Kǫ̀k’etı̀: Walking with Caribou wins Indigenous human rights award

The Tłıc̨hǫ Government says its recent 24-minute documentary about protection of barren-ground caribou has won a human rights award at an Indigenous film festival.

Kǫ̀k’etı̀: Walking with Caribou was screened at the recent Quetzalcoatl Indigenous International Film Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Tłıc̨hǫ Government said in a Friday news release.

The award is “the latest in the long list,” that press release stated, citing others from the likes of Montana’s International Wildlife Film Festival and New York City’s Ceres Food Film Festival.

Released in 2022, the film follows caribou monitors watching the Bathurst herd, which has dwindled from hundreds of thousands of animals in the 1980s to around 6,000 now.

“As the Bathurst caribou herd continues to decline, so does the rich cultural history and other elements that define the Tłıc̨hǫ people,” the Tłıc̨hǫ Government stated.

“The Tłıc̨hǫ Government is responding to this threat using the stories, knowledge and wisdom of the Elders to guide their work.

“Kǫ̀k’etı̀ is a story of urgency, decline, and struggle, but it is also a story of the resilience of the Tłıc̨hǫ people, the power of collective and traditional knowledge, and the refusal to lose hope in the face of difficult challenges.”