Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival presents a free screening of the film WISDOM CARRIERS on October 27

Wisdom Carriers

FREE Film Screening October 27th at 6 pm

6:00 pm drinks and light bites, 6:30 pm screening, 7:00 pm talkback with Sunny Dooley, Ruby Chimera, and Twila Cassadore 

Coconino Center for the Arts

Wisdom Carriers is the story of a Diné woman, Sunny Dooley, seeking the indigenous wisdom of Four Corners tribal members, whose mindful interactions with their landscapes hold the key to rebalancing  human relationships with nature.

The entire film focuses on interviews with and stories of women who are members of Native American tribes in the four corners area: Cynthia Wilson (Diné), Beata Tsosie-Peña (San Clara Pueblo), Twila Cassadore (San Carlos Apache), and Ruby Chimera (Hopi), by their interviewer Sunny Dooley (Diné). Each of these women has a background in conservation, cultivation, or water rights, or is otherwise an expert within their tribe on matters relating to these important issues.

Join us to view the first two short films in the project, Sunny Dooley’s interviews with Cynthia Wilson and Beata Tsosie-Peña. A conversation with Sunny Dooley, Ruby Chimera, and Twila Cassadore will follow the screening.

Meet the women involved:

Sunny Dooley is a Diné storyteller born into the Saltwater Clan and born from the Water's Edge Clan. She shares Hane', or Diné Blessingway stories. She later graduated from Brigham Young University with a major in speech communications.

Cynthia Wilson is a tribal member of the Navajo Nation, born and raised in Monument Valley, UT. She is of the Folded Arms People clan and born from the Towering House clan. Cynthis is a founding member of the Women of Bears Ears initiative. She holds a MS in Nutrition from the University of Utah and serves as the Traditional Foods Program Director for Utah Diné Bikéyah. (https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/people/cynthia-wilson)

Beata Tsosie-Peña  is from Santa Clara Pueblo and El Rito, NM. She is certified as an Educator, a Birthworker, and in Indigenous Sustainable Design (permaculture). She led the creation of the Española Healing Foods Oasis demonstration garden and Seed Library during her time with the local nonprofit, Tewa Women United. She is currently helping to support the Traditional Native American Farmers Association and Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute. She is serving a second term as a Pueblo representative for the New Mexico Governor's task force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives. (https://www.landwitnessproject.com/beata-tsosie-pena)

Ruby Chimerica is from the Third Mesa village, Bacavi, on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, and specializes in hands-on demonstrations of Hopi basket weaving and the preparation of traditional Hopi foods, including piki bread-making. Piki, made with blue corn and culinary ash, is shared and eaten at many community celebrations, festival, and dances. (2019 Bioneers)

Twila Cassadore is an Arizona-based forager, food educator, advocate for indigenous food sovereignty, and member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe who teaches indigenous food traditions throughout the Western Apache tribes.

Filmed and edited by Firewatch Media with support from Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival, Creative Flagstaff, Flagstaff 365, and City of Flagstaff BBB Revenues.