Carlisle 200: D.C. Film Premiere @DOI

Carlisle 200: D.C. Film Premiere at the Department of Interior.

The National Park Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs welcome visitors to our Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. on November 1, 2024, the first day of Native American Heritage Month, for a special viewing of the documentary film Carlisle 200 and a live panel discussion afterwards.

Carlisle 200 follows Native bikers Guarina Lopez (Pascua Yaqui) and Tsinnijinnie Russell (Diné) on a 200-mile prayer ride from Washington, D.C. to the cemetery at Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, PA. Through rain and shine on the long gravel trail, Guarina, Tsinnijinnie, and fellow activist-bikers honor the 190+ children buried at Carlisle and raise awareness of the history and ongoing impact of the residential boarding school system on Indigenous communities.

In June 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, a comprehensive effort to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Indian boarding school policies with the goal of addressing their intergenerational impact and to shed light on the traumas of the past. For more info, please visit: Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative | U.S. Department of the Interior (doi.gov).

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Guarina Lopez | Co-Director, Co-Producer, Athlete/Talent is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Tucson, Arizona and currently resides on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank in Washington, D.C. She is a visual artist, storyteller, athlete, and mother. She is an environmental activist and Indigenous rights advocate, dedicated to sharing stories of the Native people and the land throughout Turtle Island. Guarina is the founder of Native Women Ride, a virtual community highlighting stories of Natives on bikes and educating about the land we ride on.

Sanjana Sekhar | Co-Director, Co-Producer, Cinematographer is an Indian-American socioecological storyteller. As a writer, creative producer, and film director, her work seeks to amplify character-driven stories that heal our human relationships to ourselves, each other, and our planet, with a specific interest in climate justice, ancestral knowledge, and systems of re-nourishment. Sanjana has been featured in the Hollywood Climate Summit, Tedx Climate AcrosstheAmericas, VH1 India, Rolling Stone India, and Webby Honorees. Her latest documentary "Expedition Reclamation" has been awarded Best in Festival at the 2022 No Man's Land Film Festival, Best Climate Documentary, and Best Environmental Film.

Erin Joy Nash | Co-Producer, Co-Director, Editor, Cinematographer is a filmmaker, photographer, and outdoor adventurer working to cultivate healing and decolonize herself and the systems we live in through storytelling and community building. Her work aims to elevate stories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with a focus on rest, healing in relationship to nature, antiracism, intersectional feminism, environmental justice, and compassionate living. Erin Joy currently lives in the Pacific Northwest on the homelands of the Lummi Nation, Nooksak, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla. She is the founder of Brave Space Media.

Olivia Komahcheet | Composer is a composer and music producer whose work spans within spaces of music, visual media and immersive art experiences. Olivia has worked with top brands Instagram, Ableton, Keeley Electronics, Walrus Audio, Beatclub, Old Blood Noise, Native Audio with original music being heard on Square Register and Shudder TV platforms. A 2021 Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, Olivia worked closely with leading Film and Television composers on her craft with creative advisors composing for television, video-game, concert music and feature length films such as Life of Pi, Little Miss Sunshine and The Last Samurai. Her original music has been married to films screened at First Amerians Museum, TIFF Film Festival and latest works on feature film "Frybread Face and Me” that premiered worldwide at SXSW 2023 produced by Tiaka Waititi. In the year of 2023, she composed compositions for "Dead Bird Hearts" winning "Best Indigenous Short" at deadCenter Film Festival, an official 2023 Emmy nominee for Brooks "Run with Respect" and currently working on her first feature length film in coalition with PBS Broadcast Television Network as a lead composer.

Michael Nephew (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) is a long-time resident of Washington DC and a member the American Indian Society of Washington DC (AIS). He has been involved in AIS's decorating of the graves of the children buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. AIS started doing this in 1972.

Tsinnijinnie Russell (Diné) is a Tribal Member of the Navajo Nation raised in Colorado. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado on Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. He works at the Denver Public Library in the Special Collections & Genealogy Department and pursues freelance writing projects on the side. He enjoys long bike rides on the beach and greasy frybread near the fire.

Keshia Roberson has created unique experiences that center on the historically excluded and underrepresented, like co-organizing her HBCU's first Pride Week. She has led and co-led fitness organizations that have empowered communities and raised funds to support various social justice and reproductive rights organizations and youth bike programs nationwide. Her latest endeavor is Major Knox Adventures, a nonprofit wellness company providing affordable excursions that use history to promote radical joy and strengthen the BIPOC community's legacy in the outdoors.

Adam Austin is from Herndon, Virginia. Adam has been racing and commuting by bike for 15 years. In 2007, Adam was featured on the Discovery Channel special "Riding the Tour de France Living the Dream".

Kathleen “Taffy” Medley resides in NJ with her husband of 35 years. She is a Masters level duathlete; runner and cyclist. Medley has earned the USAT All-American/Duathlete title in 2021 & 2022, became a Spartan, vEveresting Hall of Famer 2x, 2021 Rapha Cycling Club NYC Distance Champion, 2021 & 2022 Major Taylor International Riding Challenge Winner of (2) Elevation categories, and qualified for Team USA/Duathlon in the ‘23 Worlds Triathlon Multisport Championships in Ibiza, Spain. She is a member of USATF, USA Triathlon, South Jersey Bike Crew, KRT/QRT Cycling Club, Philly & Dallas Major Taylor Cycling Clubs, Rapha Cycling Club/NYC and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Created by

Brave Space Media

Native Women Ride

Directed and Produced by

Guarina Lopez

Sanjana Sekhar

Erin Joy Nash

Written by

Guarina Lopez

Cinematography

Sanjana Sekhar

Erin Joy Nash

Edited by

Erin Joy Nash

Original Music

Olivia Komahcheet (Comanche/Otoe)

Color by

Sanjana Sekhar

Associate Producer

Rebekah Graham

Featuring

Guarina Lopez (Pascua Yaqui Tribe)

Tsinnijinnie Russell (Diné/Navajo)

Michael Nephew (Eastern Band Cherokee, Seneca, Cayuga, and Catawba descent)

Keshia Roberson

Adam Austin

Kathleen “Taffy” Medley

Host or Publisher [email protected]