DAY OF ACTION

View the recap of our 2022 Virtual Day of Action

MANZANAR, DIVERTED:
CONVERGING CONVERSATIONS

Remembering Forced Removals;
Uplifting Water and Land Protectors

If you missed our Day of Action here is the live-stream replay:  

[ View this replay on FaceBook > ]

We had our POV broadcast premiere on July 18th at 10pm ET. You can still watch Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust on PBS Passport >.

Manzanar

MANZANAR, DIVERTED:
WHEN WATER BECOMES DUST

At the foot of the majestic snow-capped Sierras, Manzanar, the WWII concentration camp, becomes the confluence for memories of Payahuunadü, the now-parched “land of flowing water.” Intergenerational women from Native American, Japanese American and rancher communities form an unexpected alliance to defend their land and water from Los Angeles.

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust had its POV national broadcast on July 18, 2022. POV is television’s longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films, premiering 14–16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS.

Manzanar, Diverted: Converging Conversations was a virtual day of action that commemorated how people lost their lands to outsiders in the name of environmental racism. The film remembers the forced removal of the Nüümü/Paiute and Newe/Shoshone from Payahuunadü, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans at the Manzanar concentration camp during WWII. Tied to land and water issues, BIPOC communities like these have been forced to relocate due to contamination, resource extraction, and development. We connected local efforts led by organizations across the nation with the themes in our film so viewers can get involved in their localities.

Environmental and social justice organizations featured:

  • Tina Calderon, Culture Bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme descent as well as a traditional singer & dancer, storyteller & poet, opened the virtual day of action with a welcome and land acknowledgement. Tina and Ann conversed about detention and incarceration on Tongva lands.
  • Pre-recorded – Ann visited the Griffith Park internment camp to share a conversation with June Aochi Berk from the Tuna Canyon Detention Station Coalition.
  • Turner Willman from 18 Million Rising with Lam Le representing Tsuru For Solidarity on ICE and the Vision Act. 
  • Kathy Bancroft on the Forced March run (Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe).
  • Pre-recorded highlights from the July 11 commemorative run for the Forced March from Payahuunadü, talking to Kathy Bancroft from the film. 
  • Tracy Rector on reciprocity (Nia Tero).
  • Margaret Wooster of the Great Lakes EcoRegion Network on Lake Erie’s coast as a public commons. 
  • Caty Wagner from the Sierra Club on the Delta Tunnel (Conveyance). 
  • Rose Nelson on California’s drought from the Mono Lake Committee. 
  • Ann talks about interactive map.
  • Hana Maruyama on NA-JA intersections (UConn) and her article How Japanese American Incarceration Was Entangled With Indigenous Dispossession.
  • Stephen Kitajo, Chair of the Minidoka Pilgrimage Planning Committee on the fight against the wind project at Minidoka.

These segments were connected via film clips and moderated live by Ann Kaneko and live streamed virtually for free on this web site.

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