"What Horse Did I Ride In On?"

Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian’s cultural roots are in Splatsin, one of the 17 communities of the Secwepemc Nation. She is the eldest of 10, has one daughter and over 65 nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews and as of May 2021 she became a great, great Auntie. Her research centralizes and privileges Indigenous knowledge systems, which illustrates the key roles of land, story, and cultural protocols. Dorothy Cucw-la7 locates herself in the “cultural interface” (Nakata, 2002) – the place where Indigenous peoples have agency and meet Settler cultures without being bogged down and paralyzed by the usual colonial binaries. Her PhD research articulated some of the complexities of Indigenous research methodologies. The major themes of Dorothy’s work are: Indigenous representation, Indigenous Visual Sovereignty and Aesthetics in Visual Narratives, Alliance building with white and people of color Settler cultures, and Reconciliation from her Secwepemc-Syilx perspective. She continues to serve in the Indigenous Film and Television sector as a Board Member of the Indigenous Screen Office in Toronto. Dorothy has curated a 2018 program, The Voices From The Western Regions of Turtle Island, and she programmed the Victor Masayesva, Jr. Retrospective, Dawsoma: Making Meaning at the ImagineNative film festival in Toronto -– the largest Indigenous film festival in the world.