Wakaalətti’: Our Creek – Restoring Land, Healing Community
A Documentary Premiere about the Mariposa Creek Parkway Restoration
Partners, Mariposa Arts Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy and the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation are proud to present the premiere of Wakaalətti’: Our Creek – Restoring Land, Healing Community on March 28, 2025, at The Grove House from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. This film documents, over time, the restoration efforts on the Mariposa Creek Parkway, showcasing the ecological and cultural revitalization of this critical riparian landscape and the collaborative work of the local community.
An Evening of Film, Discussion, and Community Connection
The event will feature a special screening of the documentary, followed by a Q&A panel discussion with the film’s director, Amanda Law and local leaders from the Mariposa Arts Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, Mariposa County Planning Department and the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation who have played a vital role in the project. The evening will also include a reception, opportunities to provide input on future Creek Parkway projects, and informational booths from partner organizations.
Event Details:
- Date: March 28, 2025
- Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Venue: The Grove House, Mariposa, CA
- Admission: Free
- All ages welcome
The film documents the restoration of Mariposa Creek along the Mariposa Creek Parkway—a linear public park and active transportation corridor that enhances local biodiversity, fosters community connection and cultural heritage. Ultimately, the project will encourage locals and visitors to experience and connect with the restored riparian landscape of Mariposa Creek, while providing a space for cultural and public art/performance, recreation, and outdoor education.
About Filmmaker
Lovely Films’ Amanda Law has spent the past decade producing hundreds of short films, including three projects within the Mariposa community. For this documentary, Amanda and her crew conducted eight filming sessions from early 2022 through mid-2024, capturing the creek parkway in every season and stage of development. They also conducted in-depth interviews with key project partners and volunteers.
Working closely with the project partners, Amanda helped connect the dots to lay out the structure of the video, and present a story that provides context for the project and understanding about the roles of the partners and steps of the land restoration process. She was deeply involved in the video production process every step of the way, from writing to filming to editing. Local videographer David Boomer was also key in documenting important moments and capturing beautiful drone footage of the town and creek parkway.
“I absolutely love working with local organizations to highlight important work being done in small communities. As the Mariposa Creek restoration project changed, so did the scope of this video. We ebbed and flowed along with it, letting the video take shape in a way that honored the desires and needs of the project partners. Sometimes the hardest thing to do with documentary filmmaking is to get out of your own way, and let the story take on a life of its own.” ~ Amanda Law
Community Support & Membership
The event will offer a great opportunity for current members to bring friends and family to learn more about the work Mariposa County, Mariposa Arts Council, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, and the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation are doing along the Mariposa Creek Parkway. Attendees will have the chance to sign up for membership and identify ways in which they can support and become actively involved in these important community-driven efforts. For those eager to join the cause, a special one-night-only membership package will be available, offering a unique opportunity to support all three organizations at a discounted rate while becoming part of this vital community effort.
This premiere is an opportunity to celebrate the progress of the Mariposa Creek Parkway project, learn from those who have dedicated themselves to this work, and engage in meaningful discussions about the future of conservation, culture and community in Mariposa. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
For more information, please contact:
Derek Heule at heule@mariposaartscouncil.org
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the power of restoration, storytelling, and community collaboration. Join us on March 28th!
The Mariposa Creek Parkway restoration project is a priority project for the Mariposa County, drawing together critical community partners including the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, Sierra Foothill Conservancy, the Mariposa County Planning Department and the Arts Council.
This project involves:
- The removal of invasive plant species which created a hazardous fuel load for wildfires using Cultural Burning
- The restoration of the native riparian environment through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), a land management strategy that utilizes traditional practices to respond to the unique relational composition of specific ecological sites.
This restoration is currently underway, and will continue throughout 2024, creating the conditions needed to return traditional first foods, medicines and cultural materials to the landscape and the Southern Sierra Miwuk people as well as mitigating wildfire risk and making space for public active transportation assets.
The Arts Council supports this restoration process through documentation and site-specific artistic interventions and cultural programs that:
- Recognize and validate the trauma the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation have experienced;
- Nurture the re- indigenization of the physical environment, and;
- Amplify the contemporary indigenous voices, lifeways and practices central to this process.
Current Projects
Led by a professional filmmaker, Amanda Law, the Arts Council is collaboratively supporting a documentary about the Mariposa Creek Parkway restoration contextualized within the contemporary indigenous experiences of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation. Filming will wrap-up in early 2024 with a final documentary forthcoming.
Partners
Sierra Foothill Conservancy
Mariposa County Planning Department
Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation
CALFire
Mariposa County Fire Department
Funded by the California Arts Council Innovations and Intersections Grant.
