With strong Indigenous representation at Mountainfilm Festival last week, and stories from every corner of the Earth, it is so clear that building bridges between ancient wisdom ways and the power of contemporary knowledge brings us closer to the future we are all hoping for.
Last week, Tribal Trust Foundation Founder and Executive Director Barbara Savage was able to attend Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, CO. “The Mountainfilm community has long been one of connection and inspiration,” she shared. “It was good to be back and to see so many friends, old and new. I had productive meetings about the Bhutan documentary we’ve been filming for over a decade — and are working diligently to share with you soon.”
Three decades since founding TTF, amid the challenges of our time, more and more people are turning toward Indigenous wisdom not as nostalgia, but as living guidance. Traditional Indigenous ways of knowing are rooted in relationships: with the land, with each other, and with the web of life itself. Indigenous wisdom offers a compass for navigating current worldwide challenges so there is growing interest in our work.
We are more certain than ever that we must continue our work to preserve and uplift Indigenous wisdom through our education, grantmaking, documentation, and community engagement programming and the innspiration at Mountainfilm Festival 2026 was just more affirmation.
As we mark our 30th Anniversary Year of impact work, we do so with so much appreciation, walking into the future together.