Feedback on Native Filmmaking

Native Film Making - Documentarian Thoughts and Declaration of Descendants of the Star People: Lakota Voices, Values and Virtues

INTRODUCTION

Jack London went into the wild; Mowat hunted like the People of the Deer; Leslie Marmon Silko went to the edge of the world; Hemingway went out to sea; Achebe journeyed into the past of his ancestors; and I have ventured into the belly of... "the Rez."

Every artist that I admire has gone through mighty transformations. Each writer whose work that I value most communicated their views of their fellow man, the degradation or advancement of society around them, the translation of their cultural values and the survival of the human spirit. While watching commercials that promote Latin American Culture and "National Hispanic Heritage Month," I enviously embrace the film projects and products that have amplified the voices of many persons of Latin Heritage. As a Lakota Sioux, or Sicangu, I often work in solitary form - much like Santiago. There is no marlin in my world - but what I seek is just as unobtainable.

My last year body of work has led me to the foundation of “A Room Without a View Productions,” a host collaborative for producing the film, “Descendants of the Star People: Lakota Voice, Virtues, and Values.” This has largely been a solo project, aided by friends, community and relatives. I have completed one short, five minute film via Rocky Mountain PBS, as well as a feature blog post titled, "My Relatives Called Me Home." This was a 100% independent project.

Through the conceptualization of this film-making, I have embarked on digital storytelling projects with the following goals and objectives: 

    1) To create dialogue among the Lakota people, their friends and relatives, and allies about the problems and issues facing our communities today. 

    2) Decolonize access to Tribal Institutions and challenge the struggle for Democracy in a pandemic and pandemic-recovering community. 

    3) Create space and platforms for Indigenous storytelling and Indigenous-led media.

    4) “Indigenize the Script" - Create space and platforms for Indigenous storytelling. Interpreting our own histories, especially the Boarding School Era history. 

    5) Confront the issues of violence and Missing, Murdered and Indigenous Peoples in our communities and allow for community members to share their stories and/or suggest the solutions to curb the collateral damages created in our Lakota society.

    6) Showcase and promote our Lakota culture, social gatherings and share Lakota song, dance, and regalia in new and innovative ways that detract from stereotyping of our Lakota people; and to promote an image of contemporary Lakota people without adornment or regalia.

    7) Promote Lakota women in film-making and in having a valid voice that breaks through the oppressive rhetoric of leadership for women today.

Our council fires have not yet learned how to cultivate talent and recruit all of their best and brightest toward common goods. Beyond the politics that control the rhetoric of our everyday world on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, I want to publish some of the thoughts and philosophies behind my writing and my work on the documentary film project just over a year old, "Descendants of the Star People, Lakota Voices, Virtues and Values." This is a film still under production. Due to some of the ideas and foundational thoughts of the film being given for consideration to other entities - the time has come to release the film background and overall project scope and vision. Please contact Lynne Colombe at lynnecolombe@gmail.com with any comments or questions, or to consult about the use of any of the ideas, thoughts or philosophies discussed herein. Wopila.

PROJECT NARRATIVE - DESCENDANTS OF THE STAR PEOPLE

Our ancestors taught through stories, via ethereal pathways of oral tradition; and this was how all rules of conduct, rites of passage, and ways of healing were passed down from one generation to the next. “The Star World,” a philosophy into our ways of being and our connection to “the Star People,” is centrifugal to my Radical Imagination. The Creation Story of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (Burnt Thigh Lakota Nation) translates invaluable lessons on “Wolakota,” or “Living in harmony with all those and all nature around us.” This is an Indigenized way of looking at the world for the Lakota People, and one that decolonizes the thought institutions that perpetuate the social problems in our contemporary society. My Radical Imagination is to create a dialogue among the Sicangu Lakota people through digital storytelling that features Lakota voices, values and virtues, and: illustrates the beauty of the landscape, culture and people; shares stories of survival, healing, and seeking of justice; creates a platform for Indigenous-led solutions; and offers participation into a process of community healing from intergenerational trauma.

By utilizing the spirit and the foundational teachings of our Star Knowledge and connection to the “Star People,” an inspiration was borned to live and work among the people, and to create projects of digital storytelling that will provide authentic translations and windows into our contemporary Lakota society. Digital Storytelling not only preserves our dignity and cultural integrity, but engages Lakota communities in the revolutionary acts of: articulating our own histories, translating our own cultural experiences and identity, explaining our community challenges and blessings, offering solutions to our own problems, and claiming a space in the larger world as a Lakota person with a unique and valid world view.

Having worked with Indigenous youth for over twenty years, largely in the teaching and administration of high school students, my obligation to the wakanyeja (children) of my own Sicangu Nation brought me back to the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in 2013. Before this, I had spent a number of years in Tucson, Arizona, building my knowledge at the University of Arizona and connecting with many Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples. Traveling to Colombia, South America and teaching in bilingual high school also brought a unique preparation, as I experienced the joys and frustrations of learning a second language under immersion - Spanish. Working with students on my home Reservation in Rosebud has also been a huge part of my pathway, and while I was absent from my Reservation for many years, I would often return for a year of teaching and met hundreds of Sicangu students with whom I remain in contact.

