Women Are the Backbone of the Standing Rock Movement
Women Are the Backbone of the Standing Rock Movement
Shannon Kring, U.S. / World Pulse @WorldPulse
Nov. 29, 2016
'Women are the protectors of the water and of all life'
I was sitting in a coffee shop in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the night it hit me: I had to go to Standing Rock to document all sides of the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline fight. This has happened before, a film choosing me, rather than me choosing it. Also familiar was what happened just four days later when I arrived at Standing Rock and realized that the story I had set out to investigate wasn’t the one that needed to be told.
The first person I contacted was Pearl Daniel-Means, whose Lakota name is Iyoyanbya Izanzan Win, or “Bright Light.” That’s what Pearl has been in my life since 2012, when I had the honor of interviewing her and her husband, the American Indian activist Russell Means, shortly before his death. During the interview, Pearl was visibly grieving, and yet seemed to possess incredible strength.
When we reconnected at Standing Rock in September, I was in the midst of my own grief. I had recently lost a baby in a second-trimester miscarriage. Shortly thereafter, I lost my relationship with her father. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what it means to be a strong woman.
By the end of my first shoot day, I had captured several compelling interviews. Only one was with a man. As it turns out, women are the backbone of the movement.
More:
http://time.com/4583926/standing-rock-women/
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