Forthcoming Beaufort author Patricia Sexton is campaigning to raise funds for her documentary project, The Reindeer People: A Dream’s Last Chance.
The Reindeer People is the story of a mother, her daughter, and two very unusual dreams. A tale of love and loss, survival and death, a Mongolian mother and daughter face nearly insurmountable obstacles to pursue what’s most important to them. And in the end, what’s important to them just may save the fabric of an entire culture.
A few years ago, in the north of Mongolia, in one of the most remote inhabited regions on our planet, a Mongolian mother had to make a choice. She had to choose between letting her young daughter pursue her dream, or pursuing her own. As a parent, she knew what she had to do. So, along with her daughter and husband, they moved the family to the Mongolian capital. This would have devastating consequences: poverty, sickness, and even her husband’s murder (he’d left home only to earn enough money to buy his daughter an outfit and was robbed and murdered). Eventually, the daughter achieved her dream, and the mother had never been more proud. But it also got her to thinking – about that old dream she’d left behind all those years ago. Could she pursue it? Was she willing to return to her homeland and all that she’d left behind?
This summer, the mother will return to her home in the Taiga to pursue her old dream to teach Tuva, the native language there. Tuva is spoken by a very small community of Reindeer Herders, and without a teacher to support it, the language will fade away. Without language, the community itself is in danger of fading away too. It’s the mother’s dream to go home and fight this, to save the very fabric of her culture.
Won’t you help us tell her story?
Find out more about Patricia, her team, and how you can help on their indiegogo page here.
-Placebeau