mouth, and and it seems like we've become disconnected
39:10
Speaker 1: from that and we need to reconnect. And that's one
39:13
Speaker 1: of the reasons, you know, why I'm making that film
39:17
Speaker 1: is because I think it's so important that we reconnect
39:20
Speaker 1: to our relatives. You know, it's not just about humans.
39:24
Speaker 1: Were related to everything that's on the earth, and we
39:27
Speaker 1: need to pick those relationships back up. If we're gonna
39:31
Speaker 1: have something in the future for our great great great grandkids.
39:35
Speaker 1: You know, we want to have water for them, we
39:37
Speaker 1: want to have food for them, and if we need
39:41
Speaker 1: to build those relationships in order to do that. And
39:44
Speaker 1: it comes back to every time we talk about climate change,
39:47
Speaker 1: every time we talk about land preservation or trying to
39:50
Speaker 1: just survival in general, is always indigenous people who are
39:53
Speaker 1: at the forefront in these battles, and they're the first
39:56
Speaker 1: ones who tell us this is about to go bad.
39:59
Speaker 1: You're back, We're about to be screwed. Please listen. What
40:03
Speaker 1: happens with indigenous people that are protecting the earth is
40:07
Speaker 1: they kind of get demonized in the media. So people
40:12
Speaker 1: got to think about that when they're seeing this in
40:13
Speaker 1: the media. Those are the people that are trying to
40:16
Speaker 1: protect our earth for the future generations. And you know
40:19
Speaker 1: the biodiversity you know around the world of biodiversity is
40:24
Speaker 1: protected by indigenous people. Yeah, that's astounding when you think
40:27
Speaker 1: about it. It really it's shocking. So I think, if
40:32
Speaker 1: you want the earth to be protected, the more land
40:35
Speaker 1: backed in, indigenous people don't protect it. I'm down for
40:41
Speaker 1: lifted this um, but you know, I had to ask
40:43
Speaker 1: the question and then I got sidetracked because the food
40:45
Speaker 1: stuff was so amazing. I'm excited about this, But how
40:48
Speaker 1: do you dwindle down to be like, Okay, this is
40:51
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do my film on this time? Because
40:53
Speaker 1: there's so much, like I said, untapped history that you're
40:57
Speaker 1: digging into. How do you decide on those? It called
41:00
Speaker 1: to me? So whatever the story that i'm that i'm
41:04
Speaker 1: that's meant to come through me will call me and
41:05
Speaker 1: I'll know it. It will tug at me, so I
41:08
Speaker 1: have to do it. That's how I know. Well, how yeah,
41:13
Speaker 1: I know this is gonna be one of those like
41:16
Speaker 1: tell me because I need to know, because you do
41:18
Speaker 1: have these connections when you have these films like The
41:21
Speaker 1: Beauty and we only watch clips under the Husk and
41:25
Speaker 1: like it's a connection you're trying to delve into the
41:28
Speaker 1: fact that you're going back to the heritage and your
41:30
Speaker 1: children and then the generations to come and digging back
41:33
Speaker 1: and holding onto that heritage to uh, without a whisper,
41:37
Speaker 1: talking about the actual history of it, and how strong
41:42
Speaker 1: the tribal women were in the matriarch is in this community.
41:46
Speaker 1: What is that feeling? Is it just yes, I gotta
41:49
Speaker 1: tell the story or is it just because you have
41:51
Speaker 1: a connection that it makes these films. Yeah, I don't know.
41:56
Speaker 1: I am an artist, so besides doing filmmaker, I'm also
41:59
Speaker 1: a sual artists. And it feels the same to me.
42:02
Speaker 1: Like when I'm making pottery. I do pottery as well.
42:06
Speaker 1: I have I have this idea that starts and it
42:09
Speaker 1: just it just wants to come through, so I just
42:13
Speaker 1: work on it until it comes through. So it's the
42:15
Speaker 1: same with these stories, and it will be something that
42:17
Speaker 1: I'll see different things and and it's I don't know.
