Many are familiar with the tangible losses associated with colonization — land, homes and people. But there are also the intangible losses — language, designs and cultural practices — that can totally reconfigure how Indigenous people and their descendants relate to each other. “Gather,” a documentary by Sanjay Rawal, intimately examines one intangible loss — food traditions — and its use in pursuit of Native sovereignty in the United States.
The documentary, available on demand, follows members of four different tribes as they use their individual interests to work with community members to reclaim or preserve their cultural traditions. Nephi Craig, a White Mountain Apache chef, is trying to combat food insecurity in his community by opening a restaurant that uses Apache-grown produce in innovative dishes. Elsie Dubray, a 17-year-old member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, uses her passion for science to analyze the benefits of a traditional buffalo-based diet as compared with a modern beef-based one. Sam Gensaw, a Yurok Tribe member, leads a group of teenagers in the preservation of the salmon fishing traditions of their tribe, while Twila Cassadore, a master forager of the San Carlos Apache, works to introduce ancient medicinal and food practices to the youth in her community.
The film wonderfully weaves personal stories with archival footage that contextualizes the continued violence against Native Americans. Rawal covers a substantial amount of ground and deftly balances the dense material without losing sight of the mission driving the bigger story: Healing from generational trauma sometimes starts with just one person.
Gather
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 24 minutes. Rent or buy on iTunes or Amazon.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