After twenty years in “Indian Education,” I faced a number of challenges on the Reservation as an administrator in 2016, and I retired early from the field of Education. A Lakota woman, I have always been very vocal and a leader among my peers, and this led me to want to seek something different for myself and my children that would challenge the status quo, allow myself to take a stand against institutional oppression, and begin a new era of personal growth. In the spring of 2016, I had no idea that those desires would lead me to Standing Rock. I was involved in the NoDAPL Movement from August 2016 until campers finished moving through “The Stronghold” on the Rosebud Reservation in April/May 2017. Being part of this huge environmental justice movement continues to guide and fuel my desire to realize “Indigenous and Racial Justice,” and connected me to allies that continue to be in my circle of creativity and enhance my ability to create authentic, digital storytelling and filmmaking projects.

These collective experiences (and a difficult transition back to life after nearly a year of activism) led me to journalism, a little-used skill that I gained while obtaining an English Composite major at the Black Hills State University. In 2017, I ran for and won a seat on the St. Francis Indian School Board via General (Tribal) Election and served for two years in the capacity of President and Vice-President. Assuming a role as a leader in our Tribal school completely challenged all gender roles assigned at birth and by culture, and totally increased my understanding of the status quo and the challenges that all politicians face on the Rosebud. The pull to help the people would, for me, always be grounded in our oral traditions and connections to our ancestors in imagining what “They would want,” or “What they would do.” It is with this Radical Imagination that I held my ground and was able to serve on a team that worked tirelessly to create standing change for our students in our Tribal school; and the journalism eventually led to digital storytelling.

My greatest imagination has led me to the foundation of “A Room Without a View Productions,” a documentary film-making team that has embarked on the creation of a film, titled, “Descendants of the Star People: Lakota Voice, Virtues, and Values.” This has largely been a solo project, aided by friends, community and relatives. Through the conceptualization of this film-making, I have embarked on digital storytelling projects with the following goals and objectives:

1. To create dialogue among the Lakota people, their friends and relatives, and allies about the problems and issues facing our communities today.

2. Decolonize access to Tribal Institutions and challenge the struggle for Democracy in a pandemic and pandemic-recovering community.

3. Create space and platforms for Indigenous storytelling and Indigenous-led media.

4. “Indigenize the Script,” or focus on characters and narratives that seek and propose solutions to problems on the Rosebud Reservation that have for generations been intractable and that have perpetuated historical trauma.

5. Interpret our own histories, especially the Boarding School Era history.

6. Avoid outside translation and create reliable and articulate media that highlights our strengths and abilities as Indigenous peoples.

7. Represent all human beings in a light of humility, preservation, truth, and to show “waosila” (care, concern in a humble way) for the Lakota people when developing projects.

8. Illustrate the Indigenous imagination while featuring the beautiful landscapes of our Unci Maka, highlighting natural ways of land preservation and use among the people.

9. Create a “Free University for Sicangu Flight & Film” and Teach Sicangu youth how to use digital media, drone technology, computers and cameras and provide opportunities for youth to collaborate and create footage for the final film project and other film(s).

10. Imagine our Lakota society as a safe, healthy and functioning community through the values and virtues that the Lakota people continue to model in daily life.

11. Confront the issues of violence and Missing, Murdered and Indigenous Peoples in our communities and allow for community members to share their stories and/or suggest the solutions to curb the collateral damages created in our Lakota society.

12. Showcase and promote our Lakota culture, social gatherings and share Lakota song, dance, and regalia in new and innovative ways that detract from stereotyping of our Lakota people; and to promote an image of contemporary Lakota people without adornment or regalia.

13. Involve all participants in the final products; and provide participants opportunities to give feedback and approve of all content before finalizing film(s).

14. Involve the entire Sicangu Lakota community by inviting people to participate in various actions and/or aspects of the film-making and storytelling processes; and to develop a community screening for any final products before public, off-Reservation release.

CONCLUSION

To create, to build, to dream, or to try is often “risky business” for many on the Reservation; and taking steps to Decolonize, Indigenize, and contribute to a positive community identity of my homelands is not a task to be taken lightly. I am prepared and stand willing to bear the challenges of this type of Nation Building. I have been preparing for years to create a monumental impact in my Tribal community, and my ultimate inspiration is to propel others to create waves of dialogue and currents of change in our communities. The Lakota people are a strong and wise people, and the oyate have the power among ourselves to suggest solutions and to seek resources and innovative ways to articulate our experiences, create a platform of authenticity, and find balance and success in both the Lakota world and the larger world around us. Lakota people not only contribute to the world view, we enrich humanity through the sharing of our philosophies, modeling of our stewardship to Mother Earth, and translating oral traditions and stories of our peoples.

The most challenging aspect of filmmaking on the Rosebud, given my own experience, is that we are not finished with the era of "Dancing for the Cameras," meaning we would much rather accommodate the voices of others before we value the voices of our relatives. This must change and can only change via the use of our voices in our own communities. We can be prepared for our social lives to change, for people that we have known our entire lives to stop talking to us; we can be prepared to feel very alone; and, we can be prepared to hear the stories that most need to be told.

“To the oppressed, and to those who suffer with them and fight at their side.” - Paulo Freire

IMAGES & CHART: Copyright Lynne M. Colombe (some ideas are credited as noted)

Biography

Lynne M. Colombe is a documentarian, writer, humanitarian, and mother who resides on her home reservation of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate. She has formerly been a Native American secondary education teacher, educator, administrator, grant writer, and even Tribal School Board President/Vice-President (2017-2019). She is currently working on other films via, “A Room Without A View Productions,” which is a collective of tribal people and their allies who aim to create authentic, change-making Indigenous-led media. Once active in the NODAPL Movement at Standing Rock, Lynne continues to create a voice and challenge mainstream views on Native American issues both nationwide, and in her own Tribal community.