Zuni: Connections Through Time

Daniel Byers, Carrie Heitman, Octavius Seowtewa

2025 / 16 minutes
United States / United States
English

This film project reunited A:shiwi (Zuni) religious leaders and knowledge keepers with ancestral collections taken from a site on Zuni lands (known archaeologically as the Village of the Great Kivas) in 1930 and currently held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. No one from the Pueblo of Zuni had ever seen these collections since they were removed 95 years ago. The film asks: What was lost in the taking? And what can be regained by sharing A:shiwi histories of connection? It follows Zuni elders and artists as they travel to Washington, D.C. and back home, reflecting on the need to protect their culture (past and present) and their hopes for future generations. It is a collaboration between the Zuni Cultural Resources Advisory Team, the Pueblo of Zuni, the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), Skyship Films, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A second, restricted-access film intended for the Zuni people, foregrounding Zuni language content, was created alongside this public-access film.