Honoring Choctaw and Cherokee Irish Famine Aid, a new documentary, explores Native American contributions to Irish Famine relief in 1847.
The film was launched at the “Honoring Indigenous Aid and Sharing Lands” event held at the National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park, in County Roscommon on June 8th.
Dr. Christine Kinealy (Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University) and Professor LeAnne Howe (Eidson Distinguished Professor, University of Georgia and a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, examine archival documents of these Indigenous acts of giving and explore artistic works commemorating them, throughout the film.
These works include the “Kindred Spirits” sculpture in Midleton, Co. Cork, by Alex Pentek. It consists of nine twenty-foot-high eagle wing feathers in the shape of a bowl. Sam Guerrero Stitt’s “Eternal Heart” sculpture in the Choctaw Capitol Grounds in Tuskahoma, Oklahoma, and Brendan O’Neill’s “The Gift” in the Choctaw Cultural Center, Durant, Oklahoma, and the National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park.
The film also features a performance of Steve Gardner’s musical adaptation “The Gift” based on LeAnne Howe and Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s “Singing Still: Libretto for the 1847 Choctaw Gift to the Irish for Famine Relief”.
The event at Stokestown also included the launch of Dr. Kinealy’s latest book, Forgotten Heroes of the Great Hunger (co-edited with Gerard Moran). The book breaks new ground in its examination of recently discovered archival records of Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee First Nations’ contributions to Irish Famine relief in Canada West (now Ontario) in 1847 and offers a fresh perspective on the widely commemorated Native American Choctaw and Cherokee donations.
The Honouring Choctaw and Cherokee Irish Famine Aid film is hosted by the Irish Heritage Trust and National Famine Museum, Strokestown Park in collaboration with Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, Quinnipiac University, and Choctaw Professor LeAnne Howe, Dr Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths, University of London), and Professor Gillian O’Brien (Liverpool John Moore’s University) in the Sharing Lands: Reconciliation, Recognition and Reciprocity project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The film is funded by the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Program.♦
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