IndigiQueer Stewards
This screening is bracketed by Indigenous People’s Day and Native American Heritage Month. It is rare to see two films that so deeply connect to language as transmission of scientific, ecological, culture, and land, for Dené in what is known as Alaska, and Cree First Nations.
Hands working hide, bringing knowledge back to life. Voices and language refusing to disappear. Two films grounded in land, language, and continuance where what was nearly lost is carried forward, practiced, and protected.
We are really excited to support IndigiQueer filmmakers and their films this year as QWOCMAP has done since it was founded in 2000. Our Filmmaker Development Program tailored 3 different workshops, in San Francisco with Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS) in 2009, in Gallup/Navajo Nation in 2013, and back in San Francisco with the Native American Health Center in 2017. These workshops were followed with a QWOCFF Festival Focus in 2010 with the historic “Reclaiming Remembrance: Queer Native American, Indigenous & First Nations Women,” and again in 2018 with Indigenous Futures.” QWOCMAP’s catalog features the largest collection of or LBTQIA+ and Two Spirit Native American, Indígena, and First Nations people. These stories are crucial to Indigenous Sovereignty and land back.
The Films
Deneege Leł Ghu Kk’ots’eedeneeyh Te Heł Hoozoonh Ts’e Denots’edeneeyh
Narrated in Denaakku2019e, the film follows a group of Denu00e9 women reviving the near lost practice of brain-tanning hides, a centuries-old tradition tied to the health of the land and community.
A Cree Approach
Unless people like us do something about reclaiming, revitalizing or, you know, maintaining what we have, [Indigenous languages] will all be gone. Itu2019s up to us as Indian people that want to preserve our languages.
