Visit With Respect debuts short documentary film

Bears Ears Partnership premiered the first ever Visit With Respect short documentary film, Respecting the Past, Preserving the Future.
The premier was on March 9 during the 2024 Celebrate Bears Ears, a bi-annual event highlighting the scientific and cultural importance of the greater Bears Ears region.
Respecting the Past, Preserving the Future aims to help mitigate visitor impacts on the Bears Ears landscape through the lens of our Visit With Respect campaign and Traditional Indigenous perspectives.
By highlighting the importance of exploring Indigenous connections to the Bears Ears landscape, this film captures the essence of why it’s important to visit ancestral and cultural landscapes with respect.
Viewers will experience the inaugural Bears Ears Summer Camp, cultural site conservation projects in Bears Ears National Monument, learn Indigenous insights, and the importance of being aware and conscious of their impacts on the Bears Ears landscape – and every Ancestral landscape across the nation.
Visit With Respect is one of the first campaigns to inform visitors of certain principles vital to the protection of cultural landscapes, including staying on established trails, avoiding touching sensitive rock imagery, viewing cultural sites from a distance, and remembering that Ancestral Landscapes are sacred.
Thanks to generous support from Temper of the Times and collaboration with renowned,
Indigenous documentarian, Sahar Khadjenoury of Weaving Cultures Media, Visit With Respect is able to share Traditional Indigenous Knowledge of local Tribal members and leaders who have ties to Bears Ears.
These perspectives have long been left out of the conservation community until recently. The film amplifies their voices and shares how Indigenous People are rooted to the earth and connected to the land.
“Creating this film was a fulfilling and extraordinary experience.” says Semira Crank, Visit With Respect Program Director.
“As an Indigenous woman, I’ve always wanted to see representation of Indigenous voices in the conservation community, and this was my way of making sure that these admirable leaders and community members were able to contribute.
“I also wanted this project to be led by an Indigenous team, so I collaborated with Indigenous videographer, Sahar Khadjenoury, to help direct this short documentary.
Joshua Dixon, a local artist and IAIA graduate, helped create a beautiful sticker to accompany this film. They helped bring this vision to fruition.”
Go to bearsearspartnership.org/visit/respecting-the-past-preserving-the-future for a link to watch the short documentary.