WE STILL LIVE HERE: Breathing Life Into A Culture

What defines a culture? Is it the people, the language, the traditions? Over the course of human history, many cultures and entire civilizations have all but completely vanished from the face of the earth, leaving little to nothing for future generations to know about them. At some point in time the very last memories and experiences of these cultures passed away with the generations that held them. It is difficult to begin to imagine how many cultures remain buried in time, never to be discovered by future generations, but even more difficult to imagine what it would take to uncover these lost realities. Is it possible to bring an entire language, culture, and way of life back from the dead? WE STILL LIVE HERE – AS NUTAYUNEAN sets out to answer these questions, and in doing so takes us on a fascinating journey that not only changes the lives of a small group of Native Americans, but has the potential to impact future generations in powerful ways.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Anne Makepeace tells the story of the rediscovery of the Wampanoag language in small communities near Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The story documents Jesse Little Doe Baird and her work in restoring the Wampanoag language, as well as its cultural heritage, to her Native American community. Beginning with a series of dreams and visions in which people spoke in a language she did not understand, Baird started to realize that it is Wampanoag that she was hearing. She quickly recognized these visions as a calling for her to pursue the restoration of her ancestors’ language. With little to no college education the path before her was undoubtedly long and challenging, but one that she was willing to face with extreme courage and perseverance. Baird found her way to the world-renowned linguistics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received a special public research grant and began working with the late Ken Hale. Using extremely complex and arduous techniques, Baird and Hale not only began to compile a Wampanoag-English dictionary, but also worked extensively with grammar, gaining fluency in the ancient Algonquian language. Baird’s work was noticed by the department and gained the support of many scholars including the famous Noam Chompsky, which led her to continue and receive her masters in linguistics and language pedagogy from MIT. While not included in the documentary, it is also worth mentioning that Baird is a recipient of the 2010 MacArthur “Genius” Award for her work.

The incredible work of Jesse Little Doe Baird only begins to scratch the surface of WE STILL LIVE HERE. The documentary also beautifully weaves together the efforts of present day Wampanoag community members to learn their heritage along with their rather heartbreaking past. Ironically, most of the documents and sources that are available today for research are products of conflict in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Land disputes with European settlers were a common issue documented in Wampanoag, but also led to the fragmentation of Wampanoag communities. Along with deeds and land agreements, Puritan missionaries translated the King James Bible into Wampanoag, but the pressure to convert to Christianity and subscribe to English ways of life only added to the already rapidly declining Wampanoag culture. It was only a matter of time before the Wampanoag ways of life would fade into history. WE STILL LIVE HERE does not end here, however. Through the efforts of Jesse Little Doe Baird and many others, significant progress has been made in reviving their ancient ways of life. Educational programs, organized community events, and retreats are only the first in many ongoing efforts to bring back their wonderful culture. The restoration and preservation of the Wampanoag language is not only unique and exciting in the academic world of linguistics, but is a phenomenon that is truly breathing life into an entire culture.

A lively and informative discussion followed the film, with Dr. Pauline Strong from the University of Texas as the special guest. The only slightly disappointing part of the night was that there were so few people in attendance. While it was nice to be in a small, friendly environment to discuss this important topic, WE STILL LIVE HERE is a marvelous, eye-opening documentary that no one should miss. I can only hope it will only gain more attention and success when it airs on PBS in late November.

Community Cinema is a partnership between the Austin Public Library and KLRU, showing screenings of upcoming films from the PBS Independent Lens series.

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