We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân by Anne Makepeace (review)

Jessie Little Doe Baird from Mashpee, Massachusetts, is the central focus of this insightful documentary about Wampanoag (Wôpanâak) language reclamation by award- winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace. Baird’s story, from her recurring dreams about ancestors speaking what she came to understand as the Wampanoag language to becoming a celebrated linguist honored with a MacArthur Fellowship, often known as a “genius grant,” makes a compelling narrative that artfully and subtly explores the relationships among history, identity, and language— issues of vital import to many contemporary Native American communities. These themes are woven throughout the film, expertly illustrating how language is not about words alone but about people.

The film opens with shots of numerous Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard Wampanoag- language place-names on street signs, a stark reminder that the geography of the area is still marked in Wampanoag despite its supposed demise as a living language. Baird’s relentless quest to reintroduce the language into these indigenous communities in Massachusetts provides the narrative framework, daunting work that involves linguists, activists, and community members working together to reclaim the Wampanoag language and, as they say in the film, to “bring it back home.”

“We were told, ‘It’s not your language that’s lost. It’s you.’ And that day will come, a child will be born, and they will bring you back the language.” That child, as illustrated in the movie, is Baird’s daughter Mae, considered by Baird to be the first native speaker in seven generations. Numerous shots of Mae speaking and codeswitching in Wampanoag are juxtaposed with shots of her responding to Wampanoag questions solely in English. Mae is indeed the most comfortable speaking Wampanoag in tribal community center language classes, but, as her parents note, once she hears any English at all, all bets are off. These scenes illustrate but one of the daunting challenges facing Wampanoag language reclamation.

Like many indigenous communities such as the Myaamia (Miami) faced with similar circumstances, the lack of fluent living speakers forced what became essentially a reconstruction of the language by an engagement with old texts. In the Wampanoag case, these include the Wampanoag- language Bible, court records, business transactions, and the personal letters of Wampanoag ancestors to their colonial invaders pleading for justice and consideration in, among other things, disputed land acquisitions. These cultural artifacts not only are integral to Baird’s linguistic efforts but also remind viewers of early and engaged Wampanoag speakers and writers in resisting colonial processes among what were supposedly “illiterate” peoples. The early Wampanoag orthography and texts are brought to life with vivid animations, artfully decreasing as the numbers of speakers and writers (and community members) rapidly decreased and increasing with the current reclamation efforts.

The animation is minimalist and sublime, bringing to life not only these early literacy practices but also Wampanoag creation stories and the colonial histories of disease, displacement, and land loss that would otherwise remain unvisualized. The other narrative strand, the role of mit linguist Ken Hale in Baird’s life as her academic mentor and chief supporter, brings to light the place of comparative and historical linguistics in local indigenous language efforts. Hale, who worked with and mentored numerous indigenous linguists during his career, provided Baird with the academic tools and emotional support she needed to fulfill her quest. The application of her academic credentials is best visualized in the sequence where she is applying the phonology of Proto-Algonquian, Delaware, and Passamaquoddy to (re-)create the Wôpanâak word for “dog.”

Viewers see the intense meaning the language has for some in the community most vividly in a scene with youth around a drum singing a new Wampanoag song in honor of a fallen friend. Close- up shots of emotional teens culminate in outright joy and excitement with the successful performance of the song. Viewers can also see it in archival footage of Baird paying tribute to Ken Hale...