We Are the Seeds 2022 celebrates Indigenous arts at Cherry Street Pier

Over 14,000 people identify as Indigenous in the Philadelphia region, and director of We Are the Seeds Philly, Tailinh Agoyo wants you to explore their untold narratives this weekend at Cherry Street Pier.

With the backdrop of the Delaware River, Philadelphians will gather at the Pier on Nov. 18 and 19 to celebrate We Are the Seeds, a local organization that honors the voices of Indigenous and Native artists, performers, educators, and change-makers. “By bringing together indigenous artists and culture bearers to tell their work and their own stories, we’re celebrating who we are,” Agoyo said. “We’re celebrating our continuance and showing that we have not only survived but that we’re thriving.”

The two day event features art shows, music, dance, and live painting exhibitions. There will be booths throughout the pier featuring the work of carvers, jewelry designers, and painters while singers, dancers, and speakers take the festival stage.

On Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon, there will be a panel discussion with Dawn and Cassius Spears, who have a farm in Narragansett in Rhode Island, that implements indigenous food ways. They will be joined by Wampanoag Chef Sherry Pocknett of Sly Fox Den, who will discuss how food ties into tradition and Earth’s sustainability.

Local cinema and film publication cinéSPEAK will host two film programs at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday .

The Upstander Project, a group that uses storytelling to amplify silenced narratives, presents the Dawnland shorts, focused on the stories Indigenous child removal in the United States.

First Light (2015) depicts the historical and present-day practices of the government isolating native children from their tribes, focussing on the Wabanaki people and child welfare workers in Maine. Dear Georgina (2019) shares the journey of a Passamaquoddy tribe elder in sharpening the blurry outlines of her identity. Bounty (2021) brings families of the Penobscot Nation to read and react to their ancestors’ government-issued death warrant.

Earlier this month, Supreme Court justices heard over three hours of arguments challenging the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act “to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native Homes,” the Associated Press reported.

“(This) really powerful trilogy of shorts (is) timely because the Supreme Court is exploring the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act,” said Sarah Mueller, cinéSPEAK’s founder.

» READ MORE: Justices seem to favor most of Native child welfare law

The Reciprocity Project on Saturday focuses on how Indigenous people in North America and around the world are advocating for a sustainable way to preserve nature.

“A lot of the films are about environmental sustainability, living in harmony with the land, preserving traditions that Indigenous folks have held on to, like the food they grow and why they grow it,” Mueller said. “The vast majority of (these seven films) are partially in English and Indigenous languages.” All the films will be subtitled.

Watch a grandfather teach his granddaughter to find reciprocity in all aspects of life in Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors), which will be screened in the Gwich’in language and English. Then there is artist and photographer Jeremy Dennis restoring his family home into a community gathering place for a new generation of artists in Ma’s House, which will be screened in English.

Following each program, Adam Mazo (creative director for Upstander Project and an Emmy Award-winning social issue documentarian) and Jennifer Kreisberg (singer and composer who comes from four generations of Seven Singing Sisters through the maternal line) will lead talkbacks.

Dates: Nov. 18 from 1 to 7 p.m. and Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Film screening begins at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

Location: Cherry Street Pier at 121 North Christopher Columbus Boulevard.

Tickets: The event is free, but donations are encouraged with ticket reservation. A majority of these screenings are low, no-cost, and sliding scale.

RSVP: Reserve your spot on Eventbrite for event and film screenings.