still from ńáskan nwálhen ni nskúz7a (i am going to meet my daughter) Sydney Pascal

the land wants you is a 103 minute program including works by: Siku Allooloo, Seba Calefulco, Kite, Jenni Laiti, Sunna Maret, Sydney Pascal, Lada Suomenrinne, Alisi Telengut and Zuula Urchud. These films focus on relationality between the universe, land, spirit, family and self. The Whitney

  I have to tell you a secret. I’ve been lost with so much noise in my head, loud but hardly saying anything at all. If I’m honest, a growing separation has been developing between us. Daily life, routines and this constant need for motion. I fall into spirals and lose focus on the bigger picture (have I ever seen the bigger picture?) 

   It’s not to say that there haven't been glimpses. Eerie reminders of another time when – I feel a whisper of wind on the back of my neck. Surprising, yet familiar. In another instance, it’s a wink from the sunrise. After which, for a week straight, I rose with them. I told them all the secrets my heart kept stoked as the day yawned and stretched slowly into motion. But the noise comes back and I fall away from my routines – stumble back into my spiral where the only thing that matters is what is placed right in front of me. I go entire days without breathing, you know, really breathing. I have forgotten what I am made of.

   4.5 billion-year-old water. Water, minerals, molecules that are traded and shared from life to life form through time, until here and now. Through all that time, somehow… everything is connected? 

   This program is another whisper from the wind,  a wink from the sunshine. With films that center relationality. Contextualized as cycles where the universe, land, spirit, family and self are viewed as concentric circles that ripple off and reinforce one another. As they ripple, the lines are blurred and any separation between the elements disappear, their interconnectivity is highlighted. It is clear to me, much of the earth's lands and waters are hurting. Many of earth's inhabitants are hurting. Many of our interpersonal relationships have suffered because of unresolved trauma. Each hurt and pain spills over onto one another, until we're all spinning in despair. 

I remember how the earth has taken care of me and my kin when I look at a map and point to my grandparents' birthplaces. When I pick medicines and berries. When I sleep by a fire under reindeer skins with my best friend. I feel my mind slowing down when I tune into the sound of the water lapping on shore. When I laugh with my father, getting caught in a rain fall just outside of town. I know in those moments that we all heal together. Actually, I wasn’t sure how to bring this up, and I got shy earlier when I tried. Last time I had a slumber party with them they shared a secret with me. Just a reminder in case there was so much in your head right now that you forgot. 

the land wants you

still from Baigal Nuur — Lake Baikal Alisi Telengut