Resisting Erasure: Two Short Films about Indigenous Experiences, with Q&A by film-maker Roger Paul (Passamaquoddy, Wolastoq) - Virtual

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Bounty (9 min)

Bounty, part of the Dawnland film series, reveals the hidden story of the Phips Proclamation, one of many scalp-bounty proclamations used to exterminate Native people in order to take their land in what is now New England. In the film, Penobscot parents and children resist erasure and commemorate survival by reading and reacting to the government-issued Phips Proclamation’s call for colonial settlers to hunt, scalp, and murder Penobscot people.

Weckuwapok (13 min)

On these traditional homelands, Waponahkik (the people of the dawn land) bring gratitude to the sun where it first looks our way. Song and stories invite us to accept the new day and put behind us any harm done the day before. These are relational lessons shared from ancestors since time immemorial.

Featuring in collaboration Passamaquoddy citizens Christopher Newell, Roger Paul, and Lauren Stevens; and Yo-Yo Ma.

Roger Paul (Passamaquoddy, Wolastoq) (he/his) was born to a Passamaquoddy mother who, soon afterward, walked on to the spirit world. His father, who was Wolastoq, went to great lengths to protect him from state “child welfare” officials who wanted to send him away to a boarding school or place him in the foster care system. Thus, Roger grew up on various reservations throughout Maine and New Brunswick. His older brothers and sister were not as fortunate. They were taken and sent to the residential school at Shubenecadie. Roger holds a master’s degree in linguistics from MIT and works as a Wabanaki Languages teacher with the Penobscot Nation, the University of Maine at Orono, and the University of Southern Maine. He takes an active and diligent role towards the preservation, continuing growth, and prosperity of the Wabanaki language, culture, and people.

These films are co-sponsored by the University of Hartford and the Town's Office of Equity Advancement.