Four Keeps Dakáake
Short Stuff • 9m 40s
This short essay film is based on Crow/Apsaalooke tribal cosmology in which wind characterizes one of the four cardinal points and when called upon represents for the tribe a powerful blessing in endurance and return. In this film dakaake (Apsaalooke for bird) signifies both wind and child. A non-narrative film, Four Keeps: Dakaake characterizes in an indefinite way the special place children hold in the tribe. The film equates the sacred characteristics of wind with those of children and alludes to the many years children were lost first to intertribal slavery and later to US government intervention into tribal life.
Helen Pease Wolf first transcribed the traditional Crow story accompanying this film, “The Story of Moon and His Bride”. Her great-granddaughter, Ramona Real Bird, reads and discusses the story in the film. The girl, or ‘bird’, in Four Keeps: Dakáake is Ramona’s granddaughter, Walks-to-School.
Up Next in Short Stuff
-
Ep. 1 - The War to End All Wars - The...
Episode One - The World at War
In this documentary series commemorating the 100th anniversary of the First World War, award-winning documentary filmmaker Mark Terry interviews professors in York University's Department of History examine various aspects of the war and the role Canada played in it.
-
Ep.1 - Consequences of Confederation ...
Episode One - Communications: Distances and Connections
This episode features History Professors Marlene Shore and Marcel Martel of Toronto’s York University as they discuss Canada’s early attempts to unite a vast country through new and experimental communications methods in the late 19th centu...
-
Razor Wire
Edrick Jenkins was sentenced to 60 years of prison in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for a break and enter theft. After 25 years in prison he reflects on what the razor wire that surrounds the prison means to him.
