‘Place Where I Belong’ Underscores ICWA’s Impact
California Tribal Families Coalition Commemorates the Indian Child Welfare Act in Beautiful Short Film from Director Christopher Nataanii Cegielski
Review by Christine Trudeau
‘Place Where I Belong,’ opens over a soft soundscape of the crushing waves, a characteristic Humboldt County rocky shoreline comes into view before a cut to thick tree lined mountains as we enter Wakara Scott’s world. Scott is a Cultural Development Specialist for the Two Feathers Native American Family Services, serving Humboldt County. On the ancestral homelands of the Hupa, Karuk and Yurok tribes, as the film notes, she says, “it’s difficult to talk about yourself, and explain yourself to other people. The pain and the hurt you’re going through feels like too much to share with another person.”
As she says this, we see some of Scott’s morning routine, as she gets ready to head into work. “My name is Wakara Scott. I am Yurok, Karuk, Siletz, Tolowa, and Tohono Oʼodham, and I am a kid of ICWA placement,” Scott says.
It’s been 46 years since the Indian Child Welfare Act passed, which helps keep Native children connected and within their tribal communities when they enter into the child welfare system, by ensuring placement with Native families. According to the Native American Rights Fund, “ICWA has been recognized by child welfare experts as the gold standard in child welfare practice, and the law has helped tens of thousands of Indian children and families find fairness and healing in state child welfare systems.”
Even after all these years, the law has and continues to face many challenges, even as recent as last week in Minnesota. Last year a legal challenge known as the Haaland vs. Brackeek case made its way up to the supreme court, challenging the constitutionality of the law. At the heart of the argument against ICWA was that it discriminated against people aiming to foster or adopt children based on their race. However the law, which is not race based, ensures placement of children who are enrolled tribal citizens in the child welfare system to be placed with another tribal citizen.
This year the California Tribal Families Coalition is celebrating the one year anniversary of the supreme court upholding ICWA in the Haaland vs. Brackeek case, in a vote of 7-2, on June 15th with ICWA Day. In a post to social media this weekend, CTFC quoted Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Opinion from the ruling, “In adopting the Indian Child Welfare Act, Congress exercised that lawful authority to secure the right of Indian parents to raise their families as they please; the right of Indian children to grow in their culture; and the right of Indian communities to resist fading into the twilight of history.”
“Place Where I Belong”, which features Wakara Scott, premiered on June 10th, is part of a collaboration between the CTFC, Two Feathers Native American Family Services, and the LA based media company Tre Bordon /Co.
Diné director Christopher Nataanii Cegielski, weaves together strong visual and scoring elements throughout the film that breathtakingly hook you immediately into Scott’s narrative. Delicately, Cegielski and Scott bring the viewer into a place of reflection. We see this reflection when we get to Scotts work, as a beading group with Native youth takes place, and the class leader begins to explain that the thread is the “lifeline of the beadwork,” and that “our lifeline is what continues to hold all of our teachings together. Our lifeline is fragile, but it’s super strong.”
This piece was reported and written with the support of an Ethnic Media Outreach Grant, made possible by the Stop the Hate initiative, funded by the California State Library (CSL) in partnership with the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs (CAPIAA). To learn more about Stop the Hate or to report a hate incident, visit stopthehateca.org.
