Hello Everyone!

During the research phase of our documentary, I have found multiple interesting things that I think are important to consider while filming, interviewing, and planning for our documentary.

The first thing that I found that I thought was really awesome, was the abundance of amazing poetry books out there written by Abenaki people, and how much insight so many of them give into their perspectives. One of my favorites was the Cheryl Savangeau poem: “Looking For Indians”. In this poem she describes the hardships she faced growing up and her experience in only seeing one stereotype of what a native person is displayed in the media and in history classrooms.

Another sad thing that I found while researching was that only two Abenaki Bands have been officially recognized, Elnu and Nulhegan. There are so many Abenaki tribes and families that have been fighting for years to be federally recognized, and I definitely am hoping to interview leaders from bands and groups who are in the process of recognition.

Another thing that I realized while researching was that its going to be very important in our documentary to include the perspectives of teachers and administrates who are trying to incoorperatre indigenous history into their classrooms, and the struggles of actually changing a curriculum and all that teachers face when they decide to do that.

Our group still needs to find a few more people to include in our prospects for interviews list, like more teachers who have different perspectives on teaching and changing curriculums, and Abenaki leaders who have been working for years to be recognized but haven’t gotten there yet. We are also hoping to learn more about the logistics and expenses for registering, because there is a lot that goes into it.

I don’t have any questions yet, but maybe I’ll think of some before the retreat!
See you all soon!

Grace Vining

P.S.- my image is from unsplash and was taken by “helloquence”.