Greetings from Pauma Valley, California!

We are here in the land of the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians to reunite with members of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) as we learn and grow among 1,200+ child welfare professionals at the 35th Annual Protecting Our Children National American Indian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect.  

If you haven't already heard, the most exciting part of this year's conference is that we get to join NICWA in celebrating the life's work of Sandy White Hawk.  

Sandy is the latest recipient of NICWA's highest honor, the Champion for Native Children award.  It has been our greatest priviledge to work with Sandy as we've developed the Blood Memory documentary and we are beyond excited to help capture this very special moment. 

For those of you here at the conference, please note that Sandy and her team will be hosting the annual "Gathering for Adoptees, Former Foster Children and their Birth Relatives" tonight in the Bordeaux Room from 6pm - 9pm.  She will also lead three additional workshops, presenting her efforts with the First Nations Repatriation Institute.

Thank you all for your ongoing encouragement and support!  Without your stories, kind words and enthusiasm toward this work, we could not be where we are today.  We can't wait to share this film with you to help elevate discussions surrounding the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), the Boarding School Era and the Indian Adoption Era!  

If you'd like to give us a boost as we hit the final stretch, please consider a tax-deductible contribution to our fiscal sponsor, the Independent Filmmaker Project Minnesota. 

You can also help further our work by sharing the Blood Memory Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages with your colleagues and relatives.

Cheers!

Megan Whitmer & Drew Nicholas

Blood Memory Documentary

BloodMemoryProject@Gmail.com

Facebook: Blood Memory      Twitter: @BloodMemoryDoc      Instagram: @BloodMemoryDoc