Eastport Arts Center will present the documentary film Dawnland at 7 pm, Saturday, October 6. For most of the 20th century, child welfare authorities systematically removed Native American children from their homes and placed them with white families. As recently as the 1970’s, one in four Native children nationwide were living in non-Native foster care, adoptive homes, or boarding schools. Many children experienced devastating emotional and physical harm by adults who tried to erase their cultural identity.
The documentary follows a historic investigation in Maine: the first official “truth and reconciliation commission.” Dawnland goes behind the scenes as this historic body grapples with difficult truths, redefines reconciliation, and charts a new course for state and tribal relations. Featured in the film are former foster children from the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Lakota, and Wampanoag tribes.
“The emerging national conversation about the role of truth in our society makes Dawnland more relevant than we could ever have imagined,” wrote directors Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip in a press statement. “Dawnland highlights the inevitable injustice that results when one culture claims superiority over another. The film aims to move diverse audiences to action, support efforts to make Native peoples more visible, and ensure Native worldviews, stories, and histories are told and heard. We aspire to use Dawnland to create a social space where people in the dominant culture can confront how we benefit from centuries of persecution and oppression of Indigenous peoples.”
There will be no charge for the screening; a reception will follow for viewers to gather and discuss the film. The Eastport Arts Center is at 36 Washington Street, Eastport and http://www.eastportartscenter.org, and is handicapped-accessible. The work of the EAC has been funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The work of Eastport Arts Center is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
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