“The oppressor is never going to free the victim. It’s always the victims that have to overcome and own their strength, and take back the respect, and take back their power,” we’re told in an exclusive clip for “Women of the White Buffalo.” From director Deborah Anderson, the documentary is a portrait of the Lakota women living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
“This film documents important stories of what it is to be a modern day Native Indian in the United States,” Anderson told us. “Recognizing that their voices are that of their ancestors, the oral traditions have survived centuries of abuse, genocide, and misrepresentation by the non Indigenous people, I was shown a side of this powerful Nation that so few outsiders get to witness.”
We hear directly from two women in the clip. Julie Richards explains why she was the “the first Native woman to lock down to a bulldozer to stop construction” at Standing Rock. “My stand on that was to bring that awareness — how the oil industry, the pipelines, the drugs, the sex trafficking, it all leads to missing and murdered Indigenous women. It’s all connected,” she emphasizes. Vandee Khalsa-Swiftbird addresses the media and law enforcement’s blind eye toward crimes perpetuated against Indigenous women. “There’s better coverage on it now,” she acknowledges, “but missing and murdered Indigenous women have been on the back-burner for centuries. We’re the most hunted and the least seen when it comes to violent crimes and law enforcement.”
“Women of the White Buffalo” launches on VOD April 12.