42:21
Speaker 1: I guess I'm guided to do these That's that's a
42:23
Speaker 1: better way to put it. And that's it's they're gorgeous. Yeah,
42:31
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just me. These these messages are coming
42:34
Speaker 1: from the ancestors that you know, there's I think about
42:37
Speaker 1: my ancestors and the things that they were not able
42:39
Speaker 1: to do because they were so oppressed, you know, and
42:42
Speaker 1: they were going through so many, you know, different traumas
42:45
Speaker 1: throughout history. And we're at a time right now where
42:49
Speaker 1: we can do this. We can we have the time,
42:52
Speaker 1: we have the resources to be able to tell these stories,
42:55
Speaker 1: and and we need to do it um and beautiful.
43:00
Speaker 1: I will say, what are some of the things that
43:03
Speaker 1: you would say to feature filmmakers who want to share
43:07
Speaker 1: stories in their voices. What would be some advice that
43:09
Speaker 1: you would give to them. I think it's important to
43:13
Speaker 1: have good allies and filmmaking too. And like for me
43:16
Speaker 1: as a filmmaker in this community of Aquisna, there's not
43:19
Speaker 1: a lot of filmmakers here, and so in order for
43:23
Speaker 1: me to learn more, I have to reach out to
43:25
Speaker 1: other communities, to other cities. UM, do a lot of networking. Um.
43:32
Speaker 1: You know, I've I've been fortunate with my films. I've
43:34
Speaker 1: been uh connected with Vision Maker Media and they've funded
43:39
Speaker 1: my last three films and I've I've made a lot
43:43
Speaker 1: of connections through them. Um. Also through my distributor, Women
43:48
Speaker 1: Make Movies. They've done a good job of distributing my
43:51
Speaker 1: films and you know, connecting me to doing screenings and
43:55
Speaker 1: you know, to film festivals and different things like that.
43:57
Speaker 1: So all of those things it's important to to connect
44:01
Speaker 1: with other people that are in the industry. But always
44:04
Speaker 1: to remain true to your voice. You know, that's one
44:07
Speaker 1: thing that's that can be a challenge sometimes, you know,
44:10
Speaker 1: as a kind of isolated filmmaker is Um, sometimes you'll
44:15
Speaker 1: get other people, you know, trying to change the story
44:19
Speaker 1: you're trying to tell. So you always got to go
44:22
Speaker 1: back to that and to you know, remain true to
44:24
Speaker 1: your own story. That's why I like to be the
44:27
Speaker 1: director producer, because I don't like anybody bosting me around. Yes,
44:34
Speaker 1: I love it. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you
44:37
Speaker 1: so much for for taking the time and joining us.
44:39
Speaker 1: Obviously we're big fans of yours and we'll be watching
44:43
Speaker 1: what you do. Can you tell the listeners where they
44:46
Speaker 1: can find your work and where they can connect with you? Sure? So,
44:51
Speaker 1: Women make Movies distributes my films, so you can look
44:54
Speaker 1: them up. I also have a web page. It's called
44:56
Speaker 1: toural Productions dot org. It's just as you know, a
44:59
Speaker 1: buyo in some of the films I've been involved with lately.
45:03
Speaker 1: So yeah, I can check me out. Yeah. So we
45:06
Speaker 1: found your your documentary on PBS, so if anybody wants
45:10
Speaker 1: to look that up, it is available there and it's
45:12
Speaker 1: a must watch for all of our listeners. Yeah, try
45:15
Speaker 1: to get these films in the classrooms. That's where I
45:17
Speaker 1: really want to see the little If your teacher listening
45:19
Speaker 1: out there, you can you can order them for your school. Yes,
45:23
Speaker 1: so women make movies. Yes, do that? Do that? Um? Well,
45:27
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you again for being here. Hopefully we'll
45:31
Speaker 1: have you back again one day because this was a delight.
45:34
Speaker 1: Please come back on yes, yes, yes, um and listeners.
45:40
Speaker 1: If you would like to reach out to us, you
45:41
Speaker 1: can our email stuff and your mom stuff at I
45:43
Speaker 1: hurt me dot com. Can you find us on Twitter
45:45
Speaker 1: at momps of podcast or on Instagram that stuff whatever
45:47
Speaker 1: told you. Thanks, It's always to our sup producer Christina.
45:49
Speaker 1: Thank you Christina, and thanks to you for listening stuff
45:51
Speaker 1: I never told you. The production to b I Heart
45:53
Speaker 1: Radio for more podcast for my Heart Radio, you can
45:54
Speaker 1: check out the Heart Radio at Apple podcast or wherever
45:56
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shops.