We Arrive With Fire | Ne-kah Nuue’m Mehl Mech
WE ARRIVE WITH FIRE | NE-KAH NUUE’M MEHL MECH is a retelling of the traditional Yurok story of how Coyote stole fire for the people. Over a century of fire suppression has created imbalance in our environment. Now, Yurok fire-lighters are returning fire to heal the land and the people.
WE ARRIVE WITH FIRE explores the relationship fire has with the land and the efforts of Yurok fire-lighters to reunite fire and the land in a good way after a century of fire suppression policies.The film uses Native storytelling methods highlighting the moral and practical lessons audiences can adopt.
Each chapter reveals part of the Yurok fire story of how Coyote and the animals stole fire for the people. Charcoal illustrations of Segep and the animals dance over footage from Yurok lands. In parallel, we observe fire-lighters returning cultural fire to the land. We spend time with people gathering and preparing native foods, basket materials, and medicines–as we come to understand the centrality of fire to Yurok cultural life ways. The film concludes with a call to enter into a relationship with fire that restores balance and heals the land and the people.