In an interview with Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor Trey Mangum, Gladstone and Isabel Deroy-Olson talked about how the film illustrates how the Cayuga Nation say “mother” and “aunt.” As is said in the film, “aunt” translates to something akin to “small mother” or “other mother,” signifying how closely-knit families are, to the point that a person can have their biological parents as well as other members of the family who can serve as guardians. Gladstone said how this type of language was seen as a threat to colonizers who wanted to break families apart.
“A huge part of the attempted eradication of indigenous peoples hinged around stripping us of our language and our connection to language partly because our language had space for that [family bond],” she said. “…If you strip a language, you strip away a worldview, you strip away those inherent family ties that keep a community so tightly bound that your niece is your daughter. There’s not this nuclear family, there’s not this separation of industrializing [a] workforce. It’s a revolutionary act to put language on screen and have it live in this way between these characters.”
Watch the full interview above.
Fancy Dance follows a woman who is using every moment of her time to find her lost sister. Meanwhile, she’s taking care of her sister’s child and preparing her for an upcoming ceremonial event.
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