Voices of the Grandmothers: Indigenous elders on song, grief and caring for the Earth

A woman explains that after losing her daughter she began wearing a butterfly as her symbol, and in the middle of the interview a butterfly drifts across the frame. That is how Voices of the Grandmothers moves, somewhere between chance and ceremony: a documentary of almost two hours about Indigenous elders and what they believe the modern world has forgotten.

The film was directed, shot and edited by Cabe Lindsay of the American production company Arise, with writing and narration by Kate Lindsay. It features Grandmother Flordemayo, a Maya healer from Central America, Grandmothers Pershile, SaSa and Moetu-Taiha, and Reverend Eila Paul. Alongside them are, among others, Master Mingtong Gu and the singer Joanne Shenandoah, of the Oneida Nation, with her daughter, Leah. Much of it was filmed at a gathering called Gathering for Humanity, at the Chi Center.

Song as medicine

The voice is at the heart of the documentary. One leader of song circles argues that no one should be corrected for singing off-key, because the crack in an old voice is exactly where spirit comes in. Joanne Shenandoah recalls writing an album in five days about the journey of the Peacemaker, a central figure in the tradition of the Haudenosaunee, the Iroquois Confederacy. Another singer describes receiving, at a spring near Santa Fe, a song for the water with words in Lakota.

Seeds, water and the generations to come

Flordemayo talks about the day Ix in the Maya calendar, which every 20 days recalls the human relationship with nature, and describes her work of saving seeds. She contrasts the forest of her childhood, full of birds and monkeys, with today's dry rivers. The idea of answering for seven generations returns in many of the conversations.

Visions and caveats

There are accounts of luminous beings who introduce themselves as "twin souls," of seagull wings found as a sign from the spirits and of a project that places crystals at sacred sites to amplify the Earth's energies. These belong to the speakers' beliefs, and the film hears no outside voice. Flordemayo is a member of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, an alliance formed in 2004.

Why watch

This is not a film with a thesis. It is a long, unhurried act of listening to women who are rarely handed a microphone, and it is worth it above all for the songs recorded in full and for its insistence on a simple idea: love is shown in gestures, not words.