INDIGENOUS PEOPLES SUMMIT
Omaha, Nebraska (2023)
In August 2023, an Indigenous Peoples’ Summit took place in Omaha, NE, where a robust conversation around Seedkeeping, Rematriation, Indigenous Womanhood, and Food Sovereignty took place over two days with Indigenous leaders from all over. Attendees included Chief Holloway of the Unmohon People, Queen Quet Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, Cynthia Ellis, Ambassador of the Garifuna Nation, Great Grandmother Mary Lyons, and so on.
I was invited to create a short documentary around the above-mentioned themes at the Summit. The Summit ended with a Treaty signed between the Iowa people and the Omaha Nations and the Garifuna Nations.
BRIDGE (IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHERS)
Los Angeles, CA (2023)
As Board Member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers, I helped bring the 16-week long BRIDGE program to Los Angeles in the summer of 2023. Duties included assisting with the facilitation of the program, working with students to help them move past their difficulties, debriefing after each class to see what worked and what didn’t in order to better develop the program.
ANIWA
THE BOA FOUNDATION Big Bear, USA (2022, 2023)
The Boa Foundation works with Indigenous communities to regenerate degraded ecosystems, support strategic land buybacks, assist with reforestation projects, help preserve songs, crafts, languages, and ceremonies, and offer a broad spectrum of eco-friendly solutions to increase the carrying capacity of land and community. They also facilitate intercultural exchanges with Indigenous leaders from around the world to learn how to live in harmony with nature, build alliances, support the preservation of their cultures, and amplify their message.
Since 2022, I have served as photographer and filmmaker at their gathering of elders, where Indigenous leaders from around the world come to offer wisdom and workshops to an international community and discuss the most pressing issues we face today. I am part of a small filming team that helps shoot educational courses for the BOA Foundation based on the lectures the Indigenous elders offer at the conference. Some of the leaders include:
- The Mamos and Zagas from elusive Kogi and Arhuaco tribes of Colombia,
- Ashaninka elder Benki Piyako, who is a UN Equator Prize winning and Environmental Administrator of Acre, Brazil,
- Hopi elder Mona Polacca, who has gained international recognition for her work as one of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers - a group of spiritual elders, medicine women, and wisdom keepers since 2004,
and many many more.
These academic courses are foundational to the BOA Foundation’s mission, and offer life-sustaining, earth-friendly practices by some of the world’s wisdom-keepers and made available to people worldwide.
THE DANCE OF FREEDOM
CULTURE SHAKTI Los Angeles/Rajasthan, USA/India (2019-2024)
In association with Culture Shakti dance school (UNESCO-CID) and Padma-Shri award winning Gulabo Sapera, this film is a story of a beautiful dance tradition in Western India that ended female infanticide. The mother of the dance, Gulabo Sapera, won India’s highest civilian award, a historical moment in the country, considering she came from a so-called tribe of “untouchable people” in India’s antiquated caste system. The tribe has a rich and very complex culture, that is rapidly getting lost due to the hardships faced by the tribe, and the lack of rights they have. Their dance is helping them keep their tradition alive. It is a poignant tale of the coming together of Western and Indian tribal women to empower each other and help keep a centuries-old tradition alive. The film is currently in production. My role is that of a Director, Producer and Cinematographer.
*Culture Shakti aims to preserve the Rajasthani culture and folk arts. Katrina also fights for the rights of the folk artists, by various ways including offering support with buying land, fundraising, introducing people from the West to the folk artists and giving them a chance to learn their craft from them, and supporting them in keeping their culture alive.
EMPOWERED INDIGENOUS FILMMAKER MASTERCLASSES
VoVo PRODUCTIONS AND TELUS STORYHIVE British Columbia (2018)
Canada-based Farhan Umedaly (VoVo Productions), who works with conservation organizations such as the David Suzuki Foundation, founded the Empowered Indigenous Filmmaker Masterclass, which offers filmmaking mentorship to marginalized communities worldwide, from First Nations youth to Syrian refugees and Indigenous communities worldwide.
I was invited to be a storytelling mentor at their British Columbia cohorts. We taught filmmaking to groups of First Nations youth from New Hazelton and then Kamloops, each cohort one week long. We offered the Indigenous youth of Canada with no prior experience in filmmaking hands-on technical training—from storyboarding and script writing to on-location filming, audio production, delivery of a completed film. We screened their films on a big screen and presented awards. Some of the youth have since successfully gone on to document and tell the stories of their elders.