The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to partner with the Verde Valley Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society to present the Northern Arizona premiere of “Blood Memory” on Sunday, March 21 and Thursday, March 25 at 1 p.m. at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Sedona.
A survivor of America’s Indian Adoption Era helps generations of displaced relatives find their way home through song and ceremony in “Blood Memory”.
For Sandy White Hawk, the story of the Adoption Era is not one of saving children but of destroying families and tribes. At 18 months of age, Sandy was removed from her Sicangu Lakota relatives and placed with white missionaries over 400 miles from the reservation.
Growing up as the only brown girl in a small Wisconsin town, Sandy’s cultural identity was rejected, leaving her feeling ugly, alone, and unworthy of love. After a 30-year struggle through abuse and recovery, Sandy set out to restore the missing pieces of her stolen past. She soon discovered that her adoption was not an isolated case but part of a nationwide assimilative movement that had effectively displaced one-third of children from tribal communities nationwide.
Through Sandy’s journey of coming home, she discovered the powerful role that traditional song and ceremony can play in healing this intergenerational wound. Today, she is an international child welfare advocate and has assisted countless displaced relatives and their families through the process of reunification.
“Blood Memory” explores the communal healing that is sparked by the return of this stolen generation, as Sandy helps organize the first annual Welcome Home Ceremony for Adopted and Foster Relatives of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe — the community from which she was removed over 60 years ago.