Draft:Reciprocity Project

Reciprocity Project is a multimedia platform that began in April 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis. It uses short films, podcasts, and other creative mediums on an online platform to uplift the value of reciprocity through Indigenous knowledge, lifeways and storytelling. The series' goal is to encourage a paradigm shift that reframes relationships among humans, the Earth, and other living beings.

The project shares solutions around the climate crisis and is made in partnership with Indigenous peoples and communities across the world. It is co-produced by the nonprofit organizations Nia Tero and Upstander Project, in association with REI's Co-Op Studios. The project was created by are Tracy Rector, Adam Mazo, Kavita Pillay, and Taylor Hensel (Cherokee).

Reciprocity Project Producer and Managing Director of Storytelling at Nia Tero, Tracy Rector, stated, "To support thriving peoples in thriving places, we must invest in Indigenous storytellers. To Indigenous values and frameworks, when one heals, more will heal. Where one thrives, more will thrive."

"Our shared vision is a paradigm shift toward each of us living in reciprocity – taking good care of each other, our families, neighbors and communities," said Reciprocity Project Producer Adam Mazo, who is also Creative Director at Upstander Project.

Most of Reciprocity Project's documentary, narrative, or experimental films are highlighted separately in the Webby-nominated podcast, Seedcast, which highlights global Indigenous experiences. It is an award-nominated series which received two nominations for the 38th IDA Documentary Awards.

Featured Filmmakers
Reciprocity Project has featured a number of influential filmmakers from throughout the globe. Among the most well-known of them include:


 * Letila Mitchell - A artist, arts administrator, mother, dreamer, champion of Rotuman and Indigenous culture, and producer of the dance group Rako Pasefiko. In an interview with the World Bank, she said, "In our region, we practice our arts and cultural practices as everyday things. We practice it like we practice cooking. It's ingrained in us. We do it from a young age. Everyone naturally becomes an artist. The challenge is that there is no or very limited infrastructure around that."


 * Laha Mebow - Laha Mebow is a Taiwanese Atayal film director, screenwriter and television producer. She is known as the first female Taiwanese Indigenous film director and TV producer. Her film, Hang in There, Kids (Lokah Laqi 只要我長大), won two awards at the Taipei Film Festival and represented Taiwan for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language nomination in 2016.


 * Katsitsionni Fox (Mohawk) - An artist, filmmaker, and educator, Katsitsionni Fox is Bear Clan from the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. Many of her works have been broadcast through PBS. She was a 2021 Nia Tero Storytelling Fellow and participated in the 2021 Jackson ild Smmit as a Multicultural Alliance Fellow. She got her start teaching video production at a school focued on Mohawk language and culture. She explains her commitment to her community through her work, saying, "All the films that I’ve done, I’ve known the people that are in the film. You have that trust with them so they become comfortable with you and they know you’re not there to exploit their story... you’re connected to them and that [exploitation] isn’t your purpose."


 * Laissa Malih - A Laikipian Maasai filmmaker who has been making work since 2017, Malih is the first female filmmaker from her community and focuses her work on uplifting Indigenous cultures from Kenya and around the world. She is also the CEO of the community-based organization, Maasai Cultural Heritage, which she says runs "projects geared towards women and girls' empowerment through aspects such as land, territory, and resources."

Short Films
The first season of Reciprocity Project's short films were released in 2022 and as a series February 2022 at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana, though individual films had separate film festival premiere dates. The episodes were then distributed through American Public Television and later through REI's YouTube Channel and the Reciprocity Project website, in honor of Indigenous People's Day.

Reciprocity Project's second season had its World Premiere in March 2024, during opening night of the Māoriland Film Festival in Ōtaki, Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Critical response for Season 1
ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught) was selected for Sundance Film Festival 2022, as well as that year's Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, along with other Reciprocity Project films. The Utah Review described the short film as, "an exquisite reflection on the Indigenous meaning of reciprocity as it applies to the natural resources and the environment used in one’s livelihood." The film was featured as a part of L.A. Times Short Docs series of short documentaries around topics of environment, social justice, homelessness, and immigration.

An all-Cherokee crew was behind the creation of ᎤᏕᏲᏅ (What They’ve Been Taught). Director Brit Hensel, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, told ICT that "There is power in pointing a camera at someone and shaping a story... I think being a good Cherokee means knowing your place within the large whole and taking care of those around you. I try my best to do that when I'm creating, that way my work will serve its intended purpose."

Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa (We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors) was praised for its use of the Gwich’in language, contributing to the tribe's efforts to revitalize their language. The film is believed to be the first ever filmed in Gwich’in.

Weckuwapok (The Approaching Dawn) received extensive press coverage due to the participation of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The first stop on his film journey was in Portland, Maine, where he met with the Wabanaki people and joined them in a ceremony that shows gratitude to the rising sun, which dates back hundreds of years, prior to the arrival of European settlers. On his second stop of the film tour, he played cello at the edge of the Grand Canyon and listened to the sounds it returned to him, as well as met with local Indigenous people.