Bringing the Salmon Home
BRINGING THE SALMON HOME is the story of three Indigenous Nations who are upholding their sacred responsibility to reintroduce the salmon, working with US Tribal relations and allies along the river. First person stories are combined with vivid landscape and underwater salmon footage, and archival film reels, to tell the long-hidden story of these Salmon People. The losses have been immense. Nation members recount how they were offered tins of Spam as they were starving from the lack of salmon, at the same time as their children were wrenched from their homes through a genocidal Indian residential school system. Today the Syilx Okanagan, Secwépemc, and Ktunaxa Nations are working to bring the salmon home, for the benefit of all.
BRINGING THE SALMON HOME offers new beginnings while acknowledging the past. It prompts necessary reflection and action to support self-determination and decolonization. It proposes early steps towards understanding what reconciliation requires. Of working collaboratively through an Indigenous-centred process that includes all Columbia River basin residents. Of finding solutions to complex challenges by combining traditional Indigenous knowledge and western science, and cultural renewal. This is a vital film that calls on the inspiration and commitment of present and future generations.
Ancestral Rivers
PADDLE TRIBAL WATERS
is a fully immersive experience, showcasing the unbreakable bond between people and their ancestral lands. The film gives viewers a bird’s eye view as an unforgettable group of young people training for the adventure of a lifetime.
8 Billions: We Are All Responsible
Echoes of the Rio
Samqwan: Water
This short doc was adapted from a podcast I created for imagineNATIVE 2022 for the FLOW exhibit. I decided to take that podcast and turn it into a short, educational documentary with a powerful call to action take-away for viewers.
I specifically designed it for a social media audience in terms of how people absorb social media content. Many social platforms are designed around fast-paced, short content that is visual, auditory and that can maintain the viewers attention by consistently changing the visual components every 8 seconds or less.
Similarly, the visual content is expected to keep pace with the narration - matching images to words. The reason the documentary was done this way, is to increase audience size and accessibility, and thus increase the impact of my call to action.
The only way to save the water is for Canadians and Americans to join with Indigenous peoples while we protect the water for all life on Mother Earth. #waterislife