Dawnland | movie | 2018 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

They were forced to assimilate into white society: children ripped away from their families, depriving them of their cul | dG1fazhjak1qeVBhZFk

Transcript

00:00They went into my home and picked up my children and placed them in a foster home.

00:19This country had official policy to remove Native children from their homes and place

00:24them with white families so that they would learn how to be white.

00:31But we're still here.

00:33And many of our people have never, ever shared their stories.

00:39Imagine being torn away from your parents and community.

00:42I remember the station wagons pulling up.

00:45I never talked about it in therapy, I played video games.

00:48Maine has become the first state in the nation to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission

00:53focusing on child welfare.

00:55The truth hurts.

00:57The truth is very painful.

00:59How come it took so long for you all to get a group together to see if they can help us?

01:05You can't heal someone that's gone through hell.

01:09Usually when a Truth Commission happens, there's a great deal of unrest in the society that's

01:15surrounding it.

01:16And here, the dominant culture is largely unaware.

01:18People are saying, no, no, no, no, no, this is not genocide.

01:22Genocide is what happened at Auschwitz.

01:24The reality is it's been the attack of our culture, it's been the attempt to remove our

01:29culture and you replace it with nothing.

01:31What happened to my aunts, my grandparents and all that, it's still happening.

01:36Tell me about your employment in state child welfare.

01:40The judges didn't figure this was anything we had to do much about.

01:44For the longest time, I was really afraid to even say that I was Indian.

01:49You don't take 500 years of mistrust and wash it away with one commission.

01:54I'm not sure where we're going to be able to gain your trust.

01:58By all intents and purposes, you represent the perpetrator.

02:01White privilege is not something I can get rid of.

02:04I think my obligation is to harness it.

02:06Holy Mitchkin.

02:11I never would have thought the state of Maine would ever engage the Wabanaki in this level.

02:20We see it as something very deep, a necessary transition from being an occupier to being

02:29a neighbor.