Title: Dawnland
Grade Range: 9th-12th grade
Duration: 50 Minutes
Click here to view the Movie Trailer.
ABOUT THE MOVIE
For most of the 20th century, government agents systematically forced Native American children from their homes and placed them with white families. In Maine, a historic investigation—the first government-sanctioned truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) in the United States—began a bold journey. For over two years, Native and non-Native commissioners traveled across Maine. They gathered testimony and bore witness to the devastating impact of the state’s child welfare practices on families in Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribal communities. The TRC discovered that state power continues to be used to break up Wabanaki families, threatening the very existence of the Wabanaki people. Can they right this wrong and turn around a broken child welfare system? Dawnland foregrounds the immense challenges that this commission faces as they work toward truth, reconciliation, and the survival of all Indigenous peoples.
