Part three in a four-part series called The Valley and the Lake, When you Return focuses on the cultural restoration project of Wukchumni people living in California’s breadbasket. Though members of several other tribes join in the weaving and material collection activities, the bulk of this documentary follows Jennifer Malone and Marie Wilcox, her mother, as they explain their journey in re-learning their basket weaving art and the Wukchumni language.
We follow them into the woods, mountains, and creeks surrounding their home in the valley as they gather basket-weaving materials and food. With them are always a gaggle of students and children. Granddaughters work and learn at their grandmother’s sides as they weave baskets, dig for whiteroot, and recover the missing pieces of their near-forgotten mother tongues. Through their journey, we can see the wide-ranging effects of California’s central valley transformation from its broad ecological effects to its cultural effects on the native population.
When You Return gets its name from the traditional Wukchumni farewell (their language has no word for ‘goodbye’). In this, we can hear a longing not only for a culture diminished by manifest destiny but for a land which has been utterly transformed by modern mechanized farming. One thing which struck me as I watched this documentary was how stunning the landscape was. While much of the content in this documentary is fairly typical in its stylings, the cameraman and director have an excellent eye for capturing the natural beauty of the hills and valleys of central California.
Those studying the Natives of California will find the most use in this segment of the documentary, but those studying ecology and public land management may find use in watching traditional Native foraging activities: Seeing why and how these natives work the land can help inform future interactions with native artists and cultural preservationists seeking access to land and materials. The human costs of expansion presented in When you Return are an excellent foil to the economic and ecological costs of agricultural modernization in California’s central valley. Highly Recommended.
Where does this title belong on public library shelves?
This versatile title would fit beside Native American, Californian, Agricultural, and Ethnographic titles.
What college instructors will want to use this title?
Professors of forestry, ecology, Native American studies, and history will all find substantial value in When You Return.