Experiencing Interruptions?

STEM’d From My Ancestors

Follow Dr. Cherie DeVore into the Sandia Mountains as she returns samples taken for her environmental research and discusses the importance of creating space for traditional, indigenous knowledge in academia and scientific research.

  • Maliaq Kairaiuak
    Director
  • Cherie DeVore
    Producer
  • Andy Nykios
    Producer
  • Maliaq Kairaiuak
    Producer
  • Cherie DeVore
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 23, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Canon C-100
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of New Mexico
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Maliaq Kairaiuak

Maliaq Kairaiuak is a Yupik and Athabaskan filmmaker hailing from her ancestral homelands in Alaska. She is currently a Film and Digital Media Arts student at UNM and working towards cultivating her professional career on uplifting and amplifying indigenous voices in media to help empower communities, help foster cross cultural relationships, and abolish harmful stereotypes.

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Director Statement

As I was coming up with the concept for my first project, I spent so much time thinking about how I wanted to represent indigenous peoples. One of the first thing that came to mind, is the association of indigenous peoples with science. Indigenous peoples have such an abundance of traditional knowledge in everything from environmental sciences to psychology and sociology and more. These sciences were so deeply ingrained into everyday life through physical practices, community living, storytelling, song and dance. So I really wanted to look at these practices from a decolonized lens.