Indigenous Resistance Video Series

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN RESISTANCE
Video inspirations on Sunday afternoons
Location: Auraria Campus, North Classroom 1204, Denver (Speer Blvd. @ Larimer Street) (free parking on campus on Sundays)
Time: 1-4 pm, unless double feature, then 1-5 pm, discussion follows films.
Cost: $5 suggested contribution – proceeds go to indigenous student delegation to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Sunday, February 13, 2011 (Double feature!)
Topic: Territorial rights and mining
Our Generation – Land, Culture, Freedom (2010) -
Told through the voice of the Yolungu indigenous people in Australia, this is a powerful example of resistance to the Northern Territory Intervention, the ongoing, illegal military occupation of aboriginal communities, essentially for the benefit of transnational mining corporations. (73 minutes)
American Outrage: the Western Shoshone Treaty Rights Struggle (2008) Highlighting the example of Mary and Carrie Dann, Western Shoshone sisters, who fight the United States and transnational mining corporations, all the way through the Supreme Court to the United Nations. Defending the Treaty of Ruby Valley (1863), the Danns are contemporary heroines for indigenous freedom and justice. This film includes footage of Denver protests against the Newmont gold mining corporation. (56 minutes)

Sunday, February 20, 2011
Topic: Indigenous resistance to Environmental Destruction
Crude: The Real Price of Oil (2009) Documents one of the most vicious fights of our time, between the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorean Amazon and Chevron-Texaco. The Cofán, Siona, Secoya, Kichwa, and Huaorani nations continue to resist what might be the worst petroleum contamination on earth. The film takes us inside the life and death fight between indigenous nations and one of the largest oil corporations in the world. 105 minutes.
Tar Creek (2010) Documentary about the most environmentally contaminated (water, land and air) area in the US: the Quapaw Nation in northeastern Oklahoma – due to lead and other mining . 95 minutes.
Mine: Story of a Sacred Mountain (2010)– a real-life Avatar story about an indigenous people threatened with the destruction of their most sacred place by invaders. The Dongria Kondh in Orrisa, India resist the London-based transnational aluminum corporation Vedanta Resources. Includes update of recent victory by the Dongria Kondh against Vedanta.17 minutes.

Sunday,February 27, 2011
We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee 1973 (2010) – on the 38th anniversary of the beginning of the 71- day liberation of Wounded Knee in 1973, this film provides an inside perspective of one of the most dramatic contemporary acts of indigenous resistance in the United States.

Sunday, March 6, 2011
(Topic: Indigenous Children, Boarding School Genocide, and the Healing of Future Generations)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) – a moving, first-run film about the kidnapping of Aboriginal children by the Australian government for the purpose of assimilating indigenous peoples out of existence. True story. 93 minutes
In the White Man's Image (1991) – exposes the US policy of kidnapping indigenous children, and sending them to government boarding schools. This policy was copied by Australia, Canada, and New Zealand against indigenous peoples there. 58 min.
A Century of Genocide in the Americas – “Rabbit Proof Fence in Canada,” but, with a strategy for healing. 17 minutes.