Free ‘Dawnland’ screening

To the Editor:

A free public screening and discussion of the documentary film Dawnland will be held on July 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Telstar High School auditorium.

The nationally acclaimed documentary Dawnland tells how state social service agencies, thinking they were doing the best thing for indigenous children in need, took many from their parents’ homes and placed them with white families. These forced removals caused severe and long-lasting trauma for the children, their families, tribes and communities.

The film shows the work of the Maine Wabanaki-State Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As we watch, we hear survivors describe the devastating and continuing effects of this child-taking on them personally and on their tribes and communities. We learn some of the Commission’s findings and recommendations for bringing healing to survivors and improving relationships between the two peoples, indigenous and the rest of us.

Few of us know much about the history and experience of native peoples, especially the effects of state and federal policies and programs on their cultures and individual lives. When we listen respectfully to those who have been traumatized, they can find some healing, and we all can change our harmful attitudes and practices. We can become–individually, as communities and as a nation–more caring and resilient and healthy.