Ogaawag I: Walleye

Overview:

This film documents our continued journey of learning Anishinaabe lifeways and being in relationship with the land.  It shares through an authentic lens the relationships being built between urban indigenous people from Detroit and indigenous people living on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota.  This is a story for us, so we can learn.  As a filmmaker I seek to weave stories that reignite neural pathways of our original ways of being, being with the earth, being in harmony and balance and respect.   I pray this video stirs your spirit well, that you find some medicine in it.  The story here is about fall time, the netting of the Walleye for our families and communities to eat.  Our mother earth has been suffering, the fish have mercury at levels where our foodways cannot be our sole sustenance, due to pollution and climate change.  We must continue to take steps to consume less, to restore balance.  Please support indigenous people as they continue to struggle for the lands, the waters and for us all to be free.  Line 3 has begun, but our work hasn't stopped, so please support frontline communities.

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Dear Annie & Family,

Thank you for allowing us to visit and build relationship with your family and community over the years. This experience and every experience we have together heals generations forward and back as well as threads together community and harmony. We are grateful for the knowledge you share with us about living a more sustainable life connected to the land and all our relations as well as all of the mentoring and support you give us.

Love, Giizhigad & Family

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