Dancing Salmon Home – an American documentary with a unique Kiwi connection will have its New Zealand debut this month.

The film shows how the development of Shasta Dam created an immeasurable loss for the Winnemem Wintu people of Northern California which is still felt generations later.

Their story goes like this: In the Beginning, when the Creator brought all the living beings into the world through a spring on Mt. Shasta, it was Salmon that gave Human a voice. In return for that voice, Human promised to speak for Salmon, and since that time, the Winnemem Wintu people lived on the McCloud River, which feeds into the Sacramento River on which the Shasta Dam is built.

When the dam was completed in 1945, while the rest of California celebrated a great engineering feat, the Winnemem Wintu mourned the loss of their salmon ancestors, who could no longer run up the McCloud River to spawn.

Not all was lost though. A hatchery built on the river in the late 1800s sent eggs around the world, and that’s where Aotearoa comes into the picture – the Winnemem’s salmon were liberated in the Waitaki and Rakaia Rivers in 1904 and the Rakaia River hatchery is still breeding the descendants of the original stock.

In 2010, 28 tribal members travelled to New Zealand to meet their salmon relatives for the first time in generations. They were accompanied by a filmmaker making a documentary to support their bid for change that would enable the salmon to come home.

Te Puni Kōkiri supported the manaakitanga extended to the Winnemem Wintu.

“The awhi and manaaki by the manawhenua will ensure that the mana of Aotearoa whānui is upheld, and support an international relationship that will last a long time,” says Te Waipounamu Regional Director David Ormsby.

“Through learning about other indigenous people and their plights, we can also learn a lot about ourselves.

“An additional benefit is that through this film, international audiences will learn about us, and our commitment to conservation and the environment,” David says.

For John Wilkie, from Ngāi Tahu Ngāti Mamoe Fishery Folk, who hosted the Winnemem visitors, the connections made brought home the shared struggles of indigenous peoples.

“It was amazing how alike the things we battle against are. It was a very moving experience.”

This included the similarities between the plight of the Winnemem salmon and Aotearoa’s Longfin Eel. South Island dams have hindered the ability of the female eels to migrate downstream in order to attract the juvenile eels upstream.

“It is the opposite of what happens with their salmon,” John says.

Dancing Salmon Home was completed last year and won early success when it won best documentary feature at the American Indian Film Festival held in San Francisco in November 2012.

It’s currently being shown at festivals through-out the United States and will be part of the ReelEarth Film Festival in Palmerston North this month, with director Will Doolittle hopeful that other New Zealand showings will be possible.