Dawnland Highlights Cultural Survival and Stolen Children
On October 16th, 2019 UNA-NY, in partnership with the Office for International Services at Fordham University and the International Students and Scholars Office at Columbia University, presented a sold-out screening of DAWNLAND at the Dolby theater in midtown New York City. The Q+A after the screening featured two indigenous experts Roberto Borrero and Chris Newell joining the discussion. $5 of each admission ticket will be donated to the Maine Wabanaki Reach Foundation. The movie offers testimonies, traditions, laughs and tears of the Wabanaki people.
It is still dark, but the Wabanaki people are all gathered on the shore. They rub their hands and breath heavily. Mornings in Maine can be icy, but they don’t seem affected. Regardless of the temperature, they play drums and sing their traditional songs, as their ancestors did, as the Wabanaki people have always done. Wabanaki means “people of the first light” and that’s why they are there. They are gathered up to celebrate the dawn because, in their region, the sun rises before everywhere else in the American continent. It’s the land of the new beginning, it’s the Dawnland.
DAWNLAND is the title of Adam Mazo’s documentary, the untold story of Wabanaki cultural genocide and their incredible sufferings throughout the years. The film gives such a deep insight into the history of these people that it won an Emmy award for Outstanding Research, and its composer Jennifer Kreisbery was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Music at the 40th Annual News and Documentary Awards in New York City on September 24, 2019.
The film follows the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) across the United States to gather testimonies on one of the most massive child removal occurrances in the U.S. Today, everyone needs to know what happened to those children.
During the 20th century, governmental agencies systematically deported Native American children to foster care, new families, and Indian boarding schools across all the United States. Under the justificatory slogan “Let’s save those poor Indian kids,” the government institutionalized racism in the name of literacy and continuous progress. As a result, in the 1970s, almost one-fourth of Native children were taken away from their parents and put in a different cultural setting. It resulted in the Wabanakis’ severe mental and physical distress that lasts to this day.
In response to this massive deportation and cultural annihilation, in 1978 the Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) “to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families”. Later on, the passing of ICWA gave rise to the Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), whose mandate was to provide a voice to the Wabanaki deported children, clarify their stories, help them healing and reconciling with their community.
In 2015 TRC submitted its final report, which shed light on this untold story. It gathered 159 statements from native and non-native individuals involved in the Wabanaki child removal and concluded that the actions of the government agencies fell within the definition of “cultural genocide” given by the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide. “Causing serious bodily or mental harm” and “forcibly transferring members of the group to another group,” this is how the Convention describes a cultural genocide, and that’s what happened to those “Indian kids.”
In foster care, they suffered physical and psychological punishments, such as spending entire days without eating or staying in bed for 24 hours without the possibility to stand. Luckily, they are not alone. The Maine-Wabanaki REACH (Restoration – Engagement – Advocacy – Change – Healing) is a cross-cultural collaborative comprised of staff from the State of Maine Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) and Wabanaki child welfare programs, Wabanaki Health and Wellness, and the Wabanaki Program to serve the Wabanaki people through helping to strengthen the cultural, spiritual and physical well-being of Native people in Maine.
By grieving and healing in community, people can try to reconnect with their lost members who faced severe identity crises over the years. Dawnland tells the stories of several children who grew up in different settings and were taken away from their families and community. The story of a woman whose Wabanaki’s name is Neptune was one of them. She lost her family, her customs, and her name. Eventually, she came back to her community, but nothing was the same. For example, she couldn’t join a traditional dance because she didn’t know how to perform it. She says in the film, “I lost my identity. That’s what happens to people going from one world to another. They feel that they don’t belong to neither."
After the film, Kelly Roberts from the Office for International Services, Fordham University introduced Roberto "Mukaro" Borrero (Taino), an Indigenous human rights expert, chairperson of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and grassroots advocate, as well as Chris Newell, senior advisor to DAWNLAND, born and raised in Motahkmikuhk (Indian Township, Maine) and a proud citizen of the Passamaquoddy Tribe.
Mr. Borrero began the panel highlighting that the movie is part of a global movement of indigenous people that are speaking out for themselves after years of oppression and institutionalized racism. DAWNLAND is a tool for raising international awareness of indigenous peoples’ rights. “Similar initiatives must happen. Other groups than indigenous communities need to share our struggles and join the movement to secure our rights. Boarding schools did not happen only in Maine, but across the United States as well," he said.
These stories cannot be deleted, and unquestionably must not be forgotten. However, this is the chance of a new beginning, a new dawn for the people of the first light. As a senior advisor to the film, Chris Newell, echoed similar sentiments, talking about how DAWNLAND is a strong voice of the community. “We wanted to make a truly indigenous movie. The music is native, and the names of the regions are in our language. America has to learn how to say our language as well. They can look them up and understand what the words mean. It is a way to get a window into our culture,” he said.
During the Q&A, questions ranged from how white communities can be an ally in the movement to getting the film distributed more widely. Both the speakers stressed that the film was made for teaching, for telling real narratives. There are free educational guides that have been produced in coordination with the film that can be downloaded by institutions to teach about the history of native genocide in the United States. “I (may not) see the results of my work, but it doesn’t mean (it) will not work. We have to think about the ones that will come after us,” said Mr. Newell.
According to the TRC, “native children in Maine have entered foster care at disproportionate rates since before the passage of ICWA until 2013. Within the last 13 years, it has been 5.1 times more likely that a Native child would enter care than a nonNative child. Once in foster care, it appears that Native children are less likely to be adopted than children overall, and more likely to enter permanency guardianship." The testimonies and TRC’s Report can be found on the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission website. Commission’s findings and recommendations are also available for download.
To date, DAWNLAND has had more than 2.2 million views worldwide since it was shown on PBS in November 2018.